If most companies offer competitive benefits packages and support for further job-related education, then finding, hiring and keeping top-notch talent means a company must differentiate itself as a place where professionals desire to be.

  Managing today’s manufacturing enterprise is impossible without collaboration.

  “The general rule-of-thumb I’m seeing is this: ‘Capital spending is bad,’ ” says Neil Cooper, general manager of manufacturing and business operations for controls vendor Invensys Process Systems (www.ips.invensys.com), Plano, Texas.

  Down in the lower levels of the seven-layer International Organization for Standardization’s (www.iso.ch) Open System Interconnection Reference Model, two bit-level buses compete to control devices such as actuators and sensors: the Actuator Sensor Interface (AS-I) and CompoNet.

  Some may think the idea of manufacturing information flowing “from sensor to boardroom” may just be an unachievable dream. After all, the reality of manufacturing information is that there are a multitude of different applications that each store information in different ways and communicate using differing protocols and methods.

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

  “OEE is one of the most recognized KPIs (key performance indicators), if not the most recognized,” observes Craig Resnick, a research director at ARC Advisory Group Inc., in Dedham, Mass.

  Whether training comes by downloadable Web-based study-at-your-own-pace videos, one-hour Web-based seminars called Webinars, single-day classroom sessions or week-long intensive classroom courses, trainers’ goals remain essentially the same: Be effective, impart what students need and get feedback to improve the training.

  Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft Corp.’s (www.microsoft.com) Office SharePoint (SP) Server 2007—sometimes called SharePoint Portal Server—offers manufacturing end-users a toolset they can grasp, and one that drives seamless, intuitive collaboration and the ability to leverage office business applications, says Chris Colyer, Microsoft’s worldwide solutions director for manufacturing operations.

  If you’re a project manager (PM), chances are you aren’t technically proficient in all of the project’s areas. Really, though, you don’t have to be.

  What is most important about key performance indicators (KPIs)?

  Calling OPC Unified Architecture (OPC-UA or UA) from Scottsdale, Ariz.-based OPC Foundation (www.opcfoundation.org) “very scalable,” Jeff Harding identifies two principal features that make it a communication mechanism across various protocols or standards: its ability to model complex things, and the basic set of services it provides.

 ILS Technology Inc. (www.ilstechnology.com), of Boca Raton, Fla., leverages 25 years of experience in device-and-automation-to-enterprise connectivity through its deviceWise platform.

 Jeff Lytle has some unique bragging rights. He entered manufacturing-excellence record books by recently receiving the first-ever Lean Gold Certification. 

  Regardless of whose control technology they have, end-users need help in correctly and securely gathering, storing and retrieving data.

  You would presume companies realize that customers are treasured assets. You’d expect companies to know that first-rate customer relationship management (CRM) promotes success. You’d think companies would view CRM as a business strategy, not just a technology fix. You would suppose that companies strive, up and down the supply chain, to balance operational flexibility and customer relationships. But you might be wrong.

  If you are captive of drop-everything, produce-information-now fire drills that create hectic sorting of e-mails or other files, deliverance comes through Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft Corp.’s (MS, www.microsoft.com) Office SharePoint Server’s collaborative technology.

  Amy Walker has for years advised clients in eastern North Carolina about using pre employment tests to assess potential staff.

  The importance of change management rises steadily with companies’ chief information officers and, generally, information-technology departments, observes Rick Porter, vice president of Revelation Software Concepts, Pty. Ltd. (RSC, www.xrsc.com), a provider of change management software based in Melbourne, Australia.

  Try talking seriously about network administration without mentioning security. You can’t, can you?