EASE OF USE OVERVIEW

Cost of Ownership Ease of Use

As technology in automation increases,
ease of use becomes more and more
important. In today’s market, automation
users must not only be proficient in more
complex hardware systems, but also in
network topologies, control schemes, and
software platforms. Advanced technology is
great, but if the average user can’t utilize
it, the value becomes minimal. Costs
associated with development, training, and
maintenance can be very large and
partnering with the wrong vendor can turn
the simplest automation project into a
nightmare. Omron’s platform consistency
and world class software design make
every product we offer, easier to use,
easier to learn and easier to maintain.

• Omron’s platform consistency provides • Auto online feature allows simple

easier learning curves
• One control platform with one cable, and
one software package
• Windows based software give same look
and feel as other popular packages
• Online editing for all PLCs
• Hot keys and keyboard mapping feature
allow easy transition to software
• Tag based or fixed I/O addressing
compared to Rockwell tag only scheme
connection to PLC without separate
software packages
• Omron addressing scheme very simple
to learn compared to Rockwell’s
• CS1 hardware and memory can be
configured in same manner as SLC 500
• 77% of SLC instruction knowledge
translates directly to CS1 / CJ1
• SLC 500 to Omron conversion is simpler
than SLC 500 to Control Logix

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Selling Strategies Ease of Use
General tips
Ease of use is a very important topic when it comes to
automation equipment. This is especially true when
discussing more complex system products such as PLCs, Ease Of
Ease Of Use
Use
vision systems, or motion. Every year automation vendors
raise the bar offering multiple technologies and new
products in an attempt to meet customers needs. As Development
Development Maintenance
Maintenance Training
Training

customers are focusing more on efficiency and doing more

with less, ease of use becomes a necessary requirement
when evaluating automation platforms. Many customers Configuration
Configuration
point out that highly technical products that offer
improved features, or advanced capabilities are great, but LearningCurve
Learning Curve
? Time
Time

if these innovations requires advanced knowledge, Difference

Difference
extensive training, or is complex to use, value may be in
question.

Approaching Ease of Use

Ease of use is an emotional topic. Most Rockwell users view ease of use in relative terms based on what they
know. The best way to understand how to approach an automation user on the topic of ease of use is to put your
self into their shoes. For example, imagine you are a Rockwell PLC user. You started out on SLC 500s and
PLC5’s and have invested many years into learning and becoming proficient in this product line. This
knowledge you have gained, whether it was in a development or a maintenance position represents the value
you provide to your organization and is your job security. You are comfortable, secure and safe. Then, the worst
thing imaginable happens. Some guy from Omron comes along and wants you to change vendors. You
immediately remember how much time and effort it took to learn the Rockwell products and realize that all of
this prior knowledge will be lost. You will essentially have to learn how to program PLCs from scratch hence
risking the value and knowledge you felt so secure in. STOP!
This may seem like an impossible situation, but in truth, it is exactly what is going through your customers
mind whether it is said or not. The way to approach ease of use is not to tip toe around the topic or drop off
some software and hope for the best. You must approach ease of use head on and discuss it up front in the
process. This section of the presentation is aimed directly at Rockwell SLC 500 users facing the decision of
changing to Control Logix. It focuses on two main issues, the fact that we have a single consistent platform that
you learn one time, and that changing from SLC 500 to Omron is easier than changing to Control Logix.
Platform Consistency – Omron has a very distinct advantage over Rockwell in that we have one platform.
This means not only one software package, but one cable, one common structure and more importantly one
cycle of learning. This makes learning Omron easier. Our structure, may be different, but different does not
translate to harder. Make sure you stress this to your customer. Rockwell on the other hand has three separate
platforms. PLC5, SLC500, and now Control Logix. Each has a separate software package, completely different
structure, and requires separate training for each product. Customers who say they are “standardized” on
Rockwell are really supporting three separate platforms.
Changing to Control Logix – If you look closely at the SLC 500 memory structure and instruction set, it is
not very different than Omron. We have many of the same common memory areas and directly equivalent
instructions for over 60% of the SLC 500 series. This means that over 60% of what your customer already
knows applies directly to the CS1. It is extremely critical to point out to your customer that by changing to
Omron, their PLC knowledge will not be lost. A majority of it will apply directly to Omron. For customers

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looking at Control Logix, point out that this platform is much different than other PLCs and does not use
conventional addressing schemes. It actually programs much more like a PC and is completely tag based. This
is very difficult for traditional PLC users to learn and does not address “ease of use”. Omron platforms allow
the use of either tag or fixed addressing, providing the best of both worlds. Also with the revision fiasco that
Control Logix is going through, this platform is extremely complex and difficult to use. Do not be afraid to tell
your customer that customers find changing from SLC 500 to Omron easier than going from SLC 500 to
Control Logix. Master this section of the presentation and you will find that customers will be much more
receptive to other things you show them.

