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Manufacturing Intelligence Portal: News, Products, Articles & Resources

Microsoft and OMAC host Manufacturing Operations Forum
 
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Research Triangle Park, NC (January 31, 2007) -- Microsoft and the OMAC Microsoft Manufacturing User Group (MS MUG) hosted the Manufacturing Operations Forum in Redmond, Washington, last week. The forum was attended by approximately 140 people. 60% of attendees represented user companies, with the remaining 40% representing Microsoft and other leading vendors in manufacturing operations.

"The purpose of the forum was to address key issues and opportunities in manufacturing operations," said Chris Colyer, Microsoft's World Wide Industry Director of Plant Operation Strategy. According to attendee feedback presented during the wrap-up session, the forum was a huge success. Erik Goode, the new chair of MS MUG and the Chief Architect, Plant Controls Group at Cargill said, "The forum was an excellent opportunity to highlight Microsoft's commitment to the manufacturing community." Because of the success of the forum, Microsoft and MS MUG hope to turn the forum into an annual event.

The forum began on Wednesday afternoon with a presentation by Jim Bauhs, the past chair of MS MUG and the Information Protection Manager - Plant Operations from Cargill. Bauhs summarized the results from the recent online survey conducted by the MS MUG. The results of this survey are posted on the MS MUG website (www.omac.org/msmug). Bauhs also gave a presentation focusing on integrating plant floor and IT security strategies and technologies. The balance of the afternoon was dedicated to presentations from Microsoft on security.

The morning of the second day was dedicated to several presentations by Microsoft on Vista, Office Tools and Integration Tools. The morning session wrapped up with an excellent presentation by Michael Brooks from Chevron on architecting a manufacturing system for a service-oriented architecture.

In the afternoon, five breakout sessions were held. During these breakout sessions, attendees had an opportunity to address major issues and to propose action steps to address these issues. The five topics for the breakout sessions were:

  • Networked Plant of the Future
  • Integration
  • Patch Management
  • Keys to Achieving Reliability
  • The Role of Standards

    On the morning of the last day, the facilitators presented a summary of the results from each of the breakout sessions. Microsoft and the MS MUG leadership plan to take the results from the breakout sessions and develop detailed action plans based on feedback.

    The presentations from the forum will be posted on the MS MUG website next month.

    About OMAC
    OMAC-The Open Modular Architecture Controls Users' Group is an affiliate organization of ISA - The Instrumentation, Systems and Automation Society - and works to collectively derive common solutions for both technical and non-technical issues in the development, implementation, and commercialization of open, modular architecture control (OMAC) technologies, and to facilitate the accelerated development and convergence of industry and government developed OMAC technology guidelines to one set that satisfies common use requirements. OMAC has about 500 member representatives from end-user companies, OEM's, and technology providers and integrator companies. OMAC currently operates three Work Groups: Packaging Machinery, Manufacturing Infrastructure, and Machine Tool. OMAC is a founding charter member of The Automation Federation.
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