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		Lean Production with Work Process Management By Greg Millinger and Alicia Bowers, GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms By maintaining automated control over a process with Work Process Management, companies can have a much better chance of reducing waste for the longer term. Includes Lean Six Sigma glossary.

		Wasted Data - 05/18/12 Automated Buildings, May 2012 By Peter Chipkin, Chipkin Automation Systems By using the Cloud to break the boundary between Building Automation (usually a local issue) and the cloud we can increase the value of the automation projects to the Enterprise.

		An economic case for reliability - 05/12/12 Control Engineering Europe, May 2012 By Ron Stallworth, Honeywell Process Solutions A facility can now only be considered to be ‘world-class’ if they can create competitive advantage, for example, through the use of reliability and asset management programmes.

		Is industry ready to adopt IT trends? - 05/12/12 Control Engineering Europe, May 2012 Christian Schad and James Hannay, SCHAD Authors discuss the issues surrounding adoption of some of the latest mainstream IT trends by the industrial sector.

		Automation Usage of IT Network Technology - 05/07/12 Automation.com, May 2012 By Bill Lydon, Editor Participants of the Pharmaceutical Automation Roundtable discussed the topic of networking approaches while considering the differences between manufacturing automation control system networks and business IT networks.


		Unifying Recipe Management - 04/30/12 Automation.com, April 2012 By Bill Lydon, Editor The Pharmaceutical Automation Roundtable group described the overall goal and vision of unified recipe management is to increase manufacturing productivity and accomplish zero day production releases. How far have they come?

		Remote Access Goes Mainstream - 04/21/12 Control, April 2012 By Dan Hebert Remote access is one of the fastest-growing and most quickly accepted new technologies to ever hit the process control industry. It seems that everybody in the process industry is using remote access in one way or another, for a variety of purposes ranging from equipment diagnosis to optimizing control systems.

		Six Reasons Why Manufacturing Systems Fail - 04/21/12 IMPO, April 2012 by Erik Kaas, Sage ERP Manufacturers can achieve a number of business goals by investing in cost-effective, end-to-end solutions that are simple to implement and use. Here are six reasons why manufacturing systems fail:

		Benefit of a Relational Embedded Database for Industrial Automation Systems - 04/15/12 Automation.com, April 2012 By Sasan Montaseri, ITTIA What are the important characteristics for selecting an embedded database for an industrial automation system? What can a database offer beyond recovery from power failure, preventing data loss, or reducing flash media wear? What are the hidden costs when selecting an embedded database?

		Root Cause Analysis - Treat the problem, not the symptom! - 04/10/12 Automation.com, April 2012 By Bill Lydon, Editor The fundamental principal of root cause analysis is to use symptoms as clues to find the real source of a problem. This method requires analysis and/or testing to determine if something is a symptom or problem, but it can ultimately decrease the time to resolution.

		A rational approach to alarm rationalization - 04/07/12 Control Engineering, April 2012 By John E. Bogdan, Susan F. Booth While it may not be your favorite activity, thoughtful alarm rationalization pays major operational dividends in the long run and will keep your operators happier.

		Which way is PLM headed? - 04/07/12 Process & Control Engineering, April 2012 By Rajiv Ghatikar To serve as a single source of knowledge, the PLM system must support all relevant product data - mechanical CAD data, ECAD data, software components and so on.

		Using alarm suppression - 04/03/12 InTech, April 2012 By Charlie Fialkowki, Siemens Industry Alarm suppression, defined as preventing indication of the alarm to the operator when the base alarm condition is present, is a useful function for helping to ensure that operators are not presented with alarms unless they are relevant.

		Fieldbus Foundation Remote Operations Management Strategy - 03/21/12 Automation.com, March 2012 By Bill Lydon, Editor The goal of FOUNDATION for Remote Operations Management (ROM) is linking people that understand the processes and equipment in a secure fashion around the world to achieve faster start-up time and reduced operating costs.

		Creating Value in a Hyper‐connected World - 03/16/12 Automation.com, March 2012 By Bill Lydon, Editor Tom Koulopoulos discusses innovation, big data, connections and collaboration at the recent PROFINET Executive Forum. If we open our minds and use data, connections and collaboration, we create a recipe for intelligence (success).

