Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Manufacturing and IT The Instrumentation, Systems and Automation Society (ISA) is putting together a forum designed to get manufacturing/automation professionals and IT professionals talking with each other. "IT and Manufacturing Collaboration--A Competitive Advantage" will be held in Cleveland on May 20-21. I will be there on May 21 to moderate a panel (unfortunately for this event, I'll be helping host the Packaging Automation Forum in Chicago on May 20). Editors from Managing Automation, MBT and Intech will also be participating. I talked yesterday with Steve Pflantz of CRB Consulting and Eric Cosman, Engineering Solutions IT Consultant at Dow Chemical, along with Bob Crigler, Business Development Manager at ISA about the Forum. Eric asked the appropriate question, "why is IT and manufacturing collaboration still a popular topic?" Certainly we have written several articles on that topic at Automation World over the past four years. He noted that while technology has brought the two disciplines together, cultures are keeping them apart. The whole idea of a conference is to bring people from both disciplines together, present some ideas and best practices, and then get the conversation started. I'd encourage my readers to get there and come with someone of the other discipline. It would be great to get an automation engineer and IT manager in the same room. I've talked with many technology vendor marketing people who have anecdotes of where they were the catalyst that brought people from the two departments together for the first time in a plant or company. Maybe this conference will accomplish that on a wider scale. I'm also fascinated by the new direction being forged by the current ISA leadership. It's moving toward a model of promoting the profession along with a renewed emphasis on standards development and implementation. This is a refreshing focus and should provide much needed energy for the association. I just hope that the "old guard" can see that this more inclusive approach is not threatening to them, but is a much needed shot in the arm for what was a declining organization. One of the comments made during the conference call broached the idea of formulating a definition of "manufacturing IT" (my words) as a profession and then developing standards, best practices and training for it. For other examples of what ISA is doing, check out my interview with Andre Ristaino, managing director of the Automation Standards Compliance Institute that appeared in the December issue of AW. Coming up in February is an interview with Bruno Kisala, managing director of the Automation Federation, where he sheds some light on ISA's renewed focus on promoting the automation profession and workforce development. This is all very encouraging news. 7:08:31 AM    comment []

Software company acquisitions In further consolidation of small software companies, Bentley Systems has purchased the global business of ECT International, a provider of computer-aided engineering design tools for electrical control systems--best known for promisâo¢e. Autodesk acquired ECT's competitor Via Development in 2003. The promisâo¢e application can be used with such CAD applications as MicroStation, MicroStation PowerDraft or AutoCad and contains a repository of more than 2 million parts. Partner companies providing database content include Hoffman, Pandui, Rockwell Automation, Schneider Electric and others. Bentley states in its press release that it will be better able to respond to a growing need among building, plant, civil and geospatial infrastructure professionals for more comprehensive solutions incorporating electrical wiring, diagramming and drawing production. Specific to Automation World readers, Bentley also sees a category of "rapidly growing significance"--industrial solution suppliers--who design, configure and fabricate modules for assembly on site for manufacturing. Commenting on this latest Bentley acquisition, Bhupinder Singh, senior vice president, Bentley Software, said, "Automating the design of electrical control systems results in important efficiencies, leading to increased professional productivity. But especially, Bentley user organizations have wanted automated electrical design to be fully integrated with other disciplines and workflows across the infrastructure lifecycle. They know that this advancement would multiply, many times over, their productivity improvements." 6:25:03 AM    comment []