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Wednesday, October 8, 2008 |
I'm at the Palazzo / Venetian hotel complex in Las Vegas this week for the second straight conference with record attendance and high energy. This is WonderWorld--the Wonderware user conference. The first thing I learned while checking in was that Wonderware software runs the energy management system for the hotel. I explained what Wonderware was to the woman who checked me in as she told me it had "something to do with the operations of the hotel."
Mark Davidson, vice president of global marketing, introduced the theme of the conference to the approximately 900 attendees as Enabling Innovation for Real-time Operational Excellence--and then introduced the keynote innovation presenter Martin Eberhard, founder of Tesla Motors Inc.
Successful serial entrepreneur, Eberhard led the audience through the process of deciding upon a project then through the development of the car. The initial team (of two) decided on energy savings after listening to President Clinton talk about global warming offering the biggest opportunity since the mobilization for World War II plus remarks of Secretary of State Condoleza Rice talking about national security tied up to energy usage. Electric cars seemed to be the best bet. The question was how to fuel the batteries. They settled on lithium-ion batteries much like the ones powering this MacBook Pro I'm writing this on assembled on a Lotus sports car chassis. We saw production model number 2. If you have a spare $100,000 to put in a car, put your name on the list and never buy gas again.
Next up was Wonderware Vice President of Global Product Management Rashesh Mody whose job was to layout the company's product roadmap. First off, everything is built on the system platform Iâo[dot accent]ve reported on before. One emphasis on new product development is to "make it simple to use." This is a trend I've begun to see and the company that pulls it off best will have a real advantage. Wonderware is building out the product portfolio in the progression of HMI/SCADA to MES to EMI--or in English human-machine interface and supervisory control and data acquisition (the legacy of the company) to the manufacturing operations management space that is still clinging to the acronym MES. Building out at the top layer is enterprise manufacturing intelligence--or providing information to workers to empower their decision-making.
I also picked up on the expo hall floor that Wonderware along with partners is beginning to test the waters of energy management and facility automation. This is something that could be big in the near future. Speaking of partners, Wonderware made it a point to take the assembled press corps. around to all the partner booths to introduce us. Building a strong and vibrant partner ecosystem is a strategic direction of the company. They are also trying new media types of initiative such as a Wonderware Developers Network, sort of like the Microsoft Developers Network, which is a place on the Web where knowledge can be shared and questions asked.
I've been re-thinking my prejudices about reading stuff on computers given the large displays with great graphic rendering engines, and a partner company, ACP Thin Clients, was showing some Wonderware screens rendered on large flat panel displays that were simply beautiful. This is a sometimes overlooked technology that will have impact on the way operators view their plants.
9:15:31 AM 
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© Copyright 2008 Gary Mintchell.
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