In perfect harmony

IT systems and control systems have been developing independently of each other with both close to reaching the panacea, but it is only recently that companies have started to look closer at integrating these systems. IT tend to do a better job rolling things out globally, dealing with much, much larger projects because they are often looking at the manufacturing assets as a network in progress. On the flipside, where manufacturing has had a great deal of success is in high availability. Lowering costs and getting greater leverage from an investment is what IT focuses on - it has not historically been the people in control. The focus in control is solving problems day to day - cost is not the big issue. Long-term support costs are not really the big question.