Products in the automation industry have traditionally been sold with “cost-based” pricing—selling price is based on manufactured cost, with target gross and net profit margin multipliers.

 Machine safety in the traditional sense refers to add-on electrical and mechanical components that protect personnel from injury or death while working in or near industrial machinery.

 A metal plating company relies upon independent drivers to transport its finished goods to customers.

  A select group of industrial equipment companies are executing a formula for success that peers may want to take note of, if they plan to remain competitive in the emerging global market.

 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. 

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

 When I laid out the plan for this series of special reports on wireless technologies in manufacturing last summer, I anticipated that there would be many successful applications that we could share, along with tips for success from the pioneers.

  In order to improve your manufacturing performance, you should put in a manufacturing execution system (MES) system and integrate to your enterprise resource planning (ERP)—right?

  We have not changed our outlook—the economy should avoid slipping into a broad-based recession for most, if not all, of 2008.

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

  In order to reach their maximum potential, manufacturing companies must be efficient at coordinating and controlling personnel, materials and equipment across different operations and control systems.

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

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

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

 New and less-expensive technologies for electric-power measurement using wireless mesh networks should be on the market in the near future.

  Research shows that globally integrated operating models are the key to value creation and high performance in the industrial equipment industry.

 For current market circumstances, swapping short-term interest rates for lower long-term rates on a short-term line of credit can provide significant, immediate savings.

  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.

  This month, we are covering two issues very important for the profitability of manufacturing companies—and that have potentially far-reaching consequences.

 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.”