Engineering itself which can be defined as measures and techniques for control system construction with regard to the life cycle has not been long noticed. However, with the progress of control systems toward advanced functions and sophistication, the contents of engineering work rapidly become larger and more complicated, and the engineering support environment becomes more important. This paper describes the present status of the engineering support environment, its problems, and future prospects for integrated engineering support systems.

With regard to improving the efficiency of engineering work, many trials have been undergone with some good results. However, the recent change in the economic environment demands further improvement. Improvement not only in efficiency but also in quality is demanded, for which the innovation of the engineering environment as well as the reconsideration of the work must be realized. This paper introduces the concept of the integrated engineering support system developed by Fuji Electric to achieve the above.

Engineering work for plants widely ranges from estimates to handing over to the customer, and engineering information in each work is closely related with each other. This paper introduces the support system which, with regard to making estimates before receiving an order for a plant, defining equipment specifications after receiving the order, and taking steps to manufacture the equipment, aims to rationalize engineering work by the unified management and effective utilization of engineering information produced in each work with a database server.

The sophistication and advanced functions of control systems have rapidly made the contents of engineering for control system construction large and complicated. Improvement in engineering efficiency and ease is an important factor in the improvement of the quality and productivity of control system. The integrated engineering support system has been developed to solve these problems. This paper introduces the support package for controller software design and manufacture in a consistent, high-level developmental environment for defining specifications up to maintenance, and its control design support functions.

This system supports application software development for the HCI (human communication interface) controllers of plant control equipment and provides an integrated developmental environment for requirements specification up tp physical design. The function includes not only "required basic functions" to meet the necessity but also an expanded range of "functions of a certain service." It pursues a conversational style as well as attaches importance to efficient use of resources and time. In addition to data, it can output various documents suitable for uses.

The integrated engineering support system has been developed as a tool to efficiently perform engineering work which is becoming tremendous and complicated. Focusing on test and maintenance work, this paper introduces the test and maintenance function of the integrated engineering support system and the effects of improvement in the engineering environment.

From among engineering work for control system construction, the selection of hardware, physical components, and sequence design to determine connections are important work on which control system performance and quality depend.As software application to control systems is rapidly becoming popular, Fuji Electric, aiming to supply higher quality systems, has constructed the engineering environment which integrates system design, sequence control hardware design and software design. This paper introduces the sequence control hardware design support function.

With the remarkable increase of software in electrical plant engineering, the quantity of information produced in the engineering processes is enormous and it is a pressing problem how to construct a support environment for processing the information efficiently and rationally. This paper introduces examples of its solutions: the automatic allocation function of process I/O and network signals to the programmable controller (PLC) on the basis of the equipment list data and the edit and design support function aiming at the automatic creation of PLC software

Monitoring and control systems currently demand advanced functions, high quality, short lead time, and low price. Fuji Electric uses a new support system as a measure of system construction to meet these requirements. This paper describes the general form of supply work using this system and the advantages of the system application, citing the consistent recognition by the quality system ISO9001 and the utilization of engineering information, and then introduces concrete application examples.

Plant control systems in public utilities are becoming capable of wide-area operation on the basis of the EIC integrated system; the systems have advanced functions and are complicated. To do their engineering work efficiently and to high quality, it is necessary to process unified information with the same tool in all the work from the specification design to the system test. To realize this, the integrated engineering support system has been developed. This paper introduces samples of the support system application for control systems in the order of the engineering procedure.