It had structure, a clear division of tasks and a clearly defined field of players - the automation pyramid that we have grown so fond of! But that is now a thing of the past. Wolfgang Schenk, Managing Director at Hirschmann Automation and Control, is certain: "The pyramid is dead, long live the Automation Pillar!" A structure that breaks down previous level boundaries, scatters tasks across the entire structure .... and, last but not least, enables players to enter the business who were previously excluded.

But how quickly will the technology that is to form the backbone of the pillar establish itself: the real-time Ethernet technology Time Sensitive Networking - TSN for short? The international congress on this topic - the TSN/A Conference - revealed the entire spectrum of expectations: While some are feverishly working on the first products, others would like to see the technology become established in a few decades' time if possible! And the skeptics' arguments cannot be dismissed out of hand: There is an enormous installed base of fieldbuses that will not be thrown over the 'company fence' overnight; there is a lack of detailed technology definition and one-stop-shop certification for the 'TSN plus OPC UA' bundle, without which industrial automation would be impossible - and there is a lack of user-friendly tools to enable the whole technology to be traded: Keyword configuration.

The Automation Piller: It is intended to be the successor to the established automation pyramid.

© Hirschmann Automation and Control

So, what is ideally needed now? - We need an association of user companies that clearly communicates: "We now want TSN plus OPC UA for factory automation!" You will remember that something like this existed around seven years ago. The German automotive industry had spoken out in favor of Profinet as the network standard under the abbreviation Aida and thus created facts!

- There needs to be an organization that is responsible for certifying TSN plus OPC UA! At the TSN/A Conference, it was repeatedly suggested that the OPC Foundation should take care of this. - Quite conceivable and absolutely desirable! But does the OPC Foundation even want to do this? And does the Foundation have the organizational foundation to take on this task?

- And there needs to be a critical mass of providers who are not only committed to TSN plus OPC UA, but who are clearly pushing its market penetration and making it visible to potential users. Okay, at the last SPS IPC Drives 2016, companies such as ABB, B&R, Kuka and National Instruments launched a group of companies that advocates TSN plus OPC UA as a standard in factory automation; in the spring, the LNI OPC UA TSN Testbed was even launched with 18 founding companies - but to the outside world, this does not (yet) look like a focused swarm of piranhas!

It remains to be seen how quickly one or two points on this agenda will be implemented. However, one thing was clear at the TSN/A Conference: a lot is happening in the background and preparations for SPS IPC Drives are in full swing!

PS: Would you like to find out more about TSN plus OPC UA? Then I recommend you visit the 'TSN and OPC UA in Industry' track at the Automation 4.0 Summit accompanying the trade fair at SPS IPC Drives.