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IndustrialITSolutions from ABB
Aspect Object™ technology from ABB
Solution to the corporate information management problem
Today’s industrial managers and personnel need the right information,at the right time at their fingertips, to make the correct business decisions.They need ABB’s Aspect Object technology.
Picture the situation. You are responsible for production
at a company manufacturing chemicals and getting
ready to review the production schedule for the next
few weeks. Suddenly, your production supervisor
charges in agitated, telling you that your production
process is “haywire” because “reactor so-and-so is
not responding to setpoint changes as it should”.
You are just about to reply “but didn’t we give that
reactor a thorough overhaul only a few weeks ago?”
when the phone rings. It is your biggest customer
saying, with restrained irritation, that as far as he
can see, the latest batch he received is off spec, that
he considers returning it and claiming compensation
but is generous enough to give you an hour or two
to investigate the matter before he does.
You manage to do little more than put the phone
down before it rings again. This time it is one
of your sales reps telling you that he has this huge
long-term contract all but wrapped up but wants
to make sure that your company can start delivering
on a continuous basis in three months time.
“Could you please phone back immediately and
confirm?”
A day in the life of an industrial plant manager
What started out as a pleasant day of forward thinking
suddenly changes to one of crisis management where
speed of response is critical. To collect the facts you
need to get the immediate concerns out of the way,
you and your staff now need to find quickly:
• the maintenance log of the failing reactor
• an extract of the asset register showing the
original and book values of that reactor
• the latest order from your discontented
customer to get the serial number of the batch
he was talking about
• the production log of the batch in question
• the stock forecast
• the production schedule covering the next
three to four months
and all this while your plant is still running at
optimum speed.
It strikes you how difficult this will be since the files
involved are spread over a number of people, com-
puters and applications throughout your organization.
You realize that you need help, so you start phoning
those on whom you pin your hopes, only to find
that one is off sick, another on holiday and a third
in the plant somewhere.
You sigh and say to yourself: “Why is this so
complicated? Why can’t I just wheel up to my
own computer and simply find what I need?”
Answer: It is that complicated because your corporate
information is not organized the way your business
processes and your plant are. But there is a solution…
Information organization on your terms
ABB’s Aspect Object technology organizes information the way users think of it, i.e. object-centrically
Aspect Object technology from ABB provides the
solution, by associating information with the plant
and business entities (the objects) it belongs to,
by organizing these objects to mirror reality and by
providing powerful functions for navigation and
searching.
In so doing, Aspect Objects liberate you from having
to deal with numbers of different files, folders,
applications, operating systems and computers and
let you concentrate on the plant and processes you
are really concerned with. Or put differently; as long
as you know which item you want information
about, Aspect Objects make finding it easy.
For an example closer to the process, imagine you
have a problem with an electric motor somewhere
in your plant. In that situation, ABB’s Aspect Objects
enables you to select the malfunctioning motor on
your screen and with a single mouseclick find the
information you need presented in a familiar way,
perhaps in the following sequence:
• check the Alarm List for recent alarms from the
motor, then Active Work Orders for planned
or ongoing maintenance work on it
• see how the motor is controlled and check
inputs/outputs
• look up Standard Operating Procedures
for guidelines on how to solve the problem
• check machine instructions, dimensional
drawings, technical specifications and other
useful documentation
• select Live Video and let the video camera zoom
in on the motor for a preliminary visual inspection
• write a Fault Report
• if you find that the motor cannot be repaired
but has to be replaced, check to see if you have
one available in stock
• if not, open an Internet window and place an
order in the appropriate e-commerce application
The information on yourplant items (objects) and products producedis only a mouseclickaway.
Different plant functionaries are interested in
different aspects of plant and process objects. Take
an ordinary valve as an example: a control engineer
is interested in what the piping and instrumentation
diagrams look like, an electrician in where the
different connection terminals are, a production
supervisor in what the valve is setting at the
moment, etc. For this reason, Aspect Objects
offer several – yes – aspects of every object.
So that each user can zoom in on the information
they require quickly and easily without having
to cut through obstructive clutter to get to it.
Inside a fully Aspect Objects-compliant application
a click with the mouse opens a context-sensitive
menu, making all aspects of the selected object
immediately available.
Aspects that help you find what you are looking for
Different aspects enable every user to zoom in on the information they are interested in without having to cut through obstructive clutter to get to it.
Context-sensitive menusoffer direct access to all aspects of the selectedobject.
