Saturday, January 29, 2005

M2M Blog I was just reading David Geltner's post on the M2M (machine-to-machine) blog about the horrors of working with IT and the cost of wired Ethernet in machine-to-machine communication and of course had a few thoughts on the subject. Check out http://m2mblog.com/dgeltner. I know that this post is just advancing one part of an overall M2M argument, but I think that a broader perspective should not be overlooked. As I understand it (and please inform me if there is more to the story) the specific M2M nomenclature was created by cellular telephone companies most likely to broaden the market for their electronics, as well as a way to sell more bandwidth. But I was hearing a machine-to-machine story before I ever heard of a specific cellular broadband mobile-to-mobile or mobile-to-machine story. The first stories I heard were from chip manufacturers. I attended developer conferences at both Texas Instruments and Motorola several years ago where they trotted out some new combinations of chips touting their usefulness in remote data acquisition and machine-to-machine communications. Then came the company now known as Axeda with its "device relationship management" software. I strongly urge a view of M2M not limited to one particular networking technology. For example, take a close look at ZigBee--the wireless, sensor, mesh networking technology. I view this network as truly revolutionary. Now actually mesh networking can be either wired (Invensys Foxboro is doing that) or wireless. Which works best for the application? Then choose that one. ZigBee has inherent limitations. Then use it where it works and choose others for their strengths. Need a combination of high bandwidth and distance? Cellular is a good choice. Of course, T1 lines may be a better choice in some applications. The IT versus controls engineers struggle is well documented. But that has also been slowly changing. It will take a few more years to reach critical mass, but I've seen great cooperation in action as long as 10 years ago. Some good relationship building at the plant level by computer literate controls engineers along with IT people willing to do what it takes to make the company better will go a long way toward fixing the problem. In other words, it's a people problem, not a technology problem. David raises a great point about looking at the total costs of installation of a new project. Too many engineers have been tricked by looking at just one part of the cost of a project and suddenly discovering "hidden" costs. Wires are expensive, but wireless isn't free. 7:27:58 AM    comment []

Bosch Rexroth Executives Tout Growth, Progress Executives at first Rexroth global technical summit held in Wuerzberg and Lohr Germany in January cited the company[base ']s growth and breadth of products developed since its founding in 2001 through the merger of Bosch Automation and Mannesman Rexroth into Bosch Rexroth AG, a wholly owned subsidiary of Robert Bosch GmbH. Sales of 3.7 billion Euros in 2003 have grown to approximately 4.1 billion Euros in 2004 (about $4.7 billion to $5.3 billion) according to Company Chairman of the Executive Board Manfred Grundke at the first Rexroth global technical summit held in January in Lohr, Germany, home of Bosch Rexroth. [base "]The United States, France and China are the largest markets external to Germany,[per thou] added Grundke, [base "]with China showing double digit growth. But the United States remains a top growth prospect for Bosch Rexroth. A one percent growth in America right now is the equivalent of ten percent in China.[per thou] According to Grundke, the company is moving from status as a components supplier to a supplier of systems solutions weaving together hydraulic and pneumatic products to complement the electric drives and controls business. Reiner Leipold-Buettner, member of the executive board with responsibilities for Engineering and Manufacturing addressed the importance of innovation and Rexroth[base ']s systematic approach to it. [base "]Our approach to innovation includes five ideas,[per thou] noted Leipold-Buettner, [base "]that are somewhat modeled on Darwin[base ']s theory of evolution including the concept Survival of the Fittest. First we survey a series of environmental spheres, derive trends and start looking for ideas. Changes in the environment result in [OE]search fields[base '] where we emphasize finding business ideas through targeted idea searching. These business ideas trigger actual product ideas, which eventually become product innovations.[per thou] Leipold-Buettner shared the megatrends that Rexroth is analyzing at this time. These include the reduced product lifecycles of customers, decentralization of intelligence from large controllers to devices, the separation of hardware and software, functional integration of components into modules and systems, and vertical integration from which the company is developing universal engineering tools, simulation software and open control systems. 6:17:53 AM    comment []