Interaction Between Data Processing and Process Control Computers for Effective Management Control

Abstract

ABSTRACT With the advent of computers came the immediate utilization for data processing application. Businesses found that vast amounts of information could be stored categorically, updated and retrieved quickly for internal or external use. A little slower evolving was the process control application because of its need for real-time interfacing and high level reliability. But since its introduction, it has progressed rapidly because of its logic flexibility and expediency in upgrading to more progressive and sophisticated control algorithm levels. The growth in these two fields has been essentially independent. Within an industrial environment the two applications generally are treated as separate entities, although present trends indicate more and more interdependencies between these operations and a need for interaction between their functions. Computer vendors are aware of this need for interaction and have increased their effort in providing inter-system hardware and software support features via data communication and teleprocessing techniques. But this still generally leaves the task of defining the interaction requirements to the user. The merging of these systems typically represents an unprecedented approach to an organization structure and often requires a rework of the criteria under which both systems must work. Hopefully, the interplay of management control will allow the expansion of influential consideration, provide more responsiveness to dynamic considerations and result in a better perspective to criteria priorities toward attaining overall operation efficiency.