Object structures that help you get organized
To keep track of all plantand process objects atdifferent levels of detail,you can organize your operation into differentobject structures, e.g. according to the logicalprocess flow, to thephysical plant layout oraccording to the control-system network.
To enable every interested party to find the right
information at the right level of detail, Aspect Objects
support hierarchical object structures. This means that if
our valve (V37 Block Valve) is part of a dosing system
in the Process Room then the valve will be handled as
such. And similarly, if the Process Room itself is part of
the Plant Processing Building then that relationship will
be handled in the same way, etc.
To keep track of the resulting myriad of objects and
relationships at different levels of detail, Aspect Objects
work with so-called “object structures”. The system
comes with three default hierarchies – the functional,
locational and control-system structures, but additional
ones can easily be defined by the user.
The functional structure shows where a particular
object fits into a functional context. For instance,
it would show which control loops are associated
with the valve and which transmitter, pump and
controller are associated with the loop. This structure
gives control engineers the view they need of the
production plant and its component parts.
The locational structure shows where an object fits
into the physical (geographical) context. For instance,
it would show exactly where in the plant the valve is
installed. This view tells fitters, electricians and mainte-
nance engineers where the equipment they are
supposed to work on is (to be) installed.
The control-system structure shows where a software
function or hardware device can be found in the control
system involved. For instance, it would show which
analog/digital outputs control the valve, which output
boards carry the signals involved and how these signals
connect to the application program controlling the
valve. This view gives control system managers and
programmers the information they need to develop
and maintain their system.
The power of full Aspect Objects integration
concept, operators are offered many more contexts
in which to view objects, including:
• the process flow context through process
diagram displays,
• the chronological context through alarm lists,
event lists and trend diagrams, and
• the configuration/tuning context through
faceplates and dialog boxes.
Having zoomed in on an object in one context it is as
easy as clicking on the mouse to view it in another.
The possibility to define different password-protected
“workplaces”, one for each staff member, each with
its own, specific information range, configuration and
command-entry authorities help each person to work
more efficient. Shortcuts and Favourites to particular-
ly useful information pages add another level to this
adaptability.
Aspect Objects in operationTo illustrate how far full Aspect Objects integration
can take corporate software, let us look at ABB’s own
production supervision software Process Portal. In it a
process operator can click on the object of interest on
the screen to get a list of the aspects available. And from
that menu choose the appropriate one, be it the face-
plate, the alarm list, the event list, the trend graph, the
assembly drawing, the circuit diagram or a video show-
ing the device in action at that moment. So if/when an
alarm occurs in the plant, finding answers to questions
like “Where is the device installed?”, “What does it do?”
and “How does it tie into the control system?” is as easy
as identifying the device concerned on the screen and
looking up its relevant aspects.
In addition to the hierarchical view of objects and their
relationships that is inherent in the Aspect Objects
Aspect Objects in plant engineering
As indicated, Aspect Objects offer great benefits
to those involved in the day-to-day business matters
of any industrial company, but they offer every bit
as much to those concerned with building the plant
and keeping it running.
The main benefit here is again the way Plant Explorer,
the navigation software of Aspect Objects, helps to
develop and maintain an appropriate structure for the
mind-boggling amount of information needed
– at different levels of detail – to build and maintain
the plant. Whenever a new and important piece
of information turns up that you want to store
– retrievably – for future use, allocating it to the
appropriate object and aspect in the Plant Explorer
is a straightforward intuitive matter.
Engineering data that cannot be put into its final loca-
tion in the object hierarchy at the time of importation/
creation can be “parked” in a project pool, pending in-
sertion into the project structure at a suitable later date.
The graphic visualization of projects makes it easy
to see what they consist of, what remains to be done
– and to communicate this to others.
The moment a new contribution is made to the body
of engineering data in the project structure it becomes
instantly available to all other project members to
build on. In this way the project team makes progress
in leaps and bounds.
By importing plant devicelists, specifying object types,tag names and parametersettings, object instancescan be created in bulk instandard software applica-tions such as MS Excel.
Start your engineering work in MS Excel, import the data to Plant Explorer where you can finetune and refine it, then reverse the process by exporting from Plant Explorer to Excel.The result: efficient engineering, updated documentationand debugged source data for future re-use.
Standard solutions save time, money and raise qualityA fast way of populating the project structure and
editing the individual instances at the same time is to
import parameter lists created in just about any text
editor or spreadsheet application, specifying the desired
object types, tag names and individual settings. Another
efficient way is to copy object templates and/or standard
solutions from libraries to the desired locations in the
project structure e.g. by drag and drop. In so doing, the
copy inherits all its aspects and settings from the original.