Cost Of Ownership Presentation Ease of Use

This section of the presentation is aimed directly at

Rockwell users, specifically, SLC500 users converting The Center of Your Decision
to Control logix. . It is not set up at present for other
competitors and although the concept may hold, the
supporting data will not help tell the story.
The best way to introduce this section is ask your
audience if this is an important area. Then probe for
concerns in regards to why. Ask what familiarity they
have with other products and what they like and don’t
like. Be very proactive with this section and interact
with your audience both before and during the
presentation. This section will help you find out a lot
about customer and their concerns.
(Use the hyper link button to go directly to the
stability section)

Automation products become more complex on a

daily basis. For example if you looked at a PLC 10 Ease of Use Statement
years ago, it controlled I/O and that was about it. Now
however, a PLC acts as a data server and a
communications hub. It controls motion, process, and Consistency within hardware
multiple networks and yes, must still turn on and off platforms and focus on world class
I/O. As technology advances, it is critical that a software development allows Omron
manufacturer make these new products easy to use. users to get the most out of new
technology in the simplest manner.
You could have the greatest product in the world, but
if no one can operate it, no one will use it. Omron
addresses this across our entire product line through
two key areas. Consistency in hardware, and world
class software development. Both of these areas provide
familiarity and allow our customers to get the most out
our technology in the simplest manner.

.
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Cost Of Ownership Presentation Ease of Use
When discussing ease of use in regards to cost of
ownership, most customers are concerned with three
different areas, Development, Maintenance, and Ease Of
Ease Of Use
Use
Training.

A product or system that is not easy to use, can cause Development

Development Maintenance
Maintenance Training
Training

delayed launches, increase down time, or have high

training costs.
Configuration
Configuration
Ease of use affects each of these areas in the same
manner, so we will go over what differentiates Omron LearningCurve
Learning Curve
? Time
Time

from our competitors and explain how we address this Difference

Difference
issue.

As we mentioned, there are two things that make

Omron products easier to use, our platform consistency
and our software. Ease
Flexibility
Ease Of Use
Of Use
Flexibility

Platform
Platform Software
Software
Consistency
Consistency

Development
Development Training
Training

Maintenance
Maintenance

We have talked a lot in other sections that through our

ownership of design, and that we manufacture our own
products allows us to control our platforms. Platform Consistency
This concept again plays a very large role in ease of
use. If you look across our multiple product platforms, ••One
OneSoftware
SoftwarePackage
Package
you will see consistency in design. We have multiple ••One
OneCable
Cable
••One
OneCommon
CommonStructure
Structure
products, but many of the technologies, features and
protocols are the same.
The best place to see this is in our controls platform.
One software package, one cable, one common
structure is required for our entire platform. When you
learn one of our controllers, you learn them all.

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Cost Of Ownership Presentation Ease of Use

What most people are concerned with however when

they discuss controls is software. As you can see here, Software
we have a screen capture of our PLC software. Notice
that it looks very familiar to what you are currently
using. Industry standards and yes windows have made
9WindowsBased
Based
PLC software look very much alike. Our software has 9Windows
9ToolBars
9Tool Bars
memory trees, tool bars, and the same point and click 9Tagor
9Tag orHard
HardAddress
Address
9FlexibleComments
9Flexible Comments
structure as anyone else’s software. What truly 9WatchWindows
9Watch
9HotKeys
Keys
Windows
9Hot
differentiates our software is the features that are built 9DataTrace
9Data Trace
9OnlineEditing
Editing
9Online
into it. Hot keys, watch windows, data trace functions
and online editing are features that work with all of our
PLCs. (Describe a couple of these features directly)

