BEST OF THE BLOG

Another Emerson Acquisition

Checking messages on the way up here, I see that Emerson continues to expand its process portfolio through yet another acquisition. Executives told me to expect a number this year, and they weren't leading me on.

Emerson has acquired Roxar ASA. According to the release from Emerson, the deal creates the world's first integrated automation solutions company whose products span from subsea oil and gas reservoirs, to platform and floating production, to transmission, and ultimately through refining and production of goods. Roxar becomes part of Emerson Process Management, adding subsea reservoir management and production optimization for global upstream exploration and production (E&P) customers.

Headquartered in Stavanger, Norway, Roxar has annual revenue of US$200 million. It has 28 offices in 19 countries with a network of wholly owned offices in Europe, the Americas, Africa, CIS, Asia Pacific and the Middle East. Roxar's International customer base includes all of the multinationals, major independents and the majority of national oil companies.

"This acquisition is strategic to extending our solutions to help E&P owners meet the automation challenges of offshore subsea," commented Steve Sonnenberg, president of Emerson Process Management. "Roxar's knowledge, technology and services combine perfectly to expand Emerson's solutions."... Read more

Innovate in manufacturing

On the drive to Detroit today, I listened to the news on NPR for a little while. One of the anchors is in Detroit, and he interviewed some doofus about the economic situation in the state of Michigan given the doldrums of the automotive industry. He opined that Michigan needed to get over manufacturing and attract finance and insurance companies. What???... Read more

Wireless update

News on the wireless sensor network front has been a little sparse lately after the flurry of news from 2007 and 2008 and the heated competition at that time. Emerson Process Management has been parsing out news of user implementations over the past 6-8 months. News was released that the sub-committee developing proposed standard ISA100-11a has approved the draft, but news about just what was in the approved draft has been vague... Read more

Center for Intelligent Maintenance Systems

I mentioned earlier about my trip to Detroit last week for the 17th Industry Advisory Board meeting of the Center for Intelligent Maintenance Systems. The Center is a joint university/industry/government (National Science Foundation) project where graduate level engineering researchers probe manufacturing and equipment problems for client manufacturing companies... Read more

Death of RSS premature

Steve Gillmor is a technology journalist I've read (and admired) for more than 20 years. But, he's a Twitter fanatic. He recently said that RSS is dead. How did I discover his thoughts? From his blog that I receive via RSS. The developer of RSS, Dave Winer, responds.

I've noticed increasingly that people are using Twitter like the old link blogs--that is, blogs where the content is a bunch of links to interesting sites... Read more

Podcast

Podcast: Automation Minutes - 05.07.09

In this Automation Minutes podcast, Editor in Chief, Gary Mintchell interviews John Dyck in this podcast episode. John is Chairman of MESA International, the association for Manufacturing Enterprise Solutions. He discusses the new directions for MESA, the reasons that this software area is important to manufacturers and the new and exciting format for the association's gathering in the spring of 2010. Also visit our Podcast library or click on the Podcast tab on our homepage to find the most recent podcasts. Stay connected with signature Automation Content via AutomationWorld.com to learn more.