At this point you can create further instances of the
current type by simply pasting in further clones wherever
you need them – and of course editing them as required.
If you later discover that you need to make a change to
all instances of a specific type, make it to the template
in the type library. The moment you click “OK” it will
take effect on all its clones in the project structure.
After having “created” an entire production line in this
way, with all its component parts in place, create
another by simply copying and pasting or dragging it
to another location in the project structure.
Regardless of whether your company uses predictive,
preventive or corrective maintenance schemes or some
combination of these, Aspect Objects have much to offer.
An essential component of most preventive schemes
is the determination of appropriate service intervals
for every plant item. Aspect Objects suits this object-
oriented approach down to the ground. One way of
creating such a scheme is to implement the required
running hours metering in the associated production
control system as part of its object representations
and let this system raise alerts when its time for
maintenance
Another is to link a commercially available – perhaps
already installed – maintenance management system
to Aspect Objects and let that system monitor running
hours and raise alerts. In both cases, integration with
Aspect Objects makes it easy to locate both the items
in the plant needing servicing and the documentation
needed to do the jobs involved.
Or if you are one of those that have come to the
conclusion that preventive maintenance costs more
than it is worth then you may rest assured that when
the early warnings or alarms come on, Aspect Objects
will help you locate the failing items and the back-
ground information you need about them in the
shortest possible time.
Another important facet of industrial maintenance is the
upkeep of the engineering designs themselves. In this
area too, Aspect Objects offer a new and better solution.
This is because the technology involves keeping track
of which data files are associated with which plant
and process objects. This mapping makes it possible
in Plant Explorer to select which objects, sections,
areas, etc. to back up, restore, install or upgrade,
regardless of which computers are involved.
For instance, it facilitates fine-tuning a particular
process section on line and, when satisfied, committing
the solution to the backup archive and continuing
with the next section for fine-tuning and backup,
etc., without having to worry about which files are
involved. That track-keeping is handled in the
background by Aspect Objects.
Aspect Objects in plant maintenance
Operation and maintenanceare fully integrated, whichhelps optimize your assetutilization by combiningmaintenance data with run-time data.
Aspect Objects in overall management
Area Calculation basis What would this mean to you in money terms?
Engineering efficiency 1/2 hour in time savings per object = . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Production efficiency 1% improvement = . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Maintenance efficiency From 10 eight-hour stops a year to 7 four-hour stops = . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Sales efficiency 2% improvement in utilizationof production resources = . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Totals = . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Aspect Objects have much to offer all company
functions, from production management to plant
engineering and plant maintenance. And since the
main concerns of the departmental managers are also
the concerns of top management, the technology
has every bit as much to offer the overall leadership.
In fact, since it integrates previously discrete computer
applications into a seamless whole, it has the potential
to become one of top management’s most important
tools for turning, sometimes diverse departments into
a unified, highly streamlined, and efficient operation.
The ease with which Aspect Objects make all kinds
of information on all facets of the operation available
to top managers on their personal computers can be
viewed as the icing on the cake.
As always in the corporate world however, the proof
lies in financial numbers, so here is a simple frame-
work for calculating the money-saving potential
of Aspect Objects in your operation:
Plant Explorer makes iteasy to find the object andaspect you are interested in,be it a production plantitem, a customer record ora production order.
A search engine and windows for aspect selec-tion and data preview – with listing filters – make it even easier.
A navigation tool to ensure you find what you are looking for
Plant Explorer, the navigation software of Aspect
Objects, at first glance looks like the Explorer
of Microsoft’s Windows operating systems. However,
the difference is that it does not organize information
into files and folders, but into those hierarchical plant
and process objects that are the essence of our concept.
Like the way you create, delete, copy and move files
and folders with Microsoft Explorer you perform
the equivalent operations on Aspect Objects and
their children with the Plant Explorer.
A search engine and windows for aspect selection
and data preview – with listing filters – are available
to make finding the information you need quick
and easy.
Aspect Objects also make it easy to integratee-business intoyour daily operations.
Aspect Objects are based on industry standards
which ensures openess and compatibility.
An open system for progress on a broad front
One of the best features of the Aspect Object
technology can be described in terms of what it is not.
It is not a massive software package costing a massive
amount of money, where ABB is trying to outperform
every other software supplier at his own game.
