Gary Mintchell

Welcome to 2013—I hope. I’m writing this editorial days before the end of the world, according to an interpretation of an old Mayan calendar. Whether we are crumpled at the bottom of the “fiscal cliff” is also unknown now. Such are monthly magazines.

Assuming we’re all still around to read this, I thought I’d take a shorter view about automation than the Mayans and a longer view than our political leaders seem to be able to muster. While there are still improvements in control platforms, programming, sensing and motion, the things I see coming in the fullness of time are those that are built upon the control platforms that help us manage plants and factories more effectively.

I described all of this to one of my sisters-in-law once. She had just started working as an admin in an engineering department. “Ah, ha,” she exclaimed. Now she understood the people she worked with a little better. The problem is that, like all stereotypes, the truth is much messier. Yes, engineers are more analytical than the median person. But that makes engineers excellent problem solvers. And some engineers actually go into sales or senior management. I wish more went into senior management.