Real time systems are at the heart of industrial automation applications and thus, a time response mechanism is required to be able to implement such systems. This paper presents a survey of implementing real time systems for industrial automation applications. Recently, PLCs have dominated industrial automation implementations but however, they do present some challenges especially in meeting real time constraints due to its centralized control and cyclically scanned program execution mechanisms. This paper proposes an alternative implementation approach using FreeRTOS platform that can act as a benchmark for time bound services.