New real-time operations management and visualisation software for control and safety system solution with enhanced capabilities for seamless system integration

Yokogawa Electric Corporation has announced the release of FAST/TOOLS R10.04, the latest version of its renowned real-time operations management and visualisation software, as part of its OpreXTM Control and Safety System family. A highly flexible and scalable supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) solution suitable for use in everything from smart IoT-enabled applications to enterprise-wide integrated operations spanning multiple sites and subsystems, FAST/TOOLS R10.04 will help customers derive maximum value from their investments over the entire system lifecycle.

This software will be ideal for the oil and gas upstream, midstream gas and (multi-product) liquid pipelines (for which the standard EPMS applications suite is available), petrochemicals, chemicals, renewable energy, power, pulp and paper, pharmaceuticals, food, mining, iron and steel, water distribution and wastewater treatment sectors for monitoring, operation, control, data collection, and data storage for geographically distributed facilities.

Driven by the rising importance of factors such as the IoT, big data analytics and the cloud, a digital transformation is underway that is leading to the convergence of information, operational and engineering technologies (IT, OT, and ET) in unmanned, remote-controlled and enterprise-wide operations. To benefit from near real-time transaction processing and other capabilities that already are well established in the IT domain, a growing effort is being made to achieve seamless integration and convergence with the OT domain.

As production and delivery cycles shorten and require greater flexibility, the real-time sharing of data on operational capacity/conditions and its use in production/maintenance planning and forecasting become critically important factors in improving a company’s bottom line results. A modern open SCADA platform should be able to bridge the legacy gaps between the IT and OT domains by leveraging OPC Unified Architecture (OPC UA), upcoming IoT standards, and open database interfaces. By simplifying operations, automating activities, and enhancing user insights, operating expenditure (OPEX) can be reduced.

Recognising that most enterprises will take a profit-driven approach and seek to reduce risk with their management and control solutions, Yokogawa continues to pursue innovations that will ensure its customers are able to transform their data into meaningful information and get the most out of their investments.

R10.04 supports the digital industrial ecosystem with information models that simplify and enhance sub-system integration with the CENTUM VP integrated production control system.

For improved integration with CENTUM VP, the graphics integration tool that is provided with FAST/TOOLS has been enhanced. Along with the FAST/TOOLS portfolio of supported industry standard interfaces and protocols which has the addition of support for Mitsubishi MELSEC iQ-R series controllers and the FINS protocol used by Omron programmable controllers.

To make it easier to incorporate FAST/TOOLS into an existing IT infrastructure, authentication and authorisation services are now handled as one centralised process for all system users. One benefit of this is that all logged-on/off activities will be visible in one window, allowing for improved audit trailing and user management. In addition, when making use of an Active Directory (AD) for the single sign on (SSO) mapping function, users with profiles in multiple AD domains can have a merged user profile in FAST/TOOLS, in accordance with authentications and authorisation credentials. The FAST/TOOLS encryption process has also been improved to provide more secure communication between server and clients.

The FAST/TOOLS graphics editor is able to generate native displays to the HTML5 standard for both information-rich PC-based applications and light-view tablet and smartphone applications. An enhanced graphics editor simplifies the task of creating screens that deliver exactly the data operators require.

Over the past decades FAST/TOOLS has evolved from centralised SCADA/MES and HMI software to an enterprise automation environment. This state-of-the-art IIoT enabled industrial SCADA software benefits our customers through improved visualisation, collaboration, decision support, configuration, communication, security, deployment, connectivity, operational alarm management/analysis, and history data storage/management. For added reliability, FAST/TOOLS can be set up to run on systems that employ Yokogawa’s advanced dual-redundant technology, enabling automatic switch-over to a backup system in the event of a hardware failure.

Yokogawa will keep working to improve its entire range of solutions and services, including FAST/TOOLS, with the aim of ensuring safe and highly efficient operations over the entire lifecycle of its customers’ facilities.