		Configure your own CMMS software - 03/14/12 PlantServices.com, March 2012 By David Berger, P.Eng Plants need software that can mold to constant changes. One of the most visible difference between modern CMMS packages and older, less flexible applications is the ability to tailor the software to a given user or user group, such as planners.

		Death by Dashboards - 03/14/12 Automated Buildings, March 2012 By Jack Mc Gowan, Energy Control One dashboard may not be able to fulfill all expectations, but it is important to clearly formulate what is expected and to evaluate the market based on “Building Knowledge” rather than Data Visualization.

		Inside the Killer App for Buildings & Energy Management - 03/14/12 Automated Buildings, March 2012 By Jim Sinopoli, Smart Buildings The software application with the best verified results and cost effectiveness is fault detection and diagnostics. It’s the killer app of the building automation and building energy management industry.

		Automation True Believers Gather in Orlando - 03/12/12 Automation.com, March 2012 By Bill Lydon, Editor The annual ARC World Industry Forum brings together a wide range of innovative industrial automation users, industry associations, suppliers, system integrators, and thought leaders to learn and share ideas. These are the true believers who understand the impact that automation has on sustaining manufacturing competitiveness.

		Search for the Asset Management, Part I - 03/10/12 Control, March 2012 By Nancy Bartels Asset management (AM) and maintenance systems have their own "Holy Grail," which, like the cup of legend, seems close, but still just out of reach.

		Information Synergy - 02/27/12 Automation.com, February 2012 By Bill Lydon, Editor The automation industry is learning to go beyond simply providing business systems with data by synergistically using information to collaborate in new ways to make plants more profitable, responsive and efficient.

		Digital Factory Superstructure Emerging with OPC UA - 02/17/12 Automation.com, February 2012 By Bill Lydon, Editor OPC UA is emerging as a fundamental technology for implementing Digital Factory concepts to increase production efficiency. The concept was reinforced at the ARC Forum in a session titled, Transforming Manufacturing with OPC UA: From Embedded to the Enterprise.

		Suppliers Embrace OPC UA - 02/17/12 Automation.com, February 2012 By Bill Lydon, Editor During a half day session at the Sixteenth Annual ARC World Industry Forum Conference some automation vendors made it clear they are adopting OPC UA. This adoption is intended to close the gap between advances in the general computing industry and industrial automation systems.

		Maximising operational efficiency - 02/15/12 Control Engineering Europe, January 2012 By Simon Ellam, Siemens Maximising throughput, availability and product quality, while minimising operating, maintenance and energy costs, helps to get more out of a process plant. Here are some of the areas that can have a big impact on maximising a process plant’s operational efficiency.

		Engineering objects - 02/04/12 InTech, February 2012 By Carlos M. Delgado, CDM Smith Simple but structured interdisciplinary knowledge containers can help companies keep, transfer, apply engineering expertise

		Emerging Technology Benchmarking - 02/03/12 Automation.com, February 2012 By Bill Lydon, Editor These results of the Pharmaceutical Automation Roundtable (PAR) Emerging Technology Benchmarking Survey addressed major automation topics including DCS vs. PLC, Fieldbus Technology, Smart Devices, VFDs, PAT, APC, Wireless, Operator Interfaces, Computing Technology, Validation and Skills gaps.

		Using HART with asset management systems - 01/29/12 Control Engineering, January 2012 By John Yingst, Honeywell Process Solutions Is HART information sufficient for a comprehensive asset management program? Is native HART-enabled I/O a necessity, or are there practical ways to use it in a legacy I/O environment? Should users expect to make substantial hardware changes?

		Changing with the Times: Industrial Automation 2.0 - 01/27/12 Automation.com, January 2012 By Matthew Littlefield, LNS Research There are a whole slew of new technologies and system architectures being adopted in the automation industry at a very rapid pace. Companies today face the very real possibility that if they don’t effectively understand, adopt, and leverage these new technologies to their advantage; they will be left in an increasingly uncompetitive position.

		Open Architecture "Use Cases" - the Next Frontier - 01/23/12 Automation.com, January 2012 By Bill Lydon, Editor The next major frontier in the evolution of open architecture is the development of application standards built around Use Cases to increase automation productivity and efficiency. Packaging machine standards from OMAC's Packaging Workgroup is a good example.

