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Saturday, August 19, 2006 |
I just had one of those "duh" moments while thinking about how OMAC seems to have lost some visibility and momentum since being absorbed by ISA. That user organization was nurtured by the ARC Advisory Group with meetings organized around the successful ARC Forums held in January or February in Orlando. This was a win for ARC who needed to attract end user engineers and managers to its Forum, but also for OMAC with a venue to interact with many industry executives and members of the press.
As Jim Pinto points out regularly, the ISA trade show is a shell of its former self. And much as I respect Dick Morley, I don't think an "Innovation Alley" is going to bring another 10,000 people to Houston this year. Meanwhile, the ARC Forum still has legs as a place to meet and network. If OMAC is at ISA Expo at all, it'll just be one small part of the whole among the few vendors who'll be there vying for attention. I just heard from Sid Vanketesh of Boeing that the OMAC Machine Tool working group is going to have a meeting at IMTS next month in Chicago. I don't think I can make that one. Wonder if any member of the press will stop in?
At any rate, once upon a time, I could give OMAC a couple of days of unadulterated attention. Now, it's just small time slices.
12:03:04 PM 
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The ISA has a "media relations" person--I'm not sure how long she's been there--and she has been cranking out press releases almost daily in order to keep the organization's name in front of editors (even member/editors like me). Here's a release from ISA regarding it's Automation Federation. Reminds me of why I like committees so much (not).
Here's a press release that would almost make an example in The Cluetrain Manifesto.
The press release announces that the board met. "It was agreed that the mission of the organization is to provide leadership and coordination of the member organizations and alliances in the marketplace. The Federation will act as a unified body of organizations to address industry challenges and issues."
I'd like to see something good come out of this thing, but that sort of mission statement reeks of committee think. Have they done anything to go outside of ISA? Have they discussed this with ANYONE outside of ISA? No mentions of that. Right now it's just an ISA committee. So, whom are they going to unify? Does that mean if they can get SME to participate that SME would have to become part of ISA? Don't think that would happen. Maybe the other way around.
Here's a quote attributed to Andy McDonald, but was probably written by the PR person, "One of the most powerful reasons for creating the Federation is its
ability to promote the value and image of the profession," said OMAC Chairman of the Board Andy McDonald. "By unifying with other organizations, we can enhance the effectiveness of those currently in the field, and we'll have the resources in place to develop new generations of professionals."
My question here is -- what's happened to OMAC? Ever since it was absorbed by ISA, I've heard nothing. The most thriving part moved from controllers to working with Microsoft to packaging. The last I heard about packaging made it sound like it was evolving into petty company bickering. A survey done by Packaging World (and soon to be published there and in Automation World) shows limited adoption of PackML. Methinks there should be some vocal evangelizing going on.
At any rate, you'll be glad to know that the board finalized a logo and tagline--"Accelerating Automation Success." Now, they are ready to go to work.
8:40:06 AM
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The WBF (the organization formerly known as World Batch Forum), will hold its annual meeting for 2007 in Baltimore May 1-3. The organization is growing ever closer into the fold of ISA as notice of the event came through the ISA PR channel. This organization focuses on the implementation of ISA-95 and ISA-88 standards along with B2MML and Make2Pack. Featured will be learning and networking opportunities. B2MML and Make2Pack working groups will meet before and after the conference.
Says the release, "Participants will have the opportunity to participate in discussions on such cost-saving topics as lean manufacturing, implementation of ISA-95, tips for implementing change in process management, keeping plants competitive, and much more. Experts from around the world will be presenting on these and other hot topics in the industry today."
"The sessions we offer will give attendees practical information that they can take back to their plant and implement, enabling them to deliver value and meet defined business drivers," said conference chair Bill Stewart of The Dow Chemical Company.
"Each year, we present keynotes that give attendees a glimpse of the future of our industry, and we take great pride in that," said WBF Chairman Maurice Wilkins. He also added that time and again, people come to WBF conferences for the unique networking opportunities with industry peers.
8:20:16 AM
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I read another great book recently--Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond. This book answered a lot of questions I've pondered about the origins of human society. The main research topic of why some societies developed further than others (for instance why Western Europe progressed beyond Central America or southeast Asia) is well researched and argued.
The basic premise is that advancements in society follow food production. In ancient times (say 8,000 to 10,000 years ago) apparently only a very few areas in the world had sufficient local grain crops and large mammals that could be used for food and transportation. Humans noticed recurring grains that were nutritious and applied intelligence and dilligence in cultivating these crops. Grain crops could be stored so that not everyone in the society needed to spend all their time foraging for food and could specialize in things like making weapons. This also led to increased population density in those areas (by the way, think Fertile Crescent, which isn't fertile anymore, things change). So, villages became cities. Cities developed armies for conquest for land for their growing population, etc.
Why did the Spanish have such a relatively easy time conquering America and why did the Native American population shrink so drastically. First, early Americans started later in the food production game. Second, there were almost no native large mammals. That had two consequences. First, horses were bred starting in central Asia. Horses were not only great transportation, but also a signficant warfare advantage. Second, people who began to breed animals developed diseases from them, but then developed some immunity to the diseases. Far fewer native Americans were killed in battle than died due to exposure to those diseases for which they had developed no resistance.
A couple of points. One, western European and Chinese civilizations developed earlier and farther than others not because the people were smarter, but because they each had the advantage of a many-thousand-year head start in food production leading to weapon and other production.
The second point that I think is germane even today--production is the key to a society's survival. I started thinking about this while in college but never took the time to research it. Thanks, Jared. What I've thought is that the only true wealth in a society (not necessarily short-term individual wealth) comes from turning raw materials into usable goods. In other words, production, manufacturing, agriculture. There is a lot of talk about knowledge work, and that America can be wealthy by thinking and letting other nations produce. I think history shows that we'd better produce, too. I think that people who make money from money are living off the wealth creation of other people.
So, what we do in manufacturing is vitally important to the society in which we live (and that goes for whatever part of the world any of you readers happen to live). Keep it going.
8:05:15 AM
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© Copyright 2006 Gary Mintchell.
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