Rockwell Automation brought its annual Automation Fair trade show and training conference to Orlando, Fla., Oct. 27-28. More than 10,000 manufacturing professionals had pre-registered for the event. The key word for the week was integration. Milwaukee-based Rockwell has been working on an integrated architecture built on standards for years. This year, it revealed another step in the journey. Integrating safety control systems with process control systems at some levels was a trend identified by the safety team. Integrating manufacturing information with plant and enterprise systems was demonstrated at several booths. Integrated, bundled solutions targeted at automotive, life science, brewing and beverage, and food industries were prominently displayed.
The luncheon keynote on Oct. 26 Media Day was given by Leo Reddy, founder and president of the National Coalition for Advanced Manufacturing (NACFAM). Reddy displayed statistics from surveys indicating that many manufacturing jobs lay vacant for want of qualified personnel. He promotes certification for manufacturing technicians from the Manufacturing Skill Standards Council (MSSC) as one solution for this problem.
Dennis Puffer, chief brewery operations officer, and Flo Mostaccero, senior vice president technical services and business process development, of Coors Brewery, Golden, Colo., highlighted the Media Day afternoon session. The presentation detailed steps along the company’s journey toward achieving world-class brewery status. Although automation plays a significant part in the journey, emphasis was placed on working with people and the need for thoughtful change management—that is, getting people from the plant floor all the way to top management to think about business and plant operations in a new way.
Rockwell announcements
Rockwell announced a new series of software and service offerings collectively called Performance Solutions for Manufacturing. The modular solutions provide manufacturers with software, engineering services and industry-specific technical expertise to solve specific performance challenges and facilitate profitable decision-making by transforming production data into actionable information. The four focus areas within the series are machine performance, line performance, plant performance and supply chain performance.
Integrated products and services in an area on the show floor denoted as “discrete to process solutions” included the 1803-LAB, which integrates control systems and industrial heating, venting and air conditioning (HVAC) systems to monitor and respond to changes in a room’s air pressure.
In addition, a soon-to-be-released version of Rockwell Software RSLogix 5000 programming software for Logix controllers will feature PhaseManager—available in mid-2005—an application based on the ANSI/ISA standard S88 for defining batch states that provides a language and framework for close integration between Rockwell’s ControlLogix controllers and RSBizWare Batch software for process applications.
Enhanced security and audit capabilities in the latest version of RSBizWare Batch help users address regulatory compliance requirements for batch processes, specifically those necessary for 21 CFR Part 11. New features include configurable electronic signatures, signature templates, command verification, instruction archiving, step reactivation and event record timestamps.
Rockwell also announced it is working together with Intel Corp., Santa Clara, Calif., to expand the use of Intel’s new high performance network processor technology in industrial automation applications. The company states that it is the first industrial automation supplier to use Intel’s new line of IXP465 network processors, designed specifically for the rigorous performance demands of manufacturing environments.
