Effect of Multivendor Strategy on Supply Chain Engineering in Process Industries: A Review

Abstract

The transition from proprietary Distributed Control Systems (DCS) to open, software-defined automation architectures is reshaping not only how process industries manage control systems but also how they design, govern, and optimise their industrial supply chains. For decades, proprietary automation platforms have locked process operators into single-vendor ecosystems that extend far beyond the control room into spare parts procurement, maintenance contracting, engineering services, and capital planning. The Open Process Automation Standard (O-PAS), IEC 61499, and OPC UA together define the technical foundation for a multi-vendor, interoperable automation architecture that fundamentally restructures these supply chain dependencies. This review paper examines the supply chain implications of open automation adoption in chemical, oil and gas, water treatment, and manufacturing industries. It analyses the effects on procurement strategy, spare parts management, supplier diversification, contract governance, and total lifecycle cost. An original Open Supply Chain Alignment (OSCA) framework is proposed, providing a structured five-stage model for aligning supply chain practices with open automation adoption maturity. Drawing on practitioner experience in industrial automation offer management and supply chain operations, the paper concludes that open automation creates both significant supply chain opportunities, including documented lifecycle cost savings of approximately 52% over 25 years and new supply chain governance challenges that organisations must actively manage to realise those benefits.