Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Smart Grid Ah, we have a new president and new Congress--but at least manufacturing and automation leaders are trying to enter into the conversation early. NEMA President CEO Evan Gaddis joined federal agency heads and industry representatives in testimony to the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources on March 3, 2009. Speaking on behalf of the electric manufacturing sector, Gaddis addressed the status of and obstacles to smart-grid implementation. Of particular interest to the committee are the steps the agencies have taken to fulfill smart-grid mandates outlined in the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007. Gaddis told the committee that technologies available today were not being deployed because of uncertainty over cost recovery and standards. "If we get grid standards in place before we start building, we will save time and money," Gaddis said. Gaddis presented a framework for priority standards development, including agreement on time, location, and power measurement. He also noted that the standards development organizations (SDO) had the capability to develop industry consensus quickly, and recommended that accredited SDOs be directed to accelerate critical standards development.   "NEMA and our member companies stand ready to deliver the standards that will make the smart grid a national reality," Gaddis said. NEMA is the association of electrical and medical imaging equipment manufacturers. I refer to the EISA as part of my March feature article at Automation World (not yet posted). 7:08:20 AM    comment []

Real and virtual worlds collide In other partnering news, Dassault Systemes, a supplier of product lifecycle management systems, has taken a minor equity position in Intercim, a supplier of management execution systems, in order to develop a product that will combine the real-time manufacturing information provided by MES with product definition provided by PLM. The goal as explained by executives Patrick Michel of Dassault and Judson Plapp of Intercim I interviewed yesterday is to provide real-time "as is" 3D representations of sub-assemblies and assemblies. This information will help planners and managers make better decisions about process and engineering changes during production of complex products--for example, airplanes. Dassault Systèmes' investment in Intercim, a partner since 2004, follows a June 2008 Memorandum of Understanding to provide the aerospace and defense industry with Intercim's manufacturing operations management solution integrated with Dassault Systèmes' V6 platform. This investment strengthens the currently available joint Dassault Systèmes -- Intercim V5 solution around 3D process planning and manufacturing execution. It also accelerates the development of a new V6 production experience that combines the values of MES and PLM, "revolutionizing" the sharing of intellectual property between engineering, manufacturing planning and production communities by: Creating real-time collaboration on product and production lifecycle data in a single online referential between the different communities in the manufacturing supply network, such as design engineering, manufacturing engineering, shop floor, and quality management; Enforcing engineering-driven production execution on the shop floor, as designed and as planned; Increasing visibility and traceability for all manufacturing stakeholders of shop floor execution with real-time 3D access to the "as-built" product, process and resource information; Enabling immediate impact analysis and validation of corrective actions in the virtual model before committing to cost intensive implementations; and Validating production best practices with engineering for improved product manufacturability, reduced warranty costs and collapsed certification processing time for regulatory compliance. 6:59:27 AM    comment []