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Connections for Growth & Success
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Analysis, Reviews & Views By Jim Pinto -
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Pinto Prognostications 2011
After the global downturn, most automation companies are growing again, primarily through international markets where new factories and plants are being built. In US and European markets, the installed base of automation systems reaching the end of their useful lives represents a big opportunity. Automation suppliers have expanded their offerings for upgrades, in some cases plug-in replacements for competitors systems.
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US Manufacturing Uptick
The Wall Street Journal reports that US manufacturing added 1.2% or 136,000 jobs in 2010, the first time more workers were hired than fired in over a decade. Projections for 2011 are gains of about 2.5%, or 330,000 manufacturing jobs, total about 12 million. One economist is even calling manufacturing "the shining star of this recovery". And manufacturing jobs are expected to grow about 2% a year, through 2015.
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Chindia Manufacturing
Before you get too happy about the resurgence in US manufacturing, be aware that China and India too are bracing for increased competition. According to many different surveys and indexes, India and China are becoming global leaders in manufacturing competitiveness in the short term.
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Game-changing Demographic Shifts
President Obama was right when he proposed that America should focus on technology and innovation to push the country forward in the new century. Demographic trends and projections indicate that while America will continue to slip in the near-term, it'll hold its own in the long term.
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Stuxnet Cyberwarfare
The computer worm Stuxnet was detected in mid-2010, mainly in Iran. It was precisely calibrated to disrupt nuclear centrifuges, clearly aimed at Iran’s nuclear program. This wiped out about 20% of Iran's nuclear centrifuges and delayed (though it didn't destroy) Iran's ability to make their first nuclear arms. Iran admitted that it had run into "technological difficulties" that could delay a bomb till 2015.
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Buying Big-screen HD 3D & Google TV
For some 25 years, I've had a GE 35" big-screen tube TV, with lots of ahead-of-its time high-tech features which served me well. I've been waiting for it to fail, but it didn't. Nobody wants it, and I couldn't bear to simply dump it; and so I finally moved it up to a guest bedroom to get ready for my big-screen HD TV in time for super-bowl Sunday, just a week away.
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Featured Articles, Analysis, Reviews, Interviews & Views
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Automation, Embeded, CNC , Industrial, OPC, Industrial IT...
Articles >>
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Top 5 Reasons Why ERP Implementations Fail
Jason Rourke
reveals when listening to fears and concerns about ERP solutions, implementation is usually on the top of most lists. Yes, it can be daunting, but it is the cornerstone of the overall project. So why do implementations fail? Below is our countdown of the most common ERP implementation errors and how to avoid them.
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5 Cost Estimating Myths Busted
Jay Snow
reveals that "Cost Estimating" manufactured parts for an RFQ is one day-to-day problem that confronts manufacturing shops around the globe, many of which feel like they just have to live with it.
IT DOESN'T HAVE TO BE THAT WAY! ......
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Smart On-Demand Integration
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Faheem Ismat
reveals on-demand integration means automating business processes by linking enterprise programs, which have operated independently in the past, to provide comprehensive services to the business by increasing productivity and at the same time decreasing operational cost.
Despite the trend toward acquiring application portfolios from a single supplier or from a limited number of suppliers, few organizations are able to have all of their application portfolio requirements using a single source. Heterogeneous IT portfolios are norm and will stay like that.
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What is OPC in 2010? It is all about the Tag
Nathan Pocock
talks that OPC is still the connectivity standard for Process Control, for ADI, a part of FDI and FDT and STILL the connectivity standard for manufacturing, and PLCs. OPC is a Unified Architecture, and OPC is an Express Interface.
OPC is three letters that are a lot of things to a lot of different people, but what it really boils down to is moving data and the Tag. Yes the Tag. Everything in OPC revolves around the Tag.
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Catching the Process Fieldbus : An Interview with James Powell
James Powell
talks about how the world of industrial commutations appears as a
multilayered, multidimensional, occasionally confusing mixture of fieldbuses, software packages, and media.
He shows in his book "Catching the Process Fieldbus" that when industrial communications is understood and then installed with forethought and care, network operations are both beneficial and painless.
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OPC UA: An End-User's Perspective
Randy Kondor
reveals OPC UA (Unified Architecture) represents the OPC Foundation’s most recent set of specifications for Process Control and Automation system interconnectivity. This paper explains OPC UA from the perspective of the organization that will benefit from the connectivity, in other words: the End User.
The first form of OPC relied on DCOM for its data transportation, which was very powerful and versatile, but
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Editor's
Ramblings
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The future of Automation lies in Twitter
I was recently involved in a conversation that became quite heated about “whom” the exact person is that will make the decisions about designing the plant systems of tomorrow? One of the individuals involved in the discussion stated that the future of automation systems will lie with the large automation players: the Siemens, Rockwell’s, and the Honeywell’s etc. His theory was that the major players will influence the trend of how systems will be architected through control of market share, and evangelism. While I agree with some of his comments, I disagree with his corporate way of ...
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The North American distribution and logistics industry is valued at more than $300 billion and will experience even more growth in 2012. The value chain for the production, distribution, and sale of food, beverage and other merchandise indicate that production and warehouse facilities still handle products in bulk on pallets; pallets are moved using forklifts and pallet jacks.
