by Gary Mintchell | Mar 24, 2025 | Manufacturing IT, News, Organizations
This news comes from Manufacturing Enterprise Solutions Association (MESA) International promoting its education programs. If you are involved in manufacturing software, you might find these beneficial. Over the years, I’ve heard good things about the courses. I’m not as involved with MESA as I was for years—lots of changes. This program is perhaps the best value from the organization.
The Manufacturing Enterprise Solutions Association (MESA) International announces launch of new MES/MOM Refresher Programs through the MESA Global Education Program. These specialized courses are designed to provide professionals in the manufacturing sector with an updated understanding of Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) and Manufacturing Operations Management (MOM) methodologies, ensuring they remain at the forefront of industry advancements.
These refresher courses are relevant to those who have completed the foundational MES/MOM certificate program through MESA previously and are looking to enhance their knowledge, stay current with evolving technologies, and strengthen their ability to implement and manage MES/MOM solutions effectively.
Offered in two distinct formats, the new programs include:
- MES/MOM Methodologies CoA Refresher Program – This course offers a comprehensive review of the core concepts, strategies, and best practices associated with MES/MOM methodologies. Participants will deepen their understanding of MES/MOM frameworks and how to apply them to optimize manufacturing operations.
- MES/MOM Methodologies CoC Refresher Program – Tailored for those seeking a deeper dive into MES/MOM systems, this course provides advanced insights into methodologies used to manage and control operations. Attendees will learn how to navigate complex challenges and drive performance improvements across manufacturing processes.
by Gary Mintchell | Feb 26, 2025 | Data Management, Manufacturing IT, Software
I quit my full-time job to become an independent blogger in 2013. One of the best decisions I ever made. It didn’t cost me much income those first years, and it saved me much grief over the ensuing time.
The blog’s name changed to The Manufacturing Connection. I thought at the time technology advances and applications would be all about connection/connectivity. That’s still true.
This news from Yokogawa emphasizes advances toward the nirvana of bringing information technology and operations technology into closer relationship. The problem solved by this is, of course, data. Data makes the enterprise go round.
Yokogawa states this new release of OpreX Collaborative Information Server (CI Server) strengthens connectivity with a range of devices and applications to “support digital transformation.”
OpreX Collaborative Information Server brings together large volumes of data from various plant equipment and systems to enable the optimized management of production activities across an entire enterprise, and provide the environment needed to remotely monitor and manage operations from any location and make swift decisions.
Here is what’s new
1. Addition of CI Gateway component—At renewable energy facilities and the like, gateways are deployed at various locations for the collection of data required for integrated monitoring and operations. And in all kinds of industries, the use of gateways for the relay of plant data to assemble higher-level applications is a common practice. In this release, a new component, CI Gateway, has been added. Compared to the previous version, this allows for simpler and more flexible implementation, making it easier to deploy OpreX Collaborative Information Server as a dedicated gateway.
I don’t know how many organizations I’ve been involved with where I’ve advocated RESTful APIs. This from Yokogawa.
2. Support of RESTful API—The RESTful API is a standard web application interface that is widely used in IT applications. With this release, it is now possible to access OpreX Collaborative Information Server data via the RESTful API. This facilitates access to operational technology (OT) data and leads to closer convergence between IT and OT systems, thereby realizing seamless integration and the efficient use of data. For example, it is now possible to construct a general-purpose web browser-based KPI dashboard that aggregates and displays data from various systems.
And finally:
3. Enhanced IEC 61850 communication driver—IEC61850 is an international protocol for communication networks/systems that is essential in the renewable energy industry. The enhanced support for this standard enables users to select safer interactive operations in place of certain operations that previously were executed automatically. For greater flexibility in operations, it is also now possible to utilize device report data as OpreX Collaborative Information Server data.
by Gary Mintchell | Feb 14, 2025 | Manufacturing IT, Operations Management, Software
Inductive Automation has released prebuilt, industry-specific solutions via their Ignition Exchange. These are designed to provide Ignition users a running start while building solutions for their specific industry. I’ve seen this idea pop up from time to time amongst software developers. I’m convinced they must be a great way for a developer to start a project. I’ve appreciated examples and starter ideas for projects I’ve worked on.
There are currently two Industry Packs available.
Water Industry Pack
The Water Industry Pack contains easily customizable resources to help you quickly build screens for water/wastewater facilities.
