The quest towards the integration of process control, process operations, and process operability –Industrial need or academic curiosity?

Abstract

Historically, process control, process scheduling, and process operational functions (such as safety and maintenance) have been considered independently, in isolation, and/or in a sequential manner from an overall process automation perspective — primarily reflecting the widely accepted difference in their corresponding time scales like days/hours for scheduling, seconds/minutes for control, etc. However, the current trend towards real-time decision-making under increasingly dynamic and volatile business, market, and supply chain environments has intensified the need for an ‘integration of scales’ in terms of temporal and spatial considerations. The joint FOCAPO/CPC conference series over the last decade is an example of increasing evidence, at least within academic circles, of such a paradigm shift. It should not come as a surprise that there is increasing evidence of business and industrial needs in this direction. Moreover, significant advancements have been achieved in the development of solutions that effectively address the imperative of scale integration. Here, we will attempt to provide a road map of the evolution of the process systems engineering field towards the unification of control, operations, and operability, through industrial and research activities over the last twenty years. We aim to elucidate the following questions: When does the need for such an integration of scales arise? Which types of industrially relevant problems and applications can be considered for such an approach? Where do we stand regarding methodological developments and solution strategies as enablers and tools for such an integration? If desired, what would be the ideal framework and potentially the target software platform for achieving such a unification?