Vendor Lock-in Is History – Diversity And Openness Is the Future
Does anyone really want to be dependent on a single supplier? Supply chain problems, discontinuation of the panels used and the associated fixed HMI software and changing PLCs, which have to be used at the request of the end customer, pose constant challenges for manufacturers of machinery and plants.
In the case of both the PLC and the HMI, the engineering software provided by the respective manufacturers must always be used. All too often, implementation starts from square one again. Whatever the case, teams need to be trained and have requisite hands-on experience with the required products. Time and expense that can be better invested in the optimization of a single solution, making you more competitive as a result.
Ideally, it would be better to have software that could be used on a flexible basis for different panels and with different PLCs, at least for the HMI.
If the panel from supplier A is no longer available, you simply take a panel from supplier B. If the customer requests the use of a different PLC to the standard one, you simply reconfigure the communication channel in the HMI application to the requisite type.
Users of VisiWin have always enjoyed this flexibility! Thanks to the flexible driver interfaces for all standard PLCs, VisiWin users have complete freedom of choice when it comes to their control systems. In addition, there is also OPC UA as a client for the PLCs and as a server for the company’s IT, which means, for example, that an ERP system can receive the data from production.
Virtually any standard system can be used for the transit time device.
The Answer to the Question as to the Choice of Industrial Panel
Many users of industrial panels are used to being supplied with the appropriate software for the panel. On the one hand this is perfectly convenient, because everything is in sync and you only have one point of contact. However, if the supplier is unable to deliver or even discontinues the products, in the worst-case scenario all the work that had been invested in the HMI software must be done all over again.
If you use software that is independent of the hardware, such as our VisiWin, you have a wide range of possible devices on which the software runs. There are rarely any problems in terms of compatibility. Would it not be ideal, therefore, to take delivery of a suitable panel that has also been tested by the software provider as well?
In collaboration with three suppliers of industrial panels, we can now recommend suitable devices which we have tested ourselves. We share responsibility for the overall solution in each case. If a problem arises, we work together to investigate it and provide our customer with the solution.
In all events, you can count on the option of falling back on alternatives if the worst comes to the worst. The good businessman always has a second source for everything.
These Are Our Partners in Alphabetical Order:
ADM electronic GmbH with a wide range of different panels.
ads-tec Industrial IT GmbH with Windows and web panels, available in various configurations including for environments involving high hygiene requirements.
Our long-standing OEM partner KEBA Group AG, who supplies not just built-in panels but a wide range of hand-held operation devices as well.