Career in Industrial Automation, PLC’s &

Industrial HMI’s

Develop your career keeping in mind future Technologies

Yes, it is no doubt! Data is Oil for future. Those who develop their skills and associate
themselves in professions like Artificial Intelligence, Big Data management, IoT and block chain
will remain ahead in the industry.

Being Electrical Engineer by profession, I would ask what about the basics and most
conventional engineering? Obviously, the Electrical!

And the immediate branches are Electronics & Industrial Automation.

Some people believe that these are ever green technologies. And one needs to develop very
strong core concept before topping this up with knowledge of newest technologies to develop
never depleting professional entity.

I am also very strong advocate of the belief above. And therefore, I would like to touch upon the
importance of studying & acquiring skills in Industrial Automation. A path way to go and learn
more of the newest data management technologies.

Why Industrial Automation remain Important?

We talk about data intelligently handling, managing, analyzing and cloud based wireless
transportation of data. However, and the first thing is to fetch the data from the source.
One of the important functions of Programmable Logic Controls (PLC)  is to collect data from
source via digital or analog hardwired lines. The PLC then executes different logics based on
the industry specific process. Also transfer the data to bigger intelligent data management
devices.

The function & scope of PLCs is not going to replace in near future. From Oil & Gas, Cement,
Food Processing, Textile, Water Technologies, Steel, Automotive, Chemical, Power plants, etc.,
all kind of industries heavily rely on different kinds & types of PLCs for their operation.

Getting to know more about learning in PLC & HMIs?

Once engineers start learning these PLCs, it will polish their analytical & imagination skills.
Programmer needs to understand the process and then based of programming language of his
choices. He needs to develop the logic.

The most common programming languages are ladder logic (LD), Function Block Diagram
(FBD), Sequential Function Charts (SFC), Structured Text (ST) etc.

Based on number of devices connected in the process, the suitable and compatible PLC
Hardware is selected. Every manufacturer offers special Central Processing Units (CPU) for
special applications.

In addition, there are different types of PLC designs e.g., standard PLCs, fail safe PLCs,
redundant PLCs etc. While doing communication with different devices, it helps engineer learn
different industry protocols and standards and their interfacing.

All logics and programs are incomplete without Controlling & viewing, and this requirement is
fulfilled through Human Machine Interface. There is usually separate software for HMI and it is
not mandatory that in one project both PLC & HMI (industrial PC) comes from same brand.

In IPCs, you will get opportunity to convey your process & operation in most convenient and eye
catching manner to the users. It is also the medium to take the user input into the automated
system.

Way Forward?

Ones you have accomplished good skills in PLC programming & HMI Software development,
next step is to go for big SCADA projects.

SCADA project involves much larger number of devices to read and communicate.

After designing some heavy SCADA projects, one is ready to continue in mastering skills
towards Data management and analytics which we foresee the most opportunistic area in
future. Also can continue with its role in SCADA which is itself big application use of PLCs &
HMI.

Who are Industry leaders in PLCs & HMI?

There is interesting story behind invention of PLC, I would cut it short:

It was Richard E. Morley who founded Bedford Associates and invented the first programmable
logic controller or PLC with the brand name of MODICON which was later acquired by
Schneider.

Presently Siemens, Schneider, Allan Bradley are world leading brands, followed up by a number
of companies who have their market share and presence in different parts of the world. Some
brands are known for high end specs and target for premium segment like Oil & Gas,
Pharmaceutical, Electronics manufacturing etc.

How can you quickly enhance your skills in Industrial Automation?

If you are doing degree program, then university may offer theoretical & practical courses.
Usually the universities have DEMO / Simulation hardware available in the Labs; student can
practice on the units.

In order to learn theory, one can access number of tutorial available online but you need
practical hands on experience to master the skills in programming.

How we intent to help our society?

Since, we are based in Karachi, Pakistan. On one hand country lacks optimum infrastructure in
its rural and urban areas, while on the other being global village, every new technological
invention is accessible to its industry.

The major industries in the country are textile, Pharmaceutical, Automotive, Chemical, Cement,
Steel etc. With the ever increasing population of 200 Million plus, we see positive growth in
industrial sector as more consumers to reach for power and other household needs.

With intent to return back to our society / young engineers, we have started our initiative by
taking some time out of our busy schedule and design a course which helps young engineers to
pursue their career in Industrial Automation.

As, we are not training institute but a multinational presence organization. Originated from
United States and re-expanded from Singapore in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Philippines &
Myanmar, we work in Power plant controls where we design system using different brand of
PLCs to control Gas & Diesel Generators.
We ensure that all machines run together and share the load. These Generators runs 24 hours
and dedicated operators view the monitoring of the system with Industrial Human Machine
interfaces.

In some cases, we also do power management optimization, means if the user has multiple
sources like solar , Utility Grid, Generation through Gas / Diesel Generators / turbines, our
system ensures that power is produced through most efficient, available and economical
means. This all is done via utilization of PLC as the brain and integrating different components
and devices from various manufactures for different application.

Thus, we intend to convey real project requirement and industry needs to the engineering
students and fresh graduates and early professionals, if you want to know about our company
and the course we offer, refer to our website.

Imran Zafar
Imran Zafar is professional Engineer, Registered with Pakistan
Engineering Council, he is graduate from NED University Karachi,
Pakistan in Electrical discipline. He is Director of Enercon Systems
Pakistan and Country Manager for Enercon Asia Pte Ltd,
Singapore in Pakistan.