Navigating the Drive Nemesis
Uncertainty and procrastination can often hinder progress and stifle innovation in various endeavours. Despite their different characteristics, these two opp...
Hit that 'Save' button
We all fall short of this in some manner. I would love to take you down memory lane to bring your thought closer to the adverse effect of not saving your wor...
Will it work?
I went to visit Sally down at Sale the other day, we had a good conversation over a “cuppa tea”. Just as I was about to set up and leave Sally informed me sh...
Is Computer System Validation worth the paper it’s written on?
Please forgive the pun but it’s a fair question. What is the value of validating your control system or process historian? Many industries don’t bother and l...
What's the diagnosis?
We have four cars in our household and three of them are more than 10 years old. They all have engine management lights showing. The trouble is, the engine m...
Give your manufacturing business an MOT
It’s a statutory requirement that once your car is over 3 years old it be MOT’d every year. This ensures it is both safe and not hurling huge levels of emiss...
Can you compete with your local coffee shop?
There’s a good chance your local independent coffee shop employs technology far more advanced than that running your factory.
How much process data should you collect?
“Do we really need to collect so much data?”
Who owns your automation software?
The ‘rent or buy’ concept is not a new one. It’s the difference between buying software on a perpetual or subscription basis:
Avoid being disappointed by your control system upgrade
For many of us looking to upgrade our long loved (or hated) incumbent control systems fills us with both excitement and concern. Excitement because we always...
Disaster Recovery Planning in Theory and Practice
The scenario: a server collecting historical data from a distributed control system running an industrial process. The server is 15 years old and creaking, w...
How to enjoy Christmas
While I’m sure some reading this will be working during the holiday period almost everyone will enjoy at least a few days off during the next week.
Is your DMZ a no man's land?
Organisations continue to digitise. Whether intentionally via planned projects with dedicated budgets and resources, or unintentionally as suppliers embed re...
What my new smart watch taught me
I recently bought a new watch/fitness tracker.
Should you accept automation vendors' vision of the future?
Automation vendors develop great products and services. They excel at leveraging the latest technological developments to solve the problems facing industrie...
Waking up your data
We live in an ever more competitive age where increasing the capability of our assets is becoming more and more important. However, we rarely think in terms ...
Much ado about heating
There is much debate on the efficacy of heat pumps for domestic heating, but heat pumps alone are not the answer. There are a number of technologies in the h...
Don't know where to start? Try the basics
Often in life, getting the simple things right is key to success. For example, when we're feeling overworked, overcommitted and overwhelmed it can be hard to...
Do you invest in training people?
When you purchase new equipment or technology how much do you invest in training people?
Are you a grandmaster or a centaur?
May 1997 was a turning point in the world of chess. Garry Kasparov, chess grandmaster and world-champion at the time, was beaten by IBM’s Deep Blue 2.5 - 3.5...
Are you choosing to drive blind?
It sounds like madness, but I believe many manufacturers are doing just this. Imagine you've bought a new car but the dashboard was an optional extra, you sp...
Transferring is the worst
You’ll know the scenario. I’m in France at the moment, but had a similar experience before Christmas in Ireland. It happens when I need to travel between unf...
ATT&CK!
The MITRE ATT&CK® knowledge base for ICS is now publicly available. If you've not got time to check it out now, at least click on this link and bookm...
Windows 7 end of life announcement
In case you've missed it, Microsoft support for Windows 7 and Server 2008 ends on 14th Jan 2020. Here's the links to Microsoft's statements on the matter: ht...
Have you got what it takes to make decisions?
Tough decisions are never easy, even with the right information. So asking yourself or someone else to make a serious decision, with information that is pres...
New interfaces for old machines
30 years of battering by operators takes its toll on any system, even one as robust as Emerson’s RS3. When the trackball for a legacy control console no long...
Support available for Emerson RS3
The Rosemount System 3 (RS3) DCS can still be found controlling a variety of industrial processes today, after first being installed in 1984. If you're still...
A humble PLC saves the day
We recently had a request for some legacy control boards needed to run a refrigeration system's compressors. They were critical components in the motor-start...
Benefits of virtualisation
Virtualisation (or virtualization to the rest of the world) is widespread within IT and quickly being adopted for OT systems. The technology has proven relia...
It's a wide spectrum
Manufacturing in all sectors is carried out on a diversity of machines that all have one thing in common; at some time, some critical component will need to ...
Tempting isn't it?
Everything's running well, it has been for some time. In fact your control systems have worked for years. Why risk loading an update? It carries some risk an...
Open technology
At Op-tec we've always been passionate about using open technology. We believe basing your control architecture on open technology gives numerous benefits, a...
Save your energy. Sit down.
Let us bring the information to you.
If it ain't broke don't fix it?
Recently, a PLC controlled heating system failed, causing the product to go over temperature resulting in substantial consequential losses.
Management of legacy controls and automation
Process automation and control represents a major capital expense and exerts great influence over the even greater expense of the production process its-self...
IIoT and Industry 4.0 Explained
Recently, I spoke to the Food and Drink Engineering & Processing Summit about IIoT and Industry 4.0. I wanted to explain the meaning of these terms, and ...
Op-tec's main office has moved to Stockport
We've moved! Things were getting a little tight where we were, and with customers throughout the UK locating ourselves more centrally makes sense as we conti...
Different control system types
We often get asked the difference between DCS and PLC/SCADA-based systems, and where PACs come in to it. So here's an attempt to clear things up. History DCS...
Op-tec achieves ISO 9001
After many years of operating with a compliant Quality Management System, we have now committed to regular external audits against the latest standard. This ...
Time to upgrade?
We all have a favourite t-shirt, sweater, pair of jeans or trainers that have stood the test of time - in our own eyes at least. Comfortable, dependable and ...