Paul was a conscientious employee. He would do a little extra and try to save the company money.

  Somewhere between enterprise resource planning (ERP) and supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) you will find the manufacturing execution systems (MES) layer.

  Miami is a great place to spend part of February. Especially when you’re looking over the famed Blue Monster golf course at Doral.

 When it comes to minimizing waste and rejections, keeping up with the latest technology advances can look like a costly proposition.

 Bruno Kisala, managing director of The Automation Federation, recently talked with Automation World Editor in Chief Gary Mintchell about the new directions and goals of the organization. 

 “Baby Boomers”—those born after the Second World War and into the boom years of the 1960s—are starting to reach retirement.

  The automation services market is the fastest growing segment of the automation business. ARC Advisory Group’s recently published study, “Automation Supplier Provided Services,” shows that the total services market served by the automation suppliers approached $14 billion in 2006, and will grow at an average annual rate of more than 12 percent through 2011.

 Just over a year ago, I considered ISA to be a “melting iceberg.” Since then, the organization has been making good progress, and plans are crystallizing for new growth and success.

 Organizations that excel in developing their people also tend to be high-performance businesses that dominate their markets.

  Just-in-time production scheduling will not work without adequate material on hand, while carrying excessive inventory strains cash flow and warehouse capacity.

  Expect slower growth, concerns over the future and a growing sense of uncertainty to characterize the rest of 2007.

 The critical component of this process is the access, aggregation and analysis of data emanating from the production process.

  Automation World has put a powerful Internet tool in the hands of our readers, with our newly designed Web site.

 Editor in Chief Gary Mintchell says: Process control design and programming software also is now constructed to capture current knowledge and embed it in object libraries and algorithms.

 “Computing technology has advanced to the point where we can deploy virtual equipment to simulate the production process and generate control code.”

 Think everything that can be automated has been automated? Think again

 This issue of Automation World is devoted to all aspects of project management—from budgeting (p. 13), project management skills (p.