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Monday, August 21, 2006 |
Received some ODVA news. The first edition of the CompoNet specification has been approved by its Technical Review Board and publication is scheduled for the next publication cycle (not specified by the release). This will be followed by competion of the Conformance Testing specification. Yet, ODVA expects to see products from Omron before the end of the year and other vendors following in 2007. This is a bit-level sensor network announced last year as "CIP Net SA."
The release says CompoNet has an "advanced physical layer that minimizes signal degradation and transmission delays." Data rates are 4, 3 and 1.5 Mbps and 93.75 kbps. Overall network length is 1,500 meters using repeaters. The spec includes an option for power (24 Vdc at 5 A) over the signal cable with the capability to remove and replace nodes under power.
A further ODVA caveat. At the PTO conference, much was made of the installed nodes of ProfiSafe implying that the Safety bus under CIP was still to come. Well, that's only partly true. There are DeviceNet Safety implementations today, but Safety over EtherNet/IP is not expected until next year. ProfiSafe, on the other hand, works today over both Profibus and ProfiNet. When companies and organizations start making comparisons, it gets difficult for us "non-experts."
4:02:41 PM 
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Book of the weekend was "Thinking for a Living: How to Get Better Performance and Results from Knowledge Workers" by Thomas H. Davenport. This was a brief, rather easy read. Reminds me of a process a guy in the Sociology department of Louisiana State I knew when I was down there in grad school--run out and do some research (questionaires) then publish as many articles as quickly as possible by massaging the data in different ways. This book is the result of some research, but looks to be put together to sell while the author's name is hot.
Anyway, there were some nuggets. In the chapter on knowledge work processes, he states "With knowledge work it's a good idea to make the improvement process as participative as possible. Knowledge workers are much more likely to agree with and adopt any process changes if they have been a party to designing them."
I'll be following the exploits of a new school principal this year (no name, no school district, but real stuff). First, gotta believe that teachers are knowledge workers (maybe the first ones?). This new manager assumed the new responsibility during the summer when people don't come to the building every day. However, the principal made major restructuring changes such as switching grade level assignments. These have all been communicated solely through general letters to all staff. A few other changes have been discovered by teachers coming in early to prepare rooms and picking up "gossip." In fact, this whole process just feeds the gossip network. So, has this new manager succeeded in getting the staff on board and fired up for a new year? What do you think? Would it fire you up? Or would you be polishing your resume?
So, how do you interact?
10:57:57 AM
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Jim Pinto's latest enewsletter is out. Sounds like he had a great interview with Peter Martin of Invensys/Foxboro. Jim's pretty bullish on the company, now. I'd like to make a couple of additional points to the post.
First, Jim doesn't mention Wonderware. My understanding is that Wonderware has been a stable income producer for Invensys during the company's bleak times. It also has been able to keep a core group of top employees. It's possible that it is even growing market share (I never see reliable numbers on that, so have to go with a compilation of anecdotal evidence). Foxboro still has significant competitive pressures, but it has remained competitive despite the financial problems in London. The story also shows the problems with discussion lists on the Web. (I've been on these things in various areas since 1991, and am still on a soccer referee list.) It's too easy to just get the complainers and other unthinking responses. You really have to filter what's said.
The second thing I'd like to respond to comes from the comments section where we still have the tired horse of "what are we going to do when all the expertise retires?" comments. I've said it before, companies are already doing that--and before engineers are ready to retire. In cost cutting moves, companies are having experienced engineers train young ones and then firing the older ones. That knowledge transfer is well under way. Further, look at the engineering education that kids get these days. National Instruments had some college engineering students showing off some pretty darn remarkable stuff at NI Week. I'm an engineering school dropout mostly because I was bored with "book learning" only and wanted to build circuits. That's what I did in high school and expected to do more in college. No soap. Now, they get to build things. It's "way cool."
7:46:51 AM
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Here's an article from The New York Times about companies adapting to the new airline travel realities. I, like most frequent travelers, do not like to check baggage. It takes extra time, especially at the destination airport. Baggage handlers beat the crap out of your luggage. It's still possible for you bag to get lost or be delayed (I've had both happen in the last year).
However, with the current ruling prohibiting liquids and gels, you pretty much have to check your bag. Best suggestion I heard for a service was for hotels to jump in and offer small kits with shaving creme, toothpaste, etc. I always use the hotel supplied shampoo and lotion. That leaves just the problem (for me at least) of contact lens solution. Small packs of that would be great. Then, we could still carry on.
7:28:24 AM
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© Copyright 2006 Gary Mintchell.
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