FEATURED ARTICLE

Make2Pack and PackML Making Inroads at P&G

The goal of tightly integrating processing and packaging, as well as devising an industry standard method of machine control, is still gaining momentum.

In 2005, Automation World's sister publication, Packaging World, sat down with corporate engineers from Procter & Gamble Co., the Cincinnati-based consumer products giant, to discuss the state of the Make2Pack (ISA SP88 part 5 committee) and PackML (ISA TR88.05) effort, two major standards activities in this area. A follow-up meeting was held recently at P&G corporate engineering headquarters to assess how much progress has been made—and how much work remains. Automation World caught up with Bob MacDonald, associate director, Corporate Engineering, Power, Control & Information Systems, Modeling Simulation & Analysis; Rob Aleksa, Corporate Engineering machine control section head, and vice chairman of the OMAC Users Group (for Open Modular Architecture Control); Pat Dollard, Corporate Engineering process control section head; Mike Lamping, Corporate Engineering machine control technology leader and ISA TR88.05 leader; and Dave Chappell, a P&G retiree who is chief technology officer at Complete Manufacturing Automation Associates, and chair of the ISA88.5 committee... Read more

Denim Maker Beat the Blues

TA new control system enabled Denim North America to significantly reduce downtime, while boosting productivity by 21 percent.

Denim North America manufactures the denim used by high profile clothing manufacturers to make some of the most popular clothing in the world. Producing more than 75,000 yards of denim per day, Denim North America is one of the largest denim manufacturers in the United States. To help keep pace with a new global economy, Denim North America needs to maintain continuous production on its machines, while keeping costs down and retaining product quality... Read more

Using XML in Automation

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.

At its root, XML provides a method for a publisher of information to indicate what the information is in the message, such that a subscriber to the message can understand what the information is and act on it accordingly. This is a text-based language, thus human-readable standard tags... Read more

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