by Gary Mintchell | Mar 29, 2011 | Automation, Safety
I surely miss the heady days of the PC-based control marketing and technology wars. Smart, passionate people. Missing the marketing sweet spot and not recognizing the resiliance of the incumbants, but still great days.
Then there were the early days of the vision sensor wars. DVT v Cognex. Prices dropping. Ease-of-use constantly improving. Technology advances. Smart, passionate people. Ah, those days are gone as DVT sold out to Cognex and the market opened to a myriad of competition.
Now it’s safety. And principally Siemens and Rockwell, but ABB also gets a nod. A year ago, I wrote about ABB making an investment and Rockwell’s annointing as top overall safety supplier leader by analyst firm ARC Advisory Group.
Now, Siemens has reason to boast. ARC ranks Siemens at the top globally in machine safeguarding solutions.
“We are dedicated to remaining a market leader in the development of innovative products and solutions in the machine safeguarding category,” says Raj Batra, president, Industry Automation Division for Siemens Industry, Inc. “Our knowledge base of Totally Integrated Automation (TIA), coupled with a wide spectrum of products such as SIMATIC controllers, switches and relays, SINUMERIK motion controls and SIRIUS safety relays, provide Siemens with a solid foundation to continue servicing the needs of our current and future customers,” adds Batra.
The ARC study outlines the machine safeguarding sector, or solutions that evaluate equipment from a task-oriented perspective (operator interaction) and incorporates safety functions that effectively minimize the risk of operator injury. ARC has provided five year forecasts in order to show long-term trends in the machine safeguarding solutions marketplace, and regularly updates these forecasts based on changes in technology and global economic conditions.
I love competition.
by Gary Mintchell | Mar 29, 2011 | Automation, Security, Software
The Italian “security consultant” whom I referenced yesterday cited four SCADA systems with cyber vulnerabilities. I talked yesterday about an Eric Byres/Joel Langill white paper on how to deal with the threat to Iconics’ products.
Today, I received another note from Eric Byres (“We’re sorry to be filling your inbox” — that’s OK Eric when you have something to say). They have released a white paper discussing the threats on 7-Technologies IGSS SCADA/HMI system. Says Byres, “Even if your readers do not have this vendor’s products, it may be helpful for them to review the six Compensating Controls recommended, and apply ones that are relevant for their systems.”
by Gary Mintchell | Mar 28, 2011 | Automation, Events, Organizations, Security
Security, Ethernet interviews, Overnight Successes and help a cause.
Security Hole in Iconics’ Genesis 32 and Genesis 64?
Joel Langill reports on the Tofino blog that he and Eric Byres have tested security vulnerabilities pointed to by Italian researcher Luigi Auriemma in Iconics Genesis32 and Genesis 34 products. They have written a white paper you can download from the Tofino site.
http://www.tofinosecurity.com/blog/iconics-genesis-scada-security
http://www.tofinosecurity.com/downloads/440
Ethernet interviews
I received a couple of interesting end user interview videos on Ethernet from Rockwell. One is on security. Non-commercial. I liked them.
http://www.automationworld.com/video-8517
http://www.automationworld.com/video-8523
Overnight Success
Did you ever fall into the trap of thinking you’re not a success because all the rich people made it overnight? The president of the company where I landed my first (and last) pure marketing position kept telling me (after about 3 months on the job), “Jobs and Wozniak were millionaires overnight. Why aren’t we selling millions of these boards?”
Well, they weren’t millionaires overnight. Check out these stories of reality.
Help the cause
Want to help the industry, increase your visibility, learn something and work with great people? The leadership of WBF has issued a call for volunteers. Please help. And don’t forget the WBF annual meeting that will feature some great papers, May 23-25 in Newark, DE.
As many of you may be aware, WBF was set up in 1994 to support the then emerging ISA-88 standard from a user and supplier applications perspective – the do’s & don’ts and the people “in the know”. ISA88 is still ISA’s most successful ever standard and WBF has now become a key part of the establishment with annual conferences being held since that first one in 1994 and most of the industry’s leading figures involved in one way or another. WBF has impacted the industry in other important ways too. The idea for ISA95 was started at a WBF North American “Meeting of the Minds” conference and it has now also become one of ISA’s most important standards. The WBF was instrumental in publishing the B2MML and BatchML schemas and also started the work on Make2Pack – which has now become ISA-88 Part 5. Now WBF has started to become involved with the ISA106 standard for procedural automation in the continuous process industries. In addition WBF has recently published a book series based on groupings of papers over the years – initial sales are very encouraging.
WBF went through some VERY hard times during the economic downturn – to the point of almost going under (it was that close). The board had to take the tough decision to cancel our 2009 North American conference and regroup. Due to some changes in strategy over the past year or so, WBF is now back to a viable state. We will be running our 2011 conference at the end of May at the University of Delaware (see www.wbf.org) and we are hoping to get back to running our European conferences again. However, if we all see value in WBF, it needs support. Many of the people in senior roles have been involved since that first meeting and some of the committees have one or two members. We realize that everyone is busy but WBF needs more support in several areas and would welcome new membership at all levels, no matter what your skill level. We are sending this to the ISA88, 95, 101 & 106 committees as I believe that these are the ones most closely related to WBF’s goals.
