industrial//industrial ecosystem

The companies around a plant and how money and data flow between them. A plant is not only a process and an information flow; it is a capital flow that keeps it alive, and studying PLCs without knowing who buys from whom misses half the system (industrial automation).

The companies around a plant and how money and data flow between them. A plant is not only a process and an information flow; it is a capital flow that keeps it alive, and studying PLCs without knowing who buys from whom misses half the system (industrial automation).

EPC: designs, procures, builds and commissions a large plant, then hands it over.

Automation vendor: sells PLCs, DCS, HMI, SCADA, drives, I/O, networking and software (Siemens, Rockwell, Schneider, ABB, Emerson, Honeywell, Yokogawa).

System integrator: joins equipment of different brands, programs, configures communications, builds HMI and SCADA, commissions, and often stays under a maintenance contract.

OEM: makes a specific machine (compressor, packaging line, robot, CNC) and delivers it with its own controller and software.

The plant: purchasing, production and maintenance departments, with high technical knowledge.

There is no single commercial chain. A plant owner may buy through an EPC, directly from an automation vendor, through a system integrator, or receive an OEM machine that someone then has to integrate. Each path ends at the same sophisticated buyer.

After the plant is built, the long business starts: the aftermarket of spares, service, software and upgrades over fifteen to thirty years, and the newest and tensest negotiation, who holds the machine's data (data holders).