Dr. Torsten Knohl, Senior Project Manager, Bayer AG: “We will move from monolithic automation systems for a complete production plant to a more flexible and service oriented plug and produce solution. We will gain fast implementation of production, be able to scale the capacity by numbering up and down the production according to the market, and also improve the capability and speed of product changes. In life sciences the production is now more focused on the patient and the given problem with personalized medicine. The products are no longer a commodity and we move towards very small batches. With the technology and early adoption of the idea of modular automation ABB is the right partner in this area.”
Modular process plants will have pre-automated modular units that can be easily added, arranged and adjusted according to the production needs. Distributed Control Systems (DCS) will evolve to orchestration systems that manage the operation of the modular units. This is achieved through the Module Type Package (MTP), a standardized methodology enabling interoperability between any module and orchestration system developed within the MTP framework.