Impact Automation

Brownfield Integration

Key Points Works within existing assets and constraints Must account for legacy systems Common when upgrading live operations Requires compatibility work, careful change control, and staged deployment Often involves interface translation and preservation of current operations while introducing change Definition…

Fail Safe

Key Points Prioritizes safety on failure Used in industrial, mechanical, and control systems May stop, isolate, or de-energize equipment Distinct from failover or fault tolerance Confusing fail safe with redundancy or automatic recovery is a common misuse Definition Fail Safe…

Process Dead Time

Key Points – Process Dead Time is defined for network and system use – Represents delay before a process output begins to respond to an input change – Used in operational and control contexts – Makes control more difficult because…

Ethernet/IP

Key Points Runs over standard Ethernet infrastructure Used for controller, device, and I/O interaction Common in factory and process automation networks Bridges standard Ethernet transport with industrial automation messaging Operates in manufacturing, machine automation, and process control systems Definition Ethernet/IP…

Alarm Management

Key Points Structures alarm behavior for operators Reduces nuisance and redundant alarms Supports response and escalation workflows Used in industrial, utility, and control environments Focuses on alarm relevance, priority, and presentation Directly affects operator response, safety, and system stability Definition…

Human Machine Interface

Key Points Provides operator visibility and control over machines and processes Displays status, alarms, trends, and enables command issuance Common in control rooms, panels, machinery, and industrial automation HMI design affects how quickly and accurately operators can understand and respond…

Function As A Service

Key Points Executes code as discrete functions Triggered by events or requests Provider manages runtime infrastructure Core pattern in serverless computing Shifts operational burden of runtime infrastructure to the provider Definition Function As A Service is a cloud execution model…

Alarm Flood Suppression

Key Points Alarm Flood Suppression filters large alarm bursts to reduce operator overload Used in operational and control contexts to improve operator focus Suppresses redundant, cascading, or lower-value alarms while maintaining visibility of critical alarms Primary application in industrial automation,…

BGP

Key Points Used for inter-domain routing between autonomous systems Supports policy-based route exchange and filtering Core protocol of internet connectivity Scales across large administrative domains Focuses on reachability and policy rather than only shortest path Definition BGP is a path-vector…

Process Dynamics

Key Points – Time-dependent behavior of a process under input or disturbance changes – Used in operational and control contexts – Central to tuning and designing effective controllers – Operates at the OT system layer Definition Process Dynamics are the…