If you want to help, send me a note and I’ll forward it to WBF.
by Gary Mintchell | Mar 25, 2011 | Operations Management
Update, just received the official statement from Invensys:
Appointment of Chief Executive
Invensys plc announces that Wayne Edmunds, who has been Chief Financial Officer of the Company since 2009, has been appointed Chief Executive with immediate effect. Ulf Henriksson has today stepped down as Chief Executive and as a director of the Company. David Thomas, who has held senior financial roles within the Group since 2002, has been appointed Acting Chief Financial Officer and a permanent appointment will be made in due course after consideration of internal and external candidates.
Sir Nigel Rudd, Chairman of Invensys plc, commented:
“I am delighted that Wayne has agreed to take on the role of Chief Executive to lead Invensys through the next stage of its development. We have three world class businesses and a management team to match, and I am confident that Invensys is well positioned to continue to deliver value to shareholders.
“I would like to thank Ulf for his hard work and achievements which have delivered a transformation of Invensys. We wish him well for the future.”
Trading update
At the time of the Interim Management Statement on 20 January 2011, we reported that our performance in the current year ending on 31 March 2011 was on track and that we continued to expect the Group to deliver improved performance. This remains the position today and we currently expect that the results for the year, which will be published on 19 May 2011, will be broadly in line with market expectations.
Heck with finishing the trade show news early this afternoon. I’ve been following news from London that Invensys PLC chief executive officer Ulf Hendrickson has been fired and replaced by Chief Financial Officer Wayne Edmunds.
I’m not into gossip and only speculate upon that which I have some background knowledge. I’ll readily admit that I have no clue what’s been going on with the company in London. But I do hope to catch up with Invensys Operations Management next week to see how it has been doing two years into Sudipta Bhattacharya’s term as CEO and how this change may or may not affect them.
I’ve copied a couple of paragraphs from various news sources in the UK:
Financial Times
Invensys has sacked its chief executive Ulf Henriksson whose approach to running the industrial group differed from that of chairman Sir Nigel Rudd.
The news unsettled investors, and came after Mr Henriksson had appeared to have made a good job of returning the previously crisis-ridden business to financial health.
The low-key Swede had been in charge since 2005. Sir Nigel and the board had decided he was the wrong person for the challenge of stewarding Invensys over the next few years.
Mr Henriksson’s replacement is Wayne Edmunds, chief financial officer.
And from Reuters
Shares in Invensys (ISYS.L) fall as much as 8 percent before recovering to trade down 3.75 percent after the British engineer ousts its chief executive Ulf Henriksson in a surprise move and installs finance director Wayne Edmunds in his place.
Henriksson suggested in November that China Southern Rail could buy a stake in the British company, forcing the group to issue a statement saying it was not in takeover talks.
Charles Stanley analyst Jeremy Batstone-Carr says that, aside from raising the possibility of a break-up, Henriksson did a reasonable job in restructuring the company.
And from the Guardian
Two of Britain’s biggest engineering groups were in the takeover spotlight after this week’s departures of their chief executives.
Analysts said the change at the top at car parts and aerospace group GKN, up 3.9p to 198p, could highlight its lowly rating compared to others in the sector, and attract possible predators. Meanwhile after the abrupt departure of Invensys boss Ulf Henriksson, analyst Harry Philips at Evolution Securities said his replacement – finance director Wayne Edmunds – was the driving force behind resolving its pension deficit, a key to any takeover.
And another Guardian article
Invensys tight-lipped after ditching chief executive. Engineering electronics company announces departure of Ulf Henriksson with immediate effect.
British engineering electronics group Invensys has stunned the City by ditching its chief executive, Ulf Henriksson, with immediate effect. The company announced that finance director Wayne Edmunds is taking over.
At one point shares plunged by 8% on the shock news, but later recovered some of their losses.
by Gary Mintchell | Mar 25, 2011 | Automation, Motion Control, Technology
I’ve been in Chicago this week. Over at Automation World, Wes Iversen is retiring (and looking way too happy about it) and his replacement started Monday. Starting with the May issue, you’ll see Renee Robbins Bassett on the masthead as Managing Editor. Formerly with Control Engineering, she’ll by my person to make sure the magazine get out on time every month. Plus a lot more.
While in Chicago, I took a day to visit the Automate 2011 (combination of robot, vision and motion control) show and a little bit of ProMat (material handling).
I’ll have more details later (need to get to the gym right now). Attendance at Automate was far from overwhelming. But some exhibitors reported good meetings. Most appeared to be sparsely populated. There were only 165 total exhibitors, but fewer than half were companies that I even recognized.
There was some great technology. Sick showed a 3D rendering camera/software product. It was a scanning line of red LEDs. The algorithms could detect different deflections in the reflected LED light and render a 3D image in color of the object. Motoman (robotics) showed a 3D image system using several inexpensive Webcams linked with software that rendered 3D images located in space so that the robot could orientate itself to pick up the part.
I spent an hour at the Lenze booth. Most people in the US no doubt are familiar with Lenze as an AC drive supplier, but it has a line of motion control and logic control products, as well. I sense a new assertiveness of the company in the market. You’ll probably be hearing more about this company.
Back with a complete wrap up this afternoon.
