Total Cost of Ownership for Distributed Control Systems

Abstract

When evaluating the subject "TCO for Distributed Conrol Systems" the NAMUR recommendation (NE) 121 "Quality Assurance of Control Systems" has to be taken into account. The objective of this NAMUR recommendation is the utilisation of quality assurance and obsolescence management of instruments for the entire life cycle of industrial process control systems, where the term process control system covers the field level, the distributed control system (DCS) as well as the MES level (manufacturing execution system). This presentation is based on several fundamental statements of the NE 121, however it just concentrates on distributed control systems and in this context it essentially pays attention to different cost aspects. The NAMUR working group AK 2.1 (PLC and DCS) was - in its recent meetings - working on this topic. The results of the discussions, where DCS manufacturers were also involved, are presented in this contribution.