Be sparing with good ideas

"Be sparing with your good ideas," was the message of ABB Meters MD David Clarke addressing the launch of the IEE's Control and Automation Systems Technologies (CAST) Professional Network (PN) early in September.

It's advice that Thames Water's Laurie Reynolds will certainly keep in mind in future dealings with the IEE. When he asked them what they were doing about the promotion of industrial automation and control as a discipline in its own right, and about the professional development and competency of its practitioners, he found himself launching CAST, the IEE's second PN devoted to automation and control.

While the first, CAC (Concepts for Automation and Control), focuses primarily on control theory and technology, CAST aims to embrace a much wider universe than the traditional control community, extending to the control, automation and systems aspects of the entire supply chain. As such, its aim is to promote control and automation technology as a (if not the) key vehicle for business improvement and to raise its profile, not just among engineers but also among business and commercial management and the wider world including, not least, students still at school.

Happily Reynolds hasn't had to set up CAST single handed. As well as having the support of the IEE itself, keen to promote the Professional Network concept and, indeed, to use the control sector as a guinea pig on which to pilot a number of its more ambitious initiatives, he's been able to call on a number of like-minded friends and colleagues and, one suspects, to call in a few professional debts. Hence the presence on the executive committee of a range of leading figures from industry and academia including, as chairman, Professor George Turnbull (one time Eurotherm technical director and head of Open Automation & Control which rose, phoenix like, from the ashes of the ICS R&D department), Professor Peter Fleming of Sheffield University, Ray Nicholls of Corus and Andy Chatta, founder and CEO of ARC Advisory Group.

Given the number of bodies in the UK which already have some interest in control and automation, including the InstMC and the ISA, one might be tempted to ask why we need another. Part of the answer lies in the fragmentation which arises from engineers working in control and automation being drawn from a range of disciplines which can only broaden as organisations seek further to integrate their supply chains. CAST's future role must therefore be not so much to replace these other bodies as to provide a single point of contact between them and engineers in the field. Key to this will be how successful the CAST web site is in developing a genuine online community, most notably through its online discussion groups where engineers in the field can both appeal to their peers for assistance with technical problems and discuss with them issues of both technical and professional importance.

Already CAST has been involved in a number of key IEE sponsored initiatives which should raise its profile significantly both within and beyond the control community. One is the production in conjunction with Huntsman Tioxide of a CD-ROM based training course entitled "Introduction to Process Control", another the development of a competency assessment methodology for control and automation engineers based on a practical and effective competency model which can in time be readily transferred to other engineering disciplines. Developed to meet the perceived needs of companies, individuals and academics, the scheme offers a blueprint for what may well eventually become the compulsory assessment and certification of engineers operating in the automation field and, in particular, in safety critical applications.

There's more information on these and other aspects of CAST at http://pn.ie.org.

• Industrial Automation INSIDER
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Andrew Bond is the Editor of the monthly subscription newsletter Industrial Automation INSIDER. You can contact him by email at scada@abpubs.demon.co.uk. And if you mention INOC, Andrew will send you a complimentary copy of the latest issue of Industrial Automation INSIDER

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