- Prebuilt components (including tanks, pumps, valves, and VFDs)
- A UDT that pairs with each component
- Advanced resources (like custom SVGs)
Data Center Industry Pack
The Data Center Industry Pack offers ready-to-use solutions for data centers. While it was designed with data centers in mind, it’s helpful for other industries as well.
- Widgets to display KPI details, input/output power, and more
- Dynamic popups (to display tag names and values)
- Faceplate & UDT pairs for UPS and AHU
- A Comtrade resource (to import and view Comtrade data)
Inductive Automation expects to expand these Industry Packs over time, and add more packs for other industries in the future.
by Gary Mintchell | Feb 10, 2025 | Manufacturing IT
Manufacturing and process automation news has become sparse. News from the warehouse and fulfillment sector continues to grow. These items typically combine software, autonomous mobile robots, communications devices for connected workers, and (of course) a dollop of AI.
This news comes from Zebra Technologies. This company’s acquisitions has rendered it as a completely different company from the one whose products I recommended and sold earlier in my career. They say this new solution unlocks fulfillment potential for warehouse operations with advanced collaborative robotics-assisted picking technology.
Zebra Technologies announced the expansion of Zebra Symmetry Fulfillment, a comprehensive solution that utilizes the company’s new Zebra Connect Fulfillment autonomous mobile robots (AMRs), wearable technologies, software, and analytics designed to increase productivity and reduce costs in warehouse operations. This AI-powered solution combines the functions of a warehouse execution system (WES) with robot fleet management and powerful analytics.
Using the new Zebra Symmetry Connect Fulfillment AMR, the solution enables frontline workers to load and unload orders to and from carts without requiring the AMR to remain permanently attached to each cart. This increases utilization and reduces the number of AMRs required in the fulfillment system. Fueled by Team Intelligence, this solution enables workers – also referred to as pickers – to pick more items in less time by coordinating each picker with a team of robots in a precise, directed workflow. This innovative approach improves throughput and empowers operational decision-making in fulfillment workflows.
Team Intelligence improves throughput by routing robots ahead of pickers, so the right AMR is always where it needs to be when a picker arrives. Using detachable carts with increased cubic capacity allows pickers to handle a wider range of product sizes and up to 300% more volume; it also boosts pick density and eliminates AMRs wait times. In addition, the ability to decouple AMRs from carts at key points in the operation such as induction and packout allows AMRs to immediately return to supporting the picking operation without waiting for orders to be unloaded or inducted. All these efficiency improvements result in reducing the total number of robots required by up to 30%.
Some of the Zebra customers who are using Zebra Symmetry Fulfillment to increase picking efficiency within their warehouse operations include CTL Global Solutions and Encore Fulfillment. These third-party logistics providers have selected the solution over other companies’ pick-assist fulfillment technology and are deploying it in early 2025.
Powered by AI for sequencing and allocating work, Team Intelligence is designed to improve AMR-assisted picking through intelligently planned order-picking paths. This eliminates the time pickers waste trying to find the right robots and minimizes the time robots spend waiting for pickers to find them. As noted in Zebra’s Warehouse Vision Study, almost 70% of warehouse decision-makers are planning to automate their workflows with the use of collaborative AMRs, and over 88% agree that implementing robotics will help attract and retain skilled workers.
by Gary Mintchell | Jan 29, 2025 | Manufacturing IT, Software
I’ve long been interested in the confluence of automation, software, and Lean. I reached out to a few leading Lean practitioners and consultants for the first issue of Automation World in 2003. They responded that Lean is a manual process and any hint that automation or software would be useful was unthinkable.
I convinced a couple that trustable data was essential for Lean and that data coming directly from the automation was trustable. So, I ran a Lean article for issue 1 revisiting the topic at times throughout my 10 years as editor there.
This article from Inductive Automation’s blog came my way the other day. It is a good look at the current state of MES and Lean. I’ll highlight a few topics. Check it out yourself.
Using MES Powered By Ignition To Accelerate Lean Manufacturing Goals by Danny Haskell, NeoMatrix, Inc., guest author.
Staying competitive means manufacturers constantly seek ways to enhance operational efficiency, minimize costs and waste, and maintain the highest standards of product quality. Whether a manufacturer is just beginning to explore manufacturing execution systems (MES) or looking to optimize an existing MES infrastructure, and whether they use Sepasoft’s MES modules for the lean manufacturing software Ignition or build their own custom MES solutions, Ignition MES offers manufacturers a versatile solution to streamline production, improve visibility, and accelerate lean manufacturing initiatives across the factory floor.
