Indeed: “Why Aren’t More People Getting on the Fieldbus Bus?” as Bruce Brandt asks at Control Engineering. I would answer that with one word: “inertia.” That’s short hand for those still stuck in the hard wiring mode saying “We’ve always done it this way.” Of course, what they’re missing is improved uptime – uptime achievable by using the asset management information that a fieldbus delivers and diagnostic information that a fieldbus provides.
Moving to a fieldbus is not all sweetness and light though. Training will be needed… or as my colleague, Rafael Koenig says “Investment in skills required to support Fieldbus systems” at PACE. He points out the reward for installing a fieldbus, PROFIBUS PA in this case, as a 31% savings. And that does not count the savings from improved uptime.
Rafael’s PI organization in Australia sponsors various trainings locally, as do the 26 other Regional PI Associations. Of course, PI North America sponsors many as well. This year:
- 20 free one-day training classes
- 12 Certified Network Engineer classes
- Archived webinars
So, there’s no excuse for not getting that training.
–Carl Henning