No, it is merely the “glue” required to make Windows-
based applications from ABB and others reach a new
level of interoperability and to empower them with
new efficiency-boosting functionality.
This means that if you have standardized on soft-
ware applications like IFS for maintenance, Microsoft
Office for administration, AutoCAD for computer-
aided design, and Internet Explorer for integration
with e-business and ERP applications, you can stick
to that strategy and incorporate them as Aspect
Systems of our concept. Should you later want to
switch administrative applications, Aspect Objects
will support you all the way.
The technology is highly configurable, meaning
that it offers ample opportunity to users to expand/
alter the scope and functionality whenever the need
develops. For instance, adding/editing objects,
aspects, object structures and workplaces is easy.
Electrical diagrams created in AutoCAD are easily integrated into, and retrievedthrough, Aspect Objects.
Production reports andother statistics createdin MS Excel are madereadily available by Aspect Objects.
Building and running an industrial operation is
a mind-boggling affair. There is a vast amount
of hard and soft detail to identify, store, interrelate
and re-identify, when you least expect it. It is like
doing the biggest jig-saw puzzle imaginable.
As every puzzle enthusiast knows, the key to success
is to start off right and to get the first few pieces
assembled correctly. Then all the other pieces will
fit together.
With Aspect Objects, our idea of starting off right was
to determine the most appropriate storage structure
for all the seemingly disparate data industrial operators
have to cope with and to make sure that this structure
covers all aspects of the operation. We chose a hierar-
chical, object-oriented, “virtual” structure that is
fully compatible with the industry-standards in the
business and technical software fields.
From then on, the rest of our pieces have fallen into
place by themselves. Aspect Objects can make your
pieces do the same.
The art of putting an industrial jig-saw together
ABB’s Aspect Objectstechnology will makeall your corporatepieces fall into place.
Aspect Objects provide the sharpest image around
With ABB’s Aspect Object technology you can look at your world in any which way
How do you get Aspect Objects to work for you?
There are two main alternatives. You can take
advantage of ABB’s IndustrialIT process control products
and systems based on Aspect Object technology.
There is a complete portfolio of products, software
and hardware, covering every need – from the field
to the boardroom. This includes control and super-
vision systems for production management, such
as ControlIT, OperateIT, ProduceIT, and InformIT.
You can also utilize ABB’s asset management system,
OptimizeIT and engineering tools such as EngineerIT
which includes Control Builder, Graphics Builder,
Fieldbus Builder, Bulk Data Manager and much more.
Alternatively you can develop your own products
and/or applications on the basis of – or adapt those
existing to – Aspect Object technology. For this
purpose, ABB offers the Aspect Integrator Platform
– a complete set of tools, components, and services –
which forms the basis for your own products.
Isn’t it time for you to take a closer look at what
Aspect Objects has to offer?
As part of its IndustrialIT activities, ABB has developed a long-
term strategy of offering a comprehensive range of products and
systems for industrial applications. At the heart of this strategy
is the Aspect Objects concept which allows all users access to
all control and information systems within the enterprise and
to assemble the information they require in a format best suited
to their needs. Users are able to extend, modify and migrate
their systems without difficulty.
Automation Technology Products within ABB offers a complete
range of IndustrialIT products from individual programmable
controllers to complete control systems for complex plants.
These products are sold and supported by the worldwide
network of ABB.
If you would like to know more about these products,
contact your local ABB office or visit our website at
www.abb.com/processautomation
Automation Technology Products
SE-721 59 Vasteras, Sweden
Phone: +46 (0) 21342000
Fax: +46 (0) 21137845
www.abb.com/processautomation
e-mail: [email protected]
Automation Technology Products
29801 Euclid Avenue
Wickliffe, Ohio 44092, USA
Phone: +1 440 585 8500
Fax: + 1 440 585 8756
www.abb.com/processautomation
e-mail: [email protected]
Automation Technology Products
Dudenstraße 44-46, D-68167
Mannheim, Germany
Phone: +49 (0) 1805 266776
Fax: +49 (0) 1805 776329
www.abb.de/processautomation
e-mail: [email protected]
3BSE025849R0001
Copyright © 2001 by ABB Automation Technology Products. All rights to trademarks reside with their respective owners.Specifications subject to change without notice. Pictures, schematics, and other graphics contained herein are published for illustration purposes only and donot represent product configurations or functionality. User documentation accompanying the product is the exclusive source for functionality descriptions.
