5. Conclusion

Industrial process control is undergoing a period of rapid change, mainly due to the ongoing quest for cost reduction, secondly to the rapid evolution of the IT world, thirdly to operators' expectations in terms of control tools and control aids for these increasingly complex processes, and lastly to uncertainties linked both to customer demands and to operating hazards arising from the process in question. These changes result in more complex processes, requiring the processing of ever more information, with ever less notice and ever more uncertainty. In order to meet these challenges, communication and information technology components need to be efficiently combined to ensure that the system operates efficiently at all times, while always bearing in mind the importance of controlling safety and productivity at all times. At the heart of this workshop control issue, this dossier makes...