By transferring its multi-faceted MAPS SCADA / HMI solution to a secure cloud-based app, Mitsubishi Electric is offering potentially the best of both worlds; an advanced solution that is flexible and easy to integrate but is also well supported, stable and secure in operation.
A good SCADA solution can do many things for a manufacturing or process business – from displaying straightforward plant status and production target visualisation to implementing full life-cycle planning and implementation for your factory automation upgrades. By moving MAPS to the cloud (this is just one option, local server / PLC and other hosting choices are still available) Mitsubishi Electric, one of the most trusted automation vendors in the market, is providing a step into genuine Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) territory. Enabling the potential benefits this brings for many more users.
Hosting MAPS SCADA in the cloud or privately and using the provided IIoT Agent allows MAPS to seamlessly talk to third-party IIoT cloud-hosted environments. Independent of the chosen environment – Amazon, Azure, Huawei, Sigfox or NBIoT – MAPS is an ideal IIoT application builder. Additionally, the built-in OPC UA, Sigfox wireless and MQTT protocol driver allows secure communications to other devices deployed anywhere on the cloud.
Robust reliability and availability can also be achieved through active clustered server technology options. The client-side UI provides the capability of configuring, displaying, manipulating and delivering the values in a rich and secure user-interface. The MAPS design environment offers an intuitive interface resulting in faster engineering which can lead to higher productivity and ultimately reduced costs.
The result is a SCADA platform product that can be used to create advanced, secure and integrated solutions that deliver value to a business. This can be as simple as being able to view the output from a single machine on your smart phone or coordinate the installation / upgrade of a complete production line.
Wider integration made more convenient
The scope and scalability of the current MAPS 4 platform means that project engineering and development costs for both large and small applications can be significantly reduced. The amount of physical programming required is kept low, even when the complexity of the application increases. This has benefits for the end user and system integrator as both can become more competitive as a result. The investment is also better secured because the solution remains very flexible for updates and new projects.
Built on a strong Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), the full MAPS 4 process suite delivers flexibility in handling, automating, controlling, verifying and auditing processes. It provides a full life-cycle planning, management and integration platform for applications from manufacturing to infrastructure. There is also a dedicated HMI version available for machine builders and customers that require a more light-weight SCADA solution for localised control and visualisation tasks.
The SCADA software suite has useful everyday features such as an MS Excel bulk-configuration tool. This tool for example enables Excel users to create a large part of a SCADA project, for instance tag databases, logging, and alarm definitions, in an intuitive and easy to use environment. The user also benefits from the many copy/paste and mass-configuration functionalities in Excel.
There are also extensive libraries for Mitsubishi Electric factory automation hardware and more than 100 other PLC and RTU drivers onboard to make routine configuration quicker and more efficient. Use of pre-configured Object Template models as well as easy creation of new, individual models also support a fast, optimised integration process. Project changes can be deployed centrally providing a single point of engineering that reduces costs and increases usability.
MAPS is the default choice for users of Mitsubishi Electric automation hardware and by offering a higher level of flexibility and security in a standard product, it won’t be a surprise if this attracts new converts to a complete Mitsubishi Electric solution.
