Plant operators need a way to keep together, manage, and have access to information about different aspects of a great number of plant and process entities. These entities, or real-world objects, can be physical process objects, like a valve or a motor, or more complex entities, like a reactor. They can be immaterial, like recipes, manufacturing orders, and customer accounts. Other examples can include products, raw material, and production batches.
To address this complexity, the aspect object architecture within ABB’s
System 800xA, integrates automation, information, and collaborative business processes across the enterprise. Each of these real-world objects need to be described from several different perspectives. Each perspective defines a piece of information, and a set of functions to create, access, and manipulate this information. We call this the aspect of the object.
Many different applications, existing and new, from ABB, third parties and customers, can cooperate without changing the way these applications work internally. This provides an integrated view of the operation and functionality of the object.
In this concept, rather than creating one single object or data model in the system to represent the real-world object, each aspect is modeled separately. An Aspect Object is a container that includes these independent models. Aspects are implemented by software systems known as aspect systems. Each aspect system stores, manages, and presents information in its own optimal way.
System 800xA is a powerful integration platform that extends what traditional automation systems can do. The xA in System 800xA stands for extended automation, which is demonstrated through the seamless integration of applications and
supports 3rd party systems such as
computer based maintenance management and
video systems.
Multiple libraries of object types and their aspects are brought together into one collaborative system, giving plant operators not only insight into information pertinent to them, but straight-forward collaboration with users in different areas of the process control environment. Resulting in enhanced decision making, increased productivity, and reduced costs.