Sensor Data Integrity for Process Plants is a Problem| ARC Advisory

Overview

Data integrity of intelligent sensors has been a persistent problem in the process industries for decades.  The ubiquitous spread of intelligent field devices, control valves, and analytical equipment held the promise of better management and maintenance of these devices, but – instead – created a huge data management problem.  Sensor data almost always show inconsistencies across different applications that rely on their data.  There is no “single version of the truth” that provides the true state of the sensor in a consistent manner across applications. 

Plant asset management systems (PAM), distributed control systems (DCS), safety instrumented systems (SIS), and engineering applications like Hexagon’s PPM division’s Intergraph Smart® Instrumentation frequently show a different picture of what the intelligent device looks like.  These inconsistencies affect change management, device maintenance, overall plant performance, and can increase cybersecurity risk.  Poor sensor data management is also a huge contributor to unplanned downtime, which ARC estimates costs the process industries over $1 trillion a year. 

ARC Advisory Group…