Security meets industrial automation: Use cases and challenges

Unifying security and automation systems can bring various benefits to manufacturing facilities. In fact, an increasing number of plants and factories are already integrating both systems to achieve further security and operational efficiency. However, for such integration to be more widespread, several challenges have yet to be overcome.
 

Benefits of integrating security and industrial automation

 
Plants and factories rely on security and industrial automation systems to improve safety, operational efficiency and productivity. Historically, the two systems work in silos, resulting in disadvantages and inconveniences for manufacturers. Bringing the two together, on the other hand, creates benefits.
 
“When security and industrial automation systems share information, organizations can gain a more complete view of what is happening across their facilities. Operational alarms can be associated with video feeds, access control events or other security data, enabling operators to quickly verify the nature of an incident and determine the appropriate response,” said Andreas Beerbaum, VP of Global Physical Security Sales and Service at Octave.
 

Increasing use cases

 
In fact, security and industrial automation integration has already found its way into manufacturing/industrial facilities across different sectors.
 
“This type of integration is particularly relevant in industrial environments, logistics, critical infrastructure and large facilities. One example is linking technical alarms with video, so that an event automatically gives operators access to the relevant cameras and recordings. In logistics, Warehouse Management System (WMS) data can also be correlated with video and goods traceability information, allowing an investigation to start from a specific transaction or operational event,” said Tamer Mohannad, Regional Sales Manager for ME&A at SCATI.
 
Beerbaum cites other use cases, which are summarized as follows.
 
Production quality assurance and process analytics: Manufacturers are increasingly using industrial analytics integrated with video systems to identify defective parts, verify process compliance and document production processes, particularly in regulated industries such as pharmaceuticals and chemicals.
 
Electronics and high-tech manufacturing: Process abnormalities automatically trigger video recording and visual verification, helping engineers analyze events without immediately dispatching personnel.
 
Industrial processing facilities: Temperature, thermal or equipment-health alerts are linked with security and monitoring systems so operators can assess conditions remotely before taking corrective action.
 
Automated warehouses and distribution centers: Operational events from automated machinery are correlated with video and access data to improve incident investigation and reduce downtime.
 
Manufacturing production lines: Equipment faults or unexpected stoppages can automatically surface associated camera views, allowing maintenance teams to understand what occurred and prioritize corrective actions.
 
OpenEye and ONVIF, meanwhile, mention specific examples of integrating security and industrial automation in manufacturing settings.
 
“Eagle Group, one of the largest broadline manufacturers of stainless-steel equipment, was able to successfully integrate their barcode data with OpenEye’s cloud video security platform. This improved visibility into packaging and shipping processes and strengthened their asset protection efforts,” said Daniel Barker, Technical Sales Engineer at OpenEye.
 
“I can provide two examples I supported personally. In a food production line, small elements were losing their correct position by a few millimeters. The only solution was to stop the line for minutes while a person re-aligned the equipment, and the restart generated waste pieces. They installed sensors and cameras with analytics that identify the problem in an intelligent way and automatically forward the defective element to an offline area, where it is handled manually without interrupting the line,” said Roberto Licari, ONVIF Ambassador.
 
“In the second case,” Licari adds, “cameras of different quality and resolution were installed along a 100-meter pipe welding station to monitor movement, welding quality, material defects, human presence and performance, and any critical situation in advance, all reporting to the industrial equipment in charge of moving the pipe and synchronizing the opposite movement of the vessel. A defect not identified would have ended as a pipe in the ocean, with incredibly high cost and effort to repair.”
 

Challenges and solutions

 
Despite the benefits of integrating security and industrial automation in manufacturing facilities, there are still certain challenges that slow adoption.
 
One of them has to do with technological heterogeneity. “A single plant may contain equipment from different manufacturers, generations and protocols, including legacy systems originally designed to operate independently. Open architectures and interoperability are therefore essential,” Mohannad said.
 
He adds that integration should not mean connecting everything indiscriminately. “Organizations need to define what information is exchanged, why it is needed, who can access it and which actions are permitted. This becomes particularly important as security, IT and OT converge: increased connectivity should not compromise process availability or unnecessarily increase the attack surface,” Mohannad said.
 
Another challenge, according to Beerbaum, is organizational rather than technical. “Manufacturing operations teams and security teams often have different objectives, terminology and processes. An event that is critical to one group may have a different meaning or priority to another,” Beerbaum said.
 
Licari concurs. “The budget is treated differently: I can produce my goods without security devices; I cannot produce without industrial equipment. Also, the organization is different. Normally the security manager is not involved at all in the production plant, despite being the first responsible in case of building evacuation. The maintenance cycle is different, because it follows how the equipment is used. And the IT approach is different: cloud and on-prem are two different worlds, networking rules are different, even electrical maintenance is different,” he said
 
Successfully integrating systems therefore requires alignment not only at the technology level but also at the process level, Beerbaum said. “The most successful projects typically involve close collaboration among stakeholders, clearly defined use cases and strong project governance. Industry expertise and open integration standards can also help organizations connect systems more efficiently and ensure that information is presented in a way that is meaningful to all users,” he said.