It's almost impossible to overstate the impact of the internet on the way we manage and process information, and on how this affects our daily lives. It has taken over from the library as the first port of call for researchers; it has supplemented and sometimes superseded the letter and the telephone call. It is even becoming the main way we shop. But industry, particularly the process sector, has been slightly slower to appreciate its full potential. Remote monitoring and control is becoming increasingly common in the process sectors. So could it be the way forward for chemical, pharmaceutical and other process industries to keep tabs on their operations ― or even control them? The advantages are clear ― with conventional systems, plant operators and engineers can only see the output of their instruments and alter process conditions while they are in the plant control room, or out on the site. A remote function would allow them to connect via a web browser to see the status of the plant. In this way senior process engineers could troubleshoot and diagnose faults from miles away.
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