Keynote Address by Alaister Gemmill, Engineering Manager, Enpure

A presentation focussing on the challenges that Profibus continually faces to maintain itself as worthy successor to its predecessors (HART, DeviceNet, etc) . These include addressing the issues of :

• Configuration Management - noting the proliferation of drivers, firmware versions, GSDs, EDDL files etc and how this can all be managed over the complete lifecycle of a project.

• Training - (this is particularly relevent to the water industry), matching capability (of the equipment) with competence (of the staff tasked to look after it).

• Generalists versus Specialists.   As systems become increasing capable (and complex) then we have found it increasingly challenging to find staff capable of visualising the physical process, the characteristics of instruments, devices and actuators used to effect control, together with a detailed understanding of how the control system actually processes data, etc. The degree of "abstraction" employed within software systems continues to increase - and it's important to understand how this can affect performance. 

• Proportionality. Constructing systems appropriate to the application being controlled.

The presentation will also include background on the type of applications that Enpure typically construct systems for, why they have actively supported systems like PROFIBUS, perceived benefits as they see them, and some of the practical changes that it has made to the way Enpure works as an organisation.