		Remote and condition monitoring in chemical plants - 01/19/12 Automation.com, January 2012 By Gianni Minetti, Paradox Engineering Chemical plants struggle with growing complexity and are often instrumented for process control. Wireless sensors might not always be a viable option, while wireless transmission seems to be the best choice. So how to conjugate these two elements?

		Major Automation & Control Trends in 2012 - 01/16/12 Automation.com, January 2012 By Bill Lydon, Editor Here are my thoughts on major automation and control trends in 2012. These opinions are based on a wide range of inputs from users, suppliers and industry consultants, and from attending numerous industry forums, conferences and trade shows every year.

		Visualization - The Key to Improving Building Performance - 01/15/12 Automated Buildings, January 2012 By John Petze, SkyFoundry Analytics software is a key part of the revolution in data visualization that is enabling us to truly understand how our systems.

		Create Information Connections and Optimize Your Plant - 01/12/12 Automation.com, January 2012 By Rockwell Automation To harness the wealth of untapped “manufacturing intelligence,” companies must overcome the barriers to collecting, correlating, visualizing and sharing plantfloor information with the overall operation.

		MES Decisions: Now Easier than Ever - 01/11/12 Automation World, December 2011 By Julie Fraser, Cambashi Deciding whether you need a manufacturing execution system (MES) is easier than ever, yet deciding how to proceed is more difficult than ever.

		Maximising operational efficiency - 01/11/12 Control Engineering Europe, January 2012 By Simon Ellam, Siemens Maximising throughput, availability and product quality, while minimising operating, maintenance and energy costs, helps to get more out of a process plant.

		Reducing business risk through joined up control and monitoring - 12/27/11 Automation, November 2011 By Bob Lane, Siemens Energy and biomass plant owners and operators should be examining the benefits of an integrated process control, gas emissions monitoring and reporting platform to help minimise risk and increase overall operational efficiencies.

		HMI platforms evolve to take on new roles - 12/27/11 South Africa Instrumentation & Control, December 2011 By Craig Resnick, ARC Increasingly, users want the HMI platform to serve not only as an operator interface window into the application, but as an enterprise integration tool.

		Managing Process Plants for Failure - 12/19/11 Automation.com, December 2011 By Bill Lydon, Editor Companies are looking for ways to improve efficiency and profits but the use of and Real-Time Optimization (RTO) including Advanced Process Control (APC) is still limited. Why?

		What Is PAS 55? - 12/18/11 Flow Control, November 2011 By Amy W. Richardson The British Standards Institution’s Publically Available Specification known as BSI PAS 55:2008 is being adopted by organizations around the world and, as a result, is on its way to becoming an internationally recognized standard for asset management.

		A New HMI Software Product. Why? - 11/28/11 Automation.com, November 2011 By Bill Lydon, Editor I was recently introduced to a new HMI software offering, Tatsoft FactoryStudio. My first reaction was - Why does the industry need another HMI software product? I interviewed Tatsoft CEO and founder, Marcos Taccolini to learn more.

		Control engineers shift roles? - 11/24/11 Control Engineering, November 2011 By Sheng Jingwei, Control Engineering China The integration of traditional control systems and manufacturing information systems brings more opportunities for control engineers to be involved and contribute positively to business goals.

		ERP, MES: When accountability meets agility - 11/24/11 Control Engineering, November 2011 By John Weber ERP and MES are not an either/or proposition. The two serve different functions, and should be partners within a given manufacturing organization.

		PLM & ERP: Their Respective Roles In Modern Manufacturing - 11/24/11 Industrial Automation Asia, November 2011 By Melanie Zhou, Parametric Technology Software With the rising adoption and expanding reach of PLM in recent years, it has become increasingly important for manufacturers to understand the relative strengths of PLM and ERP in addressing critical business needs, and what added benefits PLM brings to the enterprise.

		In Redundancy We Trust - 11/18/11 Control Design. November 2011 By Jeremy Pollard Be very careful with any cloud implementation, private or public. Make sure you know what you are getting and get proof of the redundancy.

		Help Is on the Way - 11/18/11 Control, November 2011 By Nancy Bartels Specification 55-1:2008 for Asset Management (PAS 55) provides clear definitions and a requirements specification for establishing a comprehensive, optimized management system for all types of physical assets across their lifecycle.

		Saving of the Green - 11/18/11 Control, November 2011 By Nancy Bartels Good Asset