I only visit Websites when I am doing research. I never browse Websites searching for new information. Most information flows to me through a carefully curated RSS feed into Feedly. Otherwise, notifications key me into new information that may be important guiding me to a Website for a deeper dive.
Steve Gillmor (The Gillmor Gang) has been a notifications advocate (after his brash “Microsoft is dead” and “RSS is dead” mantras got old). Early on he berated Twitter for dropping tracking and then for its inability to provide a strategy for sorting through the firehose of tweets to cull out only what’s important.
Last month, he and John Borthwick of Betaworks teamed for a Notifications Summit last month. Videos of the presentations can be found at TechCrunch or on iTunes (searching for Gillmor Gang), or here at Betaworks.
Take a dive into these technologies especially if you are a software developer. The information also educates users into what is possible and into perhaps new ways of finding the important signal amongst all the noise.
Borthwick wrote, “A few months ago Steve Gillmor and I discussed bringing together key people we knew who were building, designing and innovating around mobile notifications for a half day meeting. The meeting or summit — as we ended up calling it — took place on October 1st. We had about 50 people in attendance here at betaworks, it ran half the day. ”
Conference organizers take note. A very important and substantive gathering was held in a half-day. Note the quick-paced panels that were at once informal and punctual.
Anyway, back to Borthwick, the conference led with an important observation, “Right now we are witnessing another round of unbundling as the notification screen becomes the primary interface for mobile computing.”
Then he added, “Adam Bosworth kicked off the day with a discussion of how the notification stream represents complete re-construction of internet and HTTP from pull to push. This shift was predicted for a while but now it’s driving our primary mobile compute experience.”
There is a sense we can say that we’ve had notifications for years in automation and control. They are called “alarms.” Let us begin to think more creatively about the value of notifications in our work. It’s the future–and it’s here.
The Association for Advancing Automation (A3) today published a white paper entitled “Robots Fuel the Next Wave of U.S. Productivity and Job Growth” in which data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and a wide range of manufacturing firms document how and why increasing the use of robots is associated with increased employment.
Key statistics from the A3 white paper show that during the non-recessionary periods – 1996-2000, 2002-2007, and 2010-2014 – general employment and robot shipments both increased. Since 2010, the robotics industry in the United States has grown substantially. Even during this period of record-breaking robot sales, U.S. employment increased. This new data is in stark contrast to media coverage and a perception that increasing use of robots causes higher rates of unemployment in the U.S.
At a glance:
Robots save and create jobs
Robots take care of the dull, dirty, or dangerous jobs
Robots extend workplace functionality, improving the bottom line
Robots are reviving American manufacturing
Robots create better, safer, higher paying jobs
“We are seeing concrete shifts in the factors that resulted in cuts to the U.S. manufacturing work force over the past few decades,” said Jeff Burnstein, president of A3. “Manufacturing automation increasingly provides the flexibility in the variety of tasks robots perform to drive improvements in overall product quality and time to market.”
Burnstein concluded, “One of the biggest challenges we now face is closing the skills gap to fill jobs. Robots are optimizing production more than ever, increasing global competitiveness, and performing dull, dirty and dangerous tasks that enable companies to create higher-skilled, better-paying, and safer jobs where people use their brains, not their brawn.”
Correlation does not equal causation
The white paper overlays graphs of robot sales and US employment. I asked Burnstein if he is trying to show causation from the correlation. He said that was not the intent. “It is not so much to show causation as it is simply to refute the argument,” he told me in an interview preceding the release. Taking the argument that robots cause unemployment, one would expect climbing robot sales to be reflected in declining employment. Statistics do not support that supposition.
Anecdotal evidence
As companies seek to bring manufacturing operations stateside while remaining cost-competitive, they continue to turn to automation to help lead the new wave of productivity and job growth in the U.S.
“The whole premise for our company is to bring manufacturing back to this country, and our new robot fits perfectly with that master plan,” said Geoff Escalette, CEO of faucet-maker RSS Manufacturing & Phylrich in Costa Mesa, California. “Our robot not only makes it possible to increase production speed without buying additional CNC machines, but also helped us open up 30 percent more capacity on existing machinery.”