One feature that is very popular and demonstrates ease

of use is our auto-online feature.
How it works is simple. First take any PC loaded with Example: “Auto-Online
Example: “Auto-OnlineFeature”
Feature”

our programming software, and connect it any serial

Step1:
1:Connect
ConnectPCPCto
toANY
ANY
port on the PLC. Then you click the auto-online icon. Step
PLCSerial
PLC SerialPort
Port Step2:
Step 2:Click
ClickAuto-Online
Auto-OnlineIcon
Icon

You will see the software looking for the PLC type and
communications method, then it will connect and start
uploading the program. It is that simple, with one click
you are online with the PLC and working with the
program. No separate RS Linx Lite packages, no
guessing set up parameters, just one simple click of a
button. (Point out that if you password protect the PLC, Step3:
3:DONE!
DONE!
Step
this feature will not work)

The big question everyone asks when looking at new

PLC platform however is instructions and addressing.
Example: “I/O
Example: “I/OAddressing
AddressingComparison”
Comparison”
Here we have a comparison of SLC 500 and Omron’s
addressing formats. Notice that with the SLC, you have SLC 500 CS1 / CJ1

delimiters for each part of the address. (Ask audience if

Element Word Bit Bit
Delimiter Delimiter Delimiter Delimiter

they had trouble with these in past) With Omron, notice O : e . s / b 0000.00
that all there is to addressing is channel and bit. It is this Identifier

simple. O – Output
I – Input Element
Slot Number
Word
0-255
Bit
I/O Point
Channel Bit
I/O Point

Many SLC users comment that they like how the I:1/0-15 O:4.0/0-15 0.00-15 03.00-15

address directly links to a slot in the chassis. Omron PS CPU

16 16 16 16
IN IN OUT OUT
16 16 16 16
OUT OUT IN IN
CPU PS
controllers can be set up in the same manner. If 16 point Slot Slot Slot Slot
1 2 3 4
Slot Slot Slot Slot
0 1 2 3
…
cards are used, each channel represents a slot and the
bit represents the actual I/O point. (Explain as needed)

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Cost Of Ownership Presentation Ease of Use

If we look at the data addressing, you can see it works

the same way. Omron specifies channel and bit for each Example: “Data
Example: “DataAddressing
AddressingComparison”
Comparison”
type of memory that you work with. Rockwell on the
SLC 500 CS1 / CJ1
other hand, has different sections of memory to Word Bit

remember, different delimiter rules, and different

Element Bit
Delimiter Delimiter
Delimiter Delimiter

formats for many of the data types. N7 : e . s / b 0000.00

In Omron, specifying a timer or a counter is as simple File Identifier
Element Word Bit Channel Bit
0-255 0-2 0-15 I/O Point
as T100, or C20, it is that simple. No delimiters at all to
File Type Example Memory Area Example
use. Also important to note is that memory is allocated Status File
Bit File
- S2:1/0-15
- B3:3/0-15
Status Bits
Work Bits
- A00.00
- W00.00
to data memory separate from program memory. The Timer File
Counter File
- T4:0.1/0-15
- C5:0.1/0-15
Timers
Counters
- T100
- C25

program memory is not part of the data memory. This Control File
Integer File
- R6:2.1/0
- N7:10/0-15
Data Memory - D100

Floating Point File - F8:2

means you can use timers, counters and other items,
without having to calculate program memory.

Learning addressing schemes is important and in most

Example: “Instruction
“InstructionSet
SetComparison”
Comparison”
cases very easy to pick up on Omron controllers, but Example:

what about the instruction set? SLC 500 VS CS1 / CJ1

# of AB # of Omron Exact

We actually went through the 99 instructions in the Instruction Category

Basic
Instructions
12
Instructions
47
Operation
9
% Same
83%
SLC 500 individually and looked to see how different Comparison 8 35 6 75%

they were. We looked for exact operation of the Math

Data Handling
22
17
94
108
18
12
82%
71%

instructions ensuring the only difference was the name. Program Flow 10 22 7 70%

As you can see here, 63 of the 99 SLC 500 instructions

Application Specific 5 52 4 80%
Communication 2 7 1 50%

have a direct equivalent with Omron. If you take away PID 1 2 1 100%
ASCII 14 0 0 0%
the ASCII instructions and replace it with Protocol Interrupt Routine 8 5 5 63%

