ABB Introduces Automation Extended: Enabling Industrial Innovation with Continuity

ABB has introduced its Automation Extended program, a strategic evolution of its distributed control systems (DCS), designed to help industries modernize without disruption. Building on ABB’s long-standing leadership with the world’s largest DCS installed base and vision in process automation, Automation Extended outlines how future automation capabilities can be introduced progressively – preserving system integrity while enabling the flexibility, scalability and efficiency needed for the next era of industrial operations.

Industrial operations today face volatile markets, cyber security challenges, regulatory pressures and a rapidly changing workforce. ABB’s Automation Extended addresses these realities by enabling innovation with agility and pace without disruption to production, supporting advanced analytics and IoT integration, and simplifying operations for diverse skill levels. 

Automation Extended will positively impact the evolution of ABB technologies currently active in the metals industry including ABB Ability Manufacturing Operations Management for Metals, ABB Ability Data Analytics Platform for Metals, Advanced Process Control (APC), Advanced Performance Management and ABB Ability Connected Worker technologies. The technology leader's expert team for the industry aims to deliver further customer resilience and growth in safety, productivity and sustainability through its enhanced automation suite. It comes as industry figures from the World Steel Association (world steel) published in 2025 show that the steel industry invested more than 7 percent of its revenue into new products and processes, which included automation, advanced manufacturing and digital technologies.

Across industries, operators can continue to rely on trusted ABB systems such as ABB Ability System 800xA, ABB Ability Symphony Plus and ABB Freelance, while introducing new technologies progressively and without operational interruption. This approach provides a structured, low risk path to modernization, preserving continuity while enabling innovation.

“In industries we serve – many operating large and complex infrastructures that deliver essential resources – our customers rely on modernization without disruption,” said Peter Terwiesch, president, ABB’s Automation business area. “Automation Extended delivers exactly that: bringing future-ready capabilities into the systems they know and trust, with security and interoperability at the core.”

The Automation Extended program is implemented through a modern, open and modular environment designed for interoperability, scalability and seamless integration across industrial domains. Based on separation of concerns principles, the automation ecosystem includes two distinct yet securely interconnected environments:

The control environment, a software‑defined domain that ensures robust, reliable and deterministic control for critical processes.  
The digital environment, securely connected to the control layer, enabling advanced applications, edge intelligence and real‑time analytics. This space leverages artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning for decision support without disturbing proven control structures.

A single, unified and comprehensive automation service approach for ecosystem lifecycle management and optimization is applied for the management and maintenance of these diverse technological environments. 

By integrating new technologies such as an Open Platform Communications Unified Architecture (OPC UA) backbone and a Cloud-Native Architecture for managing both environments – leveraging containerization, orchestration and modular services – the ecosystem enables a broad spectrum of enhancements. These range from proactively detecting and correcting process anomalies to optimizing maintenance strategies through continuous condition monitoring of critical assets, and elevating engineering with efficient modular approaches ready for deployment across diverse hardware platforms. This architecture delivers scalability and agility while ensuring robust performance.

Access to Automation Extended will be enabled through the next releases of ABB Ability System 800xA, ABB Ability Symphony Plus and ABB Freelance process automation systems.