A large segment of worldwide manufacturing jobs are being replaced with automation. What’s left of conventional manufacturing labor is migrating away from the United States. We need new workplace paradigms.

 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.

  Over the last several years, growing cyber threats coupled with the ongoing discovery of new vulnerabilities has demanded a lot of attention within the manufacturing community.

 This column has previously discussed the underlying causes of the credit squeeze, as well as automation industry performance; equally relevant, however, is the impact on individual small business owners and the precautions they should be taking to help their companies successfully weather the storm. 

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

  Many people think that the automation industry is quickly developing a “skills shortage,” which will occur after the current generation of engineers retires.

 Successful automation companies would be expected to be on the hunt for strategic acquisitions that fit with their core competencies.

 Network security expert Eric Byres pulls no punches when speaking about information technology (IT) security. Hacking on control systems is serious, “a problem that costs companies millions of dollars,” says the chief technical officer of Byres Security Inc. (www.byressecurity.com), located in Lantzville, on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. “That’s usually kept very quiet. So no one believes it can happen until it does happen.”

 When we started Automation World, my mantra was that we covered intelligent use of automation. Our marketing people devised the tag line “intelligence for the business of automation.” When I was meditating on the technology trends in automation along with this month’s theme, it struck me as interesting that intelligence was the recurring theme.

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

  Not all application software comes on a CD-ROM, or Compact Disk read-only memory.

  Companies may gain significant tax benefits through a deduction aimed at U.S. manufacturers enacted in the American Jobs Creation Act of 2004.

  Low power consumption is a critical product differentiator for all types of battery-powered wireless devices.

 Radio frequency identification (RFID)-based asset tracking in a manufacturing setting may encompass automated tracking of fixed or capital assets, engineered assets such as process instrumentation, information technology (IT) assets or reusable containers.

 Sometimes, progress in the automation market takes a while.

 While there are some exceptions, most industrial automation markets are typified by stagnating or declining revenue streams, full commoditization of prices and aggressive competition. With these and similar characteristics being commonplace, most corporate executives are finding it extremely difficult to maintain current revenue streams, increase market share and drive shareholder value year over year. 

 The stock market is soaring, the money supply is expanding, the key leading indicators are positive, more Americans are employed than ever before (currently over 146.9 million of us have jobs), and Disposable Personal Income is 3.4 percent higher than it was at this time last year.

  What is hype? I guess one definition would be when someone is promoting a product of one sort or another as real, when in fact, its reality is far down the road.

  One of the core philosophies that forms the editorial mission at Automation World is the concept of the automation team.

 It’s a new game out there. Don’t complain about it—join it and enjoy it.