Manufacturing Jobs In America-Part 2
Manufacturing jobs—will they be people or robots? Whenever I am presented with an either/or I tend to think why not both or neither. Four choices, not two. In this case, three choices since neither means no manufacturing. And every country on God’s good Earth wants...
A Stunner: ABB Acquires B+R Automation Strengthening It In Machine Automation
Wow, this one surprised me, although I've been pondering the automation landscape for a long time. There are two things. One is that you never know when the owners of a "mittlestand" type of company are ready to sell. The other is that ABB has been aggressively...
Manufacturing in America
Here we go again—who’s winning the war for manufacturing jobs? Man or machine? Human or robot? John Henry, the steel-driving man, or the steam machine? Claire Cain Miller wrote the usual type of manufacturing article for The New York Times with the usual click-bait...
Manufacturing Thought Leadership Summit Discusses Digitalization and Innovation
Manufacturing in America—an event bringing together vendors, academia, end users of controls and automation. Siemens Industry, collaborating with its local distributor Electro-Matic, held a trade show/seminar series/thought leadership summit at the Marriott...
Standards and Interoperability–OPC UA and CCOM Podcast 161
I discuss the importance of interoperability of applications and the role of standards--specifically OPC UA and CCOM, an asset information standard from MIMOSA. I also throw in a description of students I met who compete in FIRST Robotics and a tip for cultivating...
OSIsoft Announces Internet of Things Gateway Support and a Digital Marketplace
Digital Transformation and Internet of Things were prominent at this week’s user conference. I could be in San Francisco at the OSIsoft user conference. But, no, I’m in Detroit at a different one. However, we have two news items from the conference. The first one is...
Real-time Visual Edge Analytics Engine
Analytics is everything when it comes to looking at the value of the Internet of Things ecosystem. It matters not if you can tie all the intelligent devices together if you cannot gain intelligence about them. Here is another take at doing analytics at the edge. This...
BorgWarner Increases Overall Equipment Effectiveness With Lean Software Product
Software solution underlies project to improve Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) in a BorgWarner plant. Lean practitioners once hated automation and software. Over the years, though, appropriate use of these technologies actually improves Lean performance. Here is...
Automated Change Management Software For Industrial Control
Change management is a huge issue in automation and control. Who makes the change, when, what was done, was it authorized, and more questions. I've had many chats with leaders of companies who provide change management tools over the years. Here is a Honeywell...
ABB Launches New Products And Digital Enterprise Platform
ABB held its customer conference in Houston this week and showcased many new products and unveiled its digital enterprise platform ABB Ability. ABB Ability is the name given to its portfolio of digital solutions. I was trying to place it into a competitive landscape...