Macro, you can effectively say that 77% of what you Totals 99 372 63 63%

already know regarding the SLC 500 will transfer

directly to Omron.
We haven’t done this comparison for Control Logix
yet, because it is so different. What we do want to show
however for those who are not aware is the revision Example: “Control
Example: “ControlLogix
LogixRevisions”
Revisions”
scheme that Control Logix follows.
Logix5000
• •Logix 5000firmware
firmwareupgrades
upgrades

This chart was taken directly from the Rockwell ••Posted

Postedon
••Not
onAB
ABWeb
NotBackwards
WebSite
Site
BackwardsCompatible
Compatible
••Requires
RequiresMemory
Memory
website. They have an entire section devoted to this ••Only
OnlyMajor
MajorRevisions
Revisionsshown
shown

topic. Control Logix is not built on a normal back plane

like most controllers. It instead uses Control Net as the
back plane between the processor and the slots. This
architecture requires that the firmware matches up 248Items
248 Items
42Categories
Categories
42
between everything. (See slide notes for details) 83Different
83 Differentupgrades!
upgrades!

Combine all this with the different architecture of

Control Logix and it is easy to see that going from SLC
to Omron, is easier than going SLC to Control Logix.
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Cost Of Ownership Presentation Ease of Use

Now keep in mind, everything we have showed so far

has been Omron’s take. If this doesn’t convince you of Testimonials
how easy our products are, look at what are customers •• Hunter
HunterDouglas
Douglas- -“The
“TheCS1 CS1andandCJ1 CJ1offer
offerthe
thelatest
latestininsimple
simpletotoimplement
implement
are saying: capabilities.We
capabilities.Wecan
upload
uploadthetheprogram
cantake
programfrom
takeadvantage
advantageofofthe
fromaa10+10+year
yearold
thelatest
latesttechnologies
oldcontroller
technologiesand
controllerandandbegin
andatatthe
begintotomodify
thesame
modifythat
sametime
that
time

program in one seamless operation. Some PLC manufacturers

program in one seamless operation. Some PLC manufacturers have a bewildering have a bewildering
(Read through testimonials) array
arrayofofsoftware
•• APT
softwareforfortheir
theircontrollers”
controllers”
APT––“We “Wereally
reallyenjoyed
enjoyedall allthe
thehothotkeys
keysthat
thatcould
couldbe beassigned
assignedand andthe
theease
easeofof
programming
programmingwith withOMRON.
OMRON.The Theone onething
thingI Ireally
reallyliked
likedisishow
howeasy
easyititisistotocreate
create
all the symbol names in Excel and paste those into the PLC
all the symbol names in Excel and paste those into the PLC project. Anotherproject. Another
feature I really liked is the ability to comment each rung and then
feature I really liked is the ability to comment each rung and then jump to a jump to a
specific
specificcomment
commentininthat thatprogram.
program. ItItmakes
makestroubleshooting
troubleshootingaalot lotquicker
quickerbecause
because
aaperson
personcancanlook
lookatatthethespecific
specificrun
runwithout
withouthaving
havingtotoremember
rememberaavariable
variablename.”
name.”
•• Honda
Honda––“Many “Manyofofthethenewnewhires
hiresexpressed
expressedconcerns
concernsregarding
regardingaalack
lackofof
experience when first introduced to Omron. The equipment
experience when first introduced to Omron. The equipment group members now group members now
have
havean anaverage
averageofofonly
only99months
monthsexperience
experiencewithwithOmron
Omronand andhave
haveremarked
remarkedatat
how
howyour
yourproducts
productsprovide
providesuperior
superiorperformance
performanceand andoperational
operationalease
easewhen
when
compared to those they have used in
compared to those they have used in the past” the past”

In closing, Omron’s platform consistency and software

are what make our products easy to use. Omron strives
very hard to provide customers with the most advanced Ease of Use Overview
technology in a simple and easy to use manner.
When using Omron, you will see reduced learning Because of Platform Consistency and
Omron’s: Software
curves, which translate directly into reduced cost of • Reduced Training

ownership for training, development, launch schedules We provide: Advanced Technology

• Reduced Development
• Reduced Maintenance
and many other areas. that is easy to use
• Shortened Down Time
• Increased Productivity
With Omron, you are not penalized for moving forward Giving our Reduced Learning Curve
customers:
in technology, you are allowed to build on what you
already know.

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