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It’s a half decade since Automation World was launched, and in that time, it has established its own special stamp of style and significance in a somewhat staid and stodgy business.
When I decided to launch a new magazine in 2003, it was during a downturn in the economy, and people suggested that I was crazy to try this.
Miami is a great place to spend part of February. Especially when
you’re looking over the famed Blue Monster golf course at Doral.
In the past, corporate environmental plansvwere mostly cost burdens relating to regulatory compliance, with perhaps a touch of the public relations image of being socially responsible. In the past few years, this has changed dramatically—“green” is becoming a business profit opportunity.
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. It’s a new game out there. Don’t complain about it—join it and enjoy it. Next generation manufacturing will succeed or fail based on how the next generation work force is utilized. Successful companies must evolve their competence or become marginalized. Now that Ethernet has penetrated the device level in many applications, safe versions of industrial Ethernet are now either available or in the works Think everything that can be automated has been automated? Think again Automation, flexibility and optimization will define the factory of the future. So said presenters at the ARC Forum, held last month in Orlando, where “Next Generation Manufacturing” was the topic. “I suddenly realized that almost the entire ‘Who’s Who’ of automation was in that room today,” said an industry marketing vice president to Jane Gerold and me during the recent Manufacturing Strategies Forum put on by Andy Chatha and his ARC Advisory Group, held in Orlando Feb. “Knowledge is the only instrument of production that is not subject to diminishing returns.” — J.M. Clark. While our overall theme this month is asset management, there is a definite sub-theme running through the issue—people are assets. The United States, and indeed, much of the developed world, is in the midst of a curious labor quandary. Even as the business journals report massive layoffs in the manufacturing sector—affecting hundreds of thousands of employees—manufacturers themselves are complaining of difficulties in hiring skilled workers. Interest in Condition-Based Maintenance (CBM) has grown considerably in recent years. The demand for higher return on assets, the need to drive plants beyond normal production levels, the desire to lengthen plant lifecycles and the availability of new CBM technology have all contributed to this growth. The Hart communication protocol (for Highway Addressable Remote Transmitter) is a venerable protocol now more than 20 years old. I’ll admit it. I didn’t make it to this year’s ISA Expo. My excuse was a trip to Tokyo to be there as Yokogawa celebrated its 90th anniversary. When we started publishing Automation World in June 2003, I wrote my first editorial on being passionate about automation. In the ensuing 27 issues, we have highlighted the efforts of many manufacturing professionals who have found success in a number of ways. What is your plant information technology (IT) strategy?
indicates a sponsored article that was submitted directly to this Web site by the supplier, and was not handled by the AW editorial staff.
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