by Gary Mintchell | Oct 13, 2009 | Uncategorized
Yesterday was a company holiday. I did some work, but mostly did husband things and recovered from the weekend conclusion of a three-week marathon. Had both of my kids (along with two grandkids) in the house at the same time for the first time in five years. The two-year-old knows I’ll play with him, so he proceeded to wear me out. It’s a joy. I’ll enjoy the visit to my massage therapist this afternoon 😉
You can join me Thursday afternoon at 2 pm EDT for a Webcast with a slightly different tone than some others. This is software-focused and specifically on Product Data Management–how automating it can speed time to market, reduce costs and improve product quality among other things. There will be a user speaking about the benefits he received. Register at Automation World.
Here are some of the recent things I’ve been reading:
Think you know everything about Search Engine Optimization? Here’s a post saying it’s not something that someone with a brain or a soul should undertake. (I agree with him for the most part.)
Chris Brogan offers tips for a problem many of us have–getting more email requests than we can handle.
Having trouble with your to-do list. Here’s a tip–there’s no task easier than no task.
Here are 34 reminders for a fulfilled life.
Greg McMillan has been at it again with more Exceptional Opportunities in Process Control — Online Metrics. If you haven’t caught the rest of the series, check this one out at least.
So, you see, I haven’t been slacking entirely.
by Gary Mintchell | Oct 8, 2009 | Automation
[Catching up on some unfinished business] I finally uploaded my interview with Dave Deitz, product marketing manager for DeltaV at Emerson Process Management, from the Emerson Global Users Exchange last week about the new DeltaV.
by Gary Mintchell | Oct 8, 2009 | Automation, Organizations
There were several product announcements at this year’s ISA Expo, but ISA itself stole the limelight with the announcement that this is the last ISA Expo. In the face of declining attendance, declining floorspace sold to exhibitors, little-to-no interest by the major systems suppliers in supporting the show, ISA has decided to switch to a conference format for 2010.
The new name is Automation Week and is dubbed a “knowledge-based conference event, focusing on delivering critical knowledge on application of automation technologies in processing and manufacturing environments to top professionals.” It will be held October 4-7 (note the extra day), 2010 at the Westin Galleria in Houston. It expects to continue to attract top educational, vendor-neutral speakers and serve as a central location for standards working group meetings.
“It’s all about knowledge,” says ISA President Jerry Cockrell. “ISA is a knowledge society. We have 30,000 members and we train, we educate, we run seminars and symposia, we have standards, books, educational programs — everything we disseminate is based on knowledge. We’re excited about what ISA Automation Week can offer,” he adds.
The conference planners envision a scaled-down exhibition hall with 10-foot booths in a ballroom. For comparison, I suppose you could imagine it as a much larger ARC Forum. I guess it remains to be seen if it will be a gathering place for the media–or if I get the week off.
Although this year’s edition wasn’t a “ghost town,” it is surely a small trade show occupying less than half the ballrooms allocated to it. And tremendously smaller than its heyday years. ISA simply couldn’t offer a value proposition to the large systems companies to bring back their large, expensive booths (and bring in their customers) in competition with the companies’ own user conferences, which have grown significantly over the past six years.
Facing declining revenues for several years, ISA also outsourced its association magazine, Intech, and its electronic publications/email newsletters.
So, what is the future of ISA? Feel free to comment.
by Gary Mintchell | Oct 6, 2009 | Automation, Wireless
It was a good, if difficult, decision to switch to an earlier flight yesterday and go on a plant tour of the Arkema chemical plant in Crosby, Texas to see the first implementation of ISA100.11a wireless sensor network technology. Guess what? It works. Within two weeks of the adoption of the new standard, four companies put together production-ready products and the local integrator was able to have it installed and operational.
Honeywell, Yokogawa, Gastronics and Nivis combined to supply products that included wireless level sensing, temperature sensing, gas sensing and limit switch with information brought through a wireless gateway into a Honeywell DCS and Nivis network management tool.
Plant Manager Didier Auber pointed out that the reason they started evaluating wireless was a remote tank that holds water for the fire extinguishing system. Someone had to periodically go out to the site, read the level gauge, record the result and then go back and enter the information. The cost of running signal cable out to the tank was prohibitive. Enter wireless. Now operators can get continuous readings directly from the sensor. Alarms can be added to the DCS system. After this decision was reached, it became logical to look for other remote monitoring that could be easily installed and yield similar benefits.
I used the term “production-ready” because the engineering work to put wireless on instruments can be completed more quickly than gaining all the requisite regulatory approvals. True production components are expected first quarter of next year.
So, yes, ISA100.11a wireless is real. Underlying technology is available. Production parts, tested by the Wireless Compliance Institute of the ISA for compliance, are expected for end user installation early next year.
by Gary Mintchell | Oct 2, 2009 | Automation, Operations Management
Announced yesterday, Siemens has reorganized its U.S. operations. Wes Iversen has the news and some additional updates at Automation World.
