“Today more than ever process industry plants need to be able to adapt quickly to stay relevant in a rapidly changing digital landscape with unpredictable market demands and increasing regulations,” says Stefan Basenach, senior vice president, Process Automation Technology, ABB. “Freelance 2024 is designed to help plant managers focus on strategic initiatives by simplifying operations and improving system flexibility. It meets current industrial demands and prepares plants for future technological advancements.”

Freelance 2024 facilitates enhanced connectivity, faster data transfer, more precise control and monitoring of data together with an improved network performance, leveraging the new PROFINET integration and support of Ethernet Advanced Physical Layer (APL).

With its scalability and integration capabilities, Freelance 2024 is designed to help plant operators reduce downtime while simplifying tasks. NAMUR Open Architecture support via OPC UA ensures secure and more standardized data exchange across various systems and devices, increasing interoperability and simplifying the integration of new technologies. Plant agility is further enhanced thanks to Freelance 2024 controllers, which support Module Type Packages (MTP) for “plug and play” Modular Automation.

As plant owners prepare for the next-generation workforce, Freelance 2024 helps bridge the skills gap with an intuitive, user-friendly interface that reduces training time and simplifies engineering, operations and maintenance.