A software defined distributed control system (SDCS) in a process plant includes an application layer that includes a plurality of containers instantiated in a data cluster. Each of the containers is an isolated execution environment executing within the local operating system of a respective computing node. The containers cooperate to facilitate execution of a control strategy in the SDCS, and includes a hyper converged infrastructure (HCI) operating across the data cluster, which HCI is configured to communicate with the application layer via an adapter service. The HCI includes software-defined (SD) compute resources, SD storage resources, SD networking resources, and an orchestrator service. The orchestrator service is programmed to configure a first container to include a service executing within the first container. It also assigns the first container to execute on an available hardware resource to control a plurality of field devices operating in the process plant.

A computer-implemented method for orchestrating the deterministic execution of a given workload on at least one computing platform, comprising determining a consumption of at least one computing resource and a consumption of at least one communications resource that result from executing a given workload or a part thereof; determining, from these consumptions and a given set of requirements that relate to the timing, synchronicity and/or availability of executing the given workload or part thereof, at least one performance requirement with respect to execution of the workload or part thereof; and negotiating, with a management entity of the computing platform, execution of the workload or part thereof on the computing platform according to the at least one performance requirement.

The invention relates to a method for the distributed calculation of calculation tasks by means of field devices of an industrial plant, wherein a plurality of field devices are coupled to a task distribution unit by means of a data link, the field devices effect a control of the industrial plant in an operating state in each case, at least one of the field devices receives a calculation task from the task distribution unit in an idle state and changes to a calculation state in which the calculation task is processed.

A software defined distributed control system (SDCS) in a process plant includes an application layer that includes a plurality of containers instantiated in a data cluster. Each of the containers is an isolated execution environment executing within the local operating system of a respective computing node. The containers cooperate to facilitate execution of a control strategy in the SDCS, and includes a hyper converged infrastructure (HCI) operating across the data cluster, which HCI is configured to communicate with the application layer via an adapter service. The HCI includes software-defined (SD) compute resources, SD storage resources, SD networking resources, and an orchestrator service. The orchestrator service is programmed to configure a first container to include a service executing within the first container. It also assigns the first container to execute on an available hardware resource to control a plurality of field devices operating in the process plant.

According to one embodiment, a method of managing a manufacturing line is provided. The method of managing a manufacturing line includes determining a variation characteristic of a load factor of the manufacturing line that includes multiple resources. The method of managing a manufacturing line includes determining a variation characteristic of a load factor of each of the multiple resources. The method of managing a manufacturing line includes identifying the resource that is to be improved out of the multiple resources in response to the variation characteristic of the load factor of the manufacturing line and the variation characteristic of the load factor of each of the resources.