Do you have protection?

Isn't it strange? Companies spend thousands, sometimes even millions of pounds, developing mission-critical computer systems and then they install them without any protection in some of the harshest industrial environments you can imagine. Protecting a PC isn't just about protecting hardware, it's about protecting processes - and businesses.

Of course, this is not true of all companies. But research carried out for Armagard, which sells its PC enclosures to over 1500 UK companies, indicates an alarming lack of contingency for computer downtime on the factory floor amongst UK industrial companies. The research polled 116 manufacturing companies to assess their contingency plans in the event of computer failure on the shop floor and the results showed clearly that 84% of companies were using standard office PCs on the factory floor.

There's no doubt that despite the availability of industrial PCs, many companies prefer the familiarity, low cost and high performance of office PCs. However the downside to using standard PCs in a shop floor environment often seems to be overlooked or ignored: if any computers crash, valuable data may be lost or worse still, busy production lines can be forced to stand idle.

Take this example: A PC-based system provides a quality control function at the end of a production line. EC regulations dictate that only products that have been manufactured within certain tolerances can be sold in the marketplace. But if that quality control PC fails, then manufacturing tolerances couldn't be measured so batches of finished products couldn't be released to the market. A simple failure like this would force the company to suspend production until the faulty PC was repaired or replaced.

Production downtime is far more likely when a PC is exposed to hazards such as dust, washdown, temperature extremes and tampering, amongst others. In fact, in many industrial environments, PCs are working way beyond the conditions necessary to maintain their warranties. The survey results showed that 40% of companies using PCs had taken no measures to protect them. Amongst the companies not protecting their computing equipment, a staggering 52% predicted that it would take longer than a day (ie more than 8 hours) to replace a PC.

Might this mean that companies are only using PCs for non-critical tasks? Unfortunately not: only three companies that didn't protect their computers said that computer downtime would have no impact on production. Responses from the rest showed an average cost per hour of £900 (1,440euro) in terms of lost production. With computer replacement taking, on average 19 hours, this gives an average cost of computer downtime of £17,100 (27,360euro) per incident. Some companies, however, would lose tens if not hundreds of thousands of pounds per hour in lost production.

Remember, most of the systems implemented in hazardous environments are there ultimately to increase company profitability. Suppliers to the industrial sector should take this into consideration when designing systems. If you are an OEM supplying a PC with your own equipment, or if you are a systems integrator providing an entire system, integrity of the system is absolutely essential to maintaining your relationship with the customer. It defines the supplier's attitude to the success of their customer's business.

I understand that firms may have limited funds and that suppliers are nervous about adding cost to their bids but the point remains: computer downtime on the shop floor can be a show-stopper. Who would want the job of explaining to the Chief Executive that despite two years of software development, and a million pound budget already invested, the whole system collapsed and production stopped because it didn't occur to anyone to keep the computers clean. That's why there are PC enclosures, including those from Armagard. They enable office-grade PCs to be used in industrial environments - even hazardous ones.

• Armagard
  f108@industrialnetworking.co.uk