The proliferation of digital networks in manufacturing has resulted in a job description change for most, if not all, automation engineers.

 End-users are often looking for the latest and greatest technologies that are so easy to install that anyone, or most anyone, can do it. But engineering easier factory-floor life requires vendors to listen to users.

  The Web standard for communicating information, the eXtensible Markup Language or XML, is more than eleven years old. Its use in automation is still in infancy, however.

  Expand a single-node system by a couple or more nodes, or change topologies, or connect computers to another server—and “things get complicated,” states Rashesh Mody, vice president of human-machine-interface (HMI) and supervisory-control-and-data-acquisition (SCADA) services for manufacturing software vendor Wonderware (www.wonderware.com), Lake Forest, Calif.

  Born on May 25, 2007, the Center for Operator Performance (COP, www.operatorperformance.org), in Dayton, Ohio, provides a unique setting for operating companies and vendors to hold open discussions and focus on mutually beneficial research, states Duane Toavs, director of the Ease of Use Center of Excellence at process controls vendor Emerson Process Management (www.emersonprocess.com), in Austin, Texas.

  Is it easier today to install vision appliances and systems than just four to five years ago?  Ben Dawson thinks so. Reasons include “advancements in underlying technology and the focus we’ve had on ease-of-use. Also, expert systems, ‘vision-engineer-in-a-box’ and proper human-machine interface,” states Dawson, director of strategic development for Billerica, Mass.-based vision systems vendor ipd (www.goipd.com), a group within Waterloo, Ontario-based Dalsa Digital Imaging (www.dalsa.com).

  If you’re seeking best-practices standards for designing graphical operator-interface displays, you won’t find them. Edward Tufte’s book “Envisioning Information” has useful information, though, notes Kevin Harris, director of the Honeywell Inc. (www.honeywell.com)-led Abnormal Situation Management Consortium (www.asmconsortium.org), in Phoenix.

 On the factory floor, operator interface displays, human-machine interfaces (HMIs) and industrial computers (ICs) are the windows into operations.

 Alan Carty has an insider’s vantage of how automation and Information Technology (IT) are rapidly converging. As the founder, president, and chief executive officer of Automationtechies.com (www.automationtechies.com), based in Eden Prairie, Minn., Carty receives hundreds of resumes weekly from hopeful automation professionals looking for work.

 In modern manufacturing plants, databases of information compiled directly from manufacturing processes have become so large and crucial to business decision making that control engineers need to avail themselves of the latest technologies and best practices from information technology.

 There was poor Cinderella, relegated to the back room while the step-sisters received all the attention and accolades. In this case, the Cinderella of automation—operator interface terminals—became frumpy maids, while the beautiful step-sisters—those high end, glitzy, powerful human-machine interface (HMI) software applications—grabbed all the attention.

 They increase productivity. They supply information inside and outside of the enterprise—and across firewalls. They do so with ease, reliability and security.

 The quest for more powerful and versatile technologies inspires innovations in data acquisition (DAQ) that condense space, accelerate connectivity and widen functionality.