Data remains the key
Driven by advancements in Digital Transformation and the adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies, MES solutions enable real-time data integration and enhanced automation, significantly improving production processes and promoting lean manufacturing. Manufacturers adopting MES solutions have reported improvements in operational efficiency of 15-20% and reductions in production lead times of 10-15%.
Haskell identifies some key trends:
- Predictive Maintenance: MES technology helps manufacturers anticipate equipment failures before they occur, reducing downtime and maintenance costs.
- Digital Twins: Manufacturers use digital twins to create virtual replicas of manufacturing processes and equipment, enabling manufacturers to simulate and optimize operations without physical testing.
- Reshoring and Local Production: With supply chain disruptions and the need for resilience, some manufacturers are reshoring their operations to reduce the reliance on overseas suppliers and enhance supply chain flexibility.
- Sustainability and Carbon Neutrality: Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) initiatives push manufacturers to adopt sustainable practices, such as reducing emissions, using renewable energy, and adopting eco-friendly production processes.
- Industrial Automation and Robotics: Manufacturers integrating robots and AI enable more autonomous and smart manufacturing processes, improving productivity and precision. This trend also extends to collaborative robots (cobots) that work alongside human employees to streamline operations.
- Advanced Data Analytics and AI: Utilizing data analytics and AI to monitor production, improve quality control, and predict maintenance needs is becoming increasingly important to optimize processes and make data-driven decision-making.
- Cloud Computing and IIoT: Adopting cloud solutions and Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) technologies, manufacturers can connect machines, systems, and processes for better data sharing and real-time monitoring.
He continues with several specific examples. Check it out for yourself.
by Gary Mintchell | Jan 22, 2025 | Manufacturing IT
A blog post from Jennifer Faylor provides information about the update to Ignition 8.1.45. Of course, Ignition 8.3 announced at the Ignition Community Conference in September is about to launch. It’s refreshing to see an update to the current version.
Ignition 8.1.45 delivers a new Perspective pager property, boosted visibility for errors in tag change scripts, a better saving experience in Perspective, and numerous framework updates to improve performance.
New Perspective Pager Property
In Perspective, you can now change the number of rows displayed at runtime in an active client with a new activeOption pager property for table components. We’ve introduced an updateOptionFromProps method (for allowing external writes to the activeOption property to update the pager’s pageSize), along with a syncOption method (for allowing internal writes to the pager’s pageSize to update the activeOption property).
Heightened Visibility Of Tag Scripting Errors
To make it easier to realize when there’s a problem in tag value change scripts, errors in these scripts will now be logged at the info log level once per minute.
Before, after the first error was thrown, subsequent errors would be thrown in at the debug log level (unless a specific logger was in debug mode). This meant you wouldn’t see these errors unless you restarted the tag or turned the tags.eventscripts.dispatcher log to debug.
Now, when a value change script in a tag is faulted, it will throw an error once per minute in the wrapper and Gateway logs when the tag is triggered. And when a Gateway tag change script is faulted, it will throw an error every time the tag is triggered in both the wrapper and Gateway logs.
The increased frequency of logging these errors at the info log level will make it clear when a problem exists so that you can resolve issues efficiently.
Improved Save Operations In Perspective
With 8.1.45, the experience of building in the Perspective designer just got even better. We added the designer system property ignition.perspective.designerSaveTimeout to control how long the designer will wait for the embedded browser frame to return results. The new property’s default timeout period is 60 seconds — three times longer than the previous timeout period.
Additionally, we improved asynchronous handling, so things should feel a little snappier when you’re working in the designer. And we made error messaging more explicit if you encounter issues while waiting for browser resources during a save operation, so that you have a clearer understanding of what’s going on.
These refinements to Perspective’s saving process should help eliminate some stressful moments as you build industrial applications, bringing a little more zen to your workflow.
Other updates include:
- Updated the Ignition Cloud Edition’s bundle of Cirrus Link modules (including MQTT Transmission, Distributor, and Engine modules) to version 4.0.25.
- Upgraded the BACnet4J library to version 6.0.1.
- Upgraded the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) version to 17.0.13.
- OPC UA—Updated Milo to version 0.6.15.
- Geolocation functionality in Perspective now also works with the most recent version of multiple desktop browsers, including Google Chrome (versions 126 and above), Microsoft Edge, and Firefox (version 130).
