BEST OF THE BLOG

WonderWorld Wrap

Anyone that missed the importance of the "ecosystem" to Wonderware's strategy had to have dozed off during CEO Sudipta Bhattacharya's Wednesday keynote at Wonderworld in Las Vegas.

Building on the keynote of Vice President of Global Product Management Rashesh Mody on Tuesday who laid out the product roadmap and the concept of the partner ecosystem, Bhattacharya addressed "Wonderware 2.0."

One of the problems that has made today's mortgage crisis so bad was that even though front-line workers knew what was happening, there was no mechanism for them to be heard--no transparency. In the "Road Ahead" for Wonderware, the mission is to empower the production worker by making manufacturing information transparent and giving them input mechanisms that can flag the attention of management... Read more

Everybody wants free money

The "Lean" gang over at Evolving Excellence blog ranted again about the "bailout"--or rather cheap loans--that the Big Three automakers demanded from Congress under threat of laying off workers. The author takes GM, Ford and Chrysler CEOs to task for lack of vision and a handout mentality. He derides them for saying that they were merely supplying what customers wanted and therefore were not prepared for the changing economy... Read more

Emerson exchange

Can't believe it's October already. No blogging because there just wasn't time. I'm packed and ready to leave Washington DC and the Emerson Global Users Exchange. Automation World won the contract for publishing the show daily newspaper (print and electronic). For various reasons relating to scheduling, I wound up being the project manager of that--in addition to interviewing customers and Emerson people on camera for eventual posting to the AW Web site. So I had three 19 hour days and crashed last night
around 9:30...

There were over 2,700 registered attendees at this conference (no official breakdown, but probably about half are customers) up 300 from the year before. Numbers don't tell the story. Energy tells... Read more

Rockwell speculation

Every time Rockwell sneezes industry pundits catch a cold. This week Rockwell Automation announced a 3% workforce reduction in selling, general and administrative positions. One well known name caught in the mess is Rick Dolezal who has been the marketing lead for the process business. I've seen three threads. The first ties this to Kevin Roach's departure. The second extrapolates that the company is exiting the process business. The third is that the company is preparing for sale by cutting expenses... Read more

Growth

I made a new friend last Friday evening. I arrived home from Washington DC about 6:30 pm and my wife had a small group from church over at 7. I was supposed to get a fire going in the patio fire ring for the obligatory roast hot dogs and marshmallows (it was chilly in Ohio). I teach the class, but aside from an intellectually challenged young man who hangs out with us, I'm the youngest. Except for 3-year-old Chase, who came with his grandparents. So the youngsters, Chase and me, hung out together. Ever watch a kid?... Read more

ANNOUNCEMENT

Attending Rockwell's Automation Fair?
Come a day early and visit the Safety Automation Forum on October 18.

Chevron, Goodyear, Procter & Gamble, Sherwin-Williams and other leading industry experts share their expertise at Safety Automation Forum on November 18, in Nashville. Click here to register or for more program information.