I made it to Orlando and the GE Fanuc Users Conference. Only had one side trip when the shuttle service delivered me to the wrong hotel. But I made it to the Royal Pacific Resort at Universal Studios and got started with the first of many meetings. Initial word is that there are almost 700 people registered for the conference. There certainly is a lot of energy generated at events like this--even before it officially gets underway.
My first meetings focused on the ramped up initiatives in process manufacturing with recent GE additions Steve Ryan and Kam Yuen. They have been on the job here for just a few months and have been visiting customers and meeting with company engineers and marketers as they lay plans for what will be a series of product announcements over the coming few months.
This makes the process space very interesting for an observer as the already heated competitive space gets another strong entrant. Emerson and Honeywell are always strong. Yokogawa is making a strong push to achieve the top position. ABB and Invensys have been making great strides lately. Siemens is strong in certain areas and growing. Rockwell Automation has been expanding from its discrete base into the process portions of several types of manufacturing. Add GE Fanuc and you have the makings for some serious competition. Not all of the companies compete in the same industries, but all this competition should be very good for customers. Competition usually drives companies to improve products more quickly and bring prices down more than if all the business is carved up amongst just a few.
I'm getting sloppy in my old age with bad html code. sorry for the reposts.
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