Robotics also helps companies stay competitive when seeking new talent—particularly those who are interested in long-lasting careers working with technology.
“It’s really an opportunity for us to grow,” reports Matt Tyler, president and CEO of Vickers Engineering, a contract precision engineering manufacturer in Michigan. “Because we have robotics and are able to compete on a global scale, it makes the U.S. more competitive in manufacturing, and that’s good for all of us.”
The white paper includes notes from other manufacturers who both acquired additional automation and people.
The Association for Advancing Automation is the global advocate for the benefits of automating. A3 promotes automation technologies and ideas that transform the way business is done. A3 is the umbrella group for Robotic Industries Association (RIA), AIA – Advancing Vision + Imaging, and Motion Control & Motor Association (MCMA). RIA, AIA, and MCA combined represent some 850 automation manufacturers, component suppliers, system integrators, end users, research groups and consulting firms from throughout the world that drive automation forward.
This report from McGladrey just arrived. The good news is the economic recovery in the US is still gaining. The bad news for US manufacturers is that it is now attracting strong global competition.
A disappointing finding from the survey if you are America (or encouraging if you are not)–Non-U.S. executives, however, are 10 percent more likely to develop new services than U.S. executives.
The report states three in four global manufacturing and distribution executives expect profits to increase, and the sector is projecting an average growth rate of 10 percent over the next 12 months, according to an annual survey gauging middle market sentiment conducted by McGladrey LLP, the provider of assurance, tax and consulting services focused on the middle market.
Globally, executives expect average sales to increase 12 percent over the next 12 months. They also plan to increase domestic hiring by roughly 8 percent.
About nine in 10 executives say their business is either holding steady (56 percent) or thriving (35 percent). That optimism, however, is tempered by a surge in competition as manufacturing firms from around the globe enter the U.S. market, the world’s most reliable economy. The survey indicates that 67 percent of non-U.S. manufacturers intend to sell products or services outside their home markets in 2015. More than half of those expanding beyond their borders say the U.S. market is a key market.
“These findings indicate that economic recovery in the U.S. is gaining significant traction,” said Karen Kurek, a McGladrey partner and thought leader for the industrial products industry. “While that’s great for the U.S. economy, it’s not always great for U.S. businesses that want to remain competitive with global firms looking to enter and expand in the domestic market. U.S. manufacturers and distributors should continue to incorporate innovation into their cultures to contend with global firms.”
To drive innovation, nearly 60 percent of global executives plan to develop new products, according to the survey. Non-U.S. executives, however, are 10 percent more likely to develop new services than U.S. executives.
Non-U.S. companies also are out-investing U.S. companies in technology applications across several categories. Firms outside of the U.S. are roughly 10 percent more likely to have invested in the implementation of cloud computing, big data solutions, social media platforms, customer relationship management, and e-commerce.
Aside from investing in new technology, another business option for U.S. companies is to seek growth opportunities in foreign markets. More than 40 percent of American industrial firms currently have no international sales goals, compared to 27 percent of non-U.S. companies. And just 11 percent of U.S. firms say they plan to start selling products and services outside of the country in 2015.
The 2015 Manufacturing & Distribution Monitor Report was conducted in March and April 2015. The 2015 Monitor survey presents the perspectives and expectations of 1,660 manufacturing and distributions executives based around the world. These executives represent companies based primarily in the United States, but also based in Canada, Latin America, the Asia Pacific, and Europe.
Since I have to follow the Honeywell User Group (number 40, by the way) from afar, I’m relying on tweets and any Web updates or articles I can find.
So far, Walt Boyes (@waltboyes, and Industrial Automation Insider) has posted a few things to Twitter, mostly slides from presentations that are barely legible; Aaron Hand (Automation World) has posted a few tweets; Mehul Shah (LNS Research) has a couple of tweets—interestingly saying he things as an analyst that Honeywell has all the elements of a complete IIoT solution—hmmm; and Larry O’Brien, analyst at ARC Advisory Group has published a few tweets. If they would post links to articles in the tweets, that would be interesting.
Putman Publishing (Control magazine) once again is doing a digital “show daily” and therefore is posting several articles a day and blasting out an email daily.
