As companies in the process industries pursue their digital transformation journeys, the collective role of process analyzers and field instruments such as pressure transmitters, flowmeters, and the common pH and conductivity analyzers can vary widely. Thousands of them could be deployed in a manufacturing facility. Although they have not moved physically, these instruments have found themselves in a situation now described as "the Edge." Where do they fit into the digital transformation strategy? While digital transformation plans often overlook measurement instruments or simply look at them as a number, certain types of instruments actually could be digital transformation enablers. The transformation program team might be quick to list an analog device such as a pressure transmitter that outputs a 4-20 mA signal as a "non-digital" entity that calls for replacement. However, in a facility in which thousands of them operate, that will not happen very quickly. Although the analog instruments support very little in terms of the needs of a digitally transformed enterprise, they can be enhanced with wireless communications and effective analytics at the Edge or in the Cloud. Those enable the facility to realize reasonable value from the limited information that can be derived from analog instrumentation.
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