OPC-UA is the ability to help manufacturers become more competitive. “Companies need to streamline their operations and maximize their use of assets,” says Burke. “OPC provides the infrastructure to facilitate asset management applications to truly be able to access the information in real-time.”

ARC’s Resnick agrees that OPC will soon gain wide adoption because of its business value. “We’re probably early in the curve toward mature use of OPC. There is a definite case to use OPC in more and more portions of the plant,” says Resnick. “Looking down the road, OPC will be as ubiquitous as PLCs on the factory floor. It’s going in that direction and there’s no turning back.” Resnick notes that no change happens unless there is a business case for it. With OPC, the business case is inexpensive connectivity that cuts across vendors, cuts across legacy systems and cuts across the enterprise.

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