A new age of industrial automation is being ushered in by rapid technological advancements in creating connected plants and factories. Mobile technologies are a key driving force to enable Industry 4.0 and further streamline manufacturing operations. Industrial companies want to harness the power of new technologies that hold the promise of smart operations. The benefits of data capture and automation for enterprises can be seen in increased employee productivity, competitive advances, streamlined processes and improved operations.
Being digitally mobile within the manufacturing environment means freedom of movement - being able to perform activities freely and at any location within the facility or remotely. The latest advancements in FDT ® 3.0 technology will drive a wider range of worker mobility applications in the Information Technology (IT)/Operational Technology (OT) environment. They help standardized and optimize industrial organizations and their operations and maintenance departments by enabling cloud-based enterprise data access, device diagnostics and mobility applications; modernizing asset management practices; and improving predictive maintenance programs.
With the recent developments to FDT, automation stakeholders can employ the familiar functionality of the integration standard on common mobile platforms. This, in turn, will provide access to additional data from any location with flexible deployment options. The FDT mobility solution will benefit both control and instrumentation suppliers and end users. It applies a host of modern features to meet the contemporary needs for remote data access for the new era of automation. The familiar FDT Device Type Manager™ (DTM™) user interface has evolved to include a web interface environment incorporating browser-based visual solutions running on any authenticated mobile device on all networks.
The FDT mobility solution is also platform-independent, which provides the flexibility to use any computing platform along with customizable app development. This approach contrasts with common proprietary, one-off solutions for industrial mobility applications.
