industrial//industrial automation//engineering station

The place where engineers modify configuration, logic, control loops, databases and graphics of a control system. It is a different function from the operating center, where operators drive the process, even when both sit in the same room.

The place where engineers modify configuration, logic, control loops, databases and graphics of a control system. It is a different function from the operating center, where operators drive the process, even when both sit in the same room.

An operator sees screens, alarms and histories and changes the setpoints they are authorized to change (HMI, operating center). An operator should not be reprogramming controllers during a normal shift; that is what the engineering station is for.

In a DCS the separation is built into the product: engineering stations and operator stations are different roles with different permissions. In a PLC world it is enforced by procedure and by who holds the programming software.

The same split explains why remote access to OT is treated so carefully: a session that can change logic is not the same risk as one that can only watch.