Walt sent a tweet about obsolescence of open systems to which software geek Andy Robinson (@Archestranaut) replied. I didn’t understand until I saw Paul Studebaker’s article online (see below). The open systems in use today are getting long in the tooth. They feature Microsoft Windows XP—evidently never getting upgrades. Now there is no Microsoft support, the world has moved on, and all these DCS interfaces based on PCs are getting ancient.
Paul Studebaker, Control magazine’s editor-in-chief, reported on the keynote presented by Vimal Kapur, Honeywell Process Solutions president.
“ ‘Since Q4 of last year, since oil prices have changed, capital investments have been reduced’, said Kapur. Investments were up about 20% in 2010 and 2011, and remained flat through 2014, but so far, 2015 is down about 12%. Operational expense spending is also off.”
Kapur described how Honeywell is helping operators meet those challenges with strategies, technologies and services.
1. Honeywell will expand the role of the distributed control system (DCS). Now, the DCS has become a focal point of all control functions, taking on the functionality of PLC, alarm, safety, power management, historian, turbine control and more. Having a single system and user leverages scarce resources, and a single platform leveraging standards does more with less.
2. Cloud computing is becoming a standard part of HPS automation projects, with a logarithmic increase in the number of virtual machines in the HPS cloud over the past two years.
3. While process safety management has always depended on detecting unsafe situations, preventing them from causing an incident or accident and protecting people from any consequences.
4. For cybersecurity, Honeywell has created a team of specialists who can do audits, identify vulnerabilities and recommend solutions. But cybersecurity requires constant monitoring, so consider using a cybersecurity dashboard, “a step toward enabling a much higher level of proactivity by identifying cyber threats before it’s too late,” Kapur said.
5. Standardization holds great promise for reducing cost and time to production by allowing pre-engineering of control systems.
6. Honeywell continues to expand and refine its field device products to offer a complete line of smart instrumentation that can be preconfigured and use the cloud for fast auto-commissioning, and that have full auto-alerts and diagnostics to enable predictive maintenance.
7. OPC UA is becoming the key to leveraging the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT).
8. Kapur told attendees their existing investments are not fully leveraged.
9. Expansion of mobility is changing workflows and the responsibilities of individuals.
10. Honeywell is driving more outcome-based solutions in services.
(Jim, you need to update your bio on the Control Global page)
“This is a transformative time in process controls, rivaling the open process systems introduced in the early 1990s,” said Bruce Calder, new CTO and vice president of HPS, in the “Honeywell Technology Overview and New Innovations” session on the opening day of Honeywell User Group (HUG) Americas 2015, June 22 in San Antonio, Texas. “Today, the words are cloud, big data, predictive analytics and IoT, but this situation is similar to when Honeywell pioneered and invented the DCS in the early 1970s. For instance, our Experion PKS integrates input from many sources, which is what big data and the cloud aim to do, and our Matrikon OPC solution gives us the world’s leading contender for enabling IoT in the process industries. And all these devices are producing lots more data, so the question for everyone is how to manage it.
“This is all part of the digital transformation that Honeywell has been leading for years. So Experion and our Orion interfaces enable IoT because they collect and coordinate vast amounts of data, turn it into actionable information and turn process operators into profit operators. At the same time, Honeywell enables customers to retain their intellectual property assets as they modernize and do it safely, reliably and efficiently.”
My analysis:
1. The downturn in the price of a barrel of oil whose impact we first noticed with the decline in attendance at the ARC Forum in February has really impacted Honeywell’s business.
2. Honeywell, much like all technology suppliers, addresses the buzz around Internet of Things by saying we do it—and we’ve always done it. (mostly true, by the way)
3. Otherwise, I didn’t see much new from the technology keynote—at least as it was reported so far.
4. I got some good reporting, but It’s a shame that all the media has retrenched into traditional B2B—reporting what marketing people say. You can read that for yourself on their Websites. Context, analysis, expertise are all lost right now. Maybe someone will spring up with the new way of Web reporting.
At any rate, it sounds like a good conference. About 1,200 total attendance. Even with oil in the doldrums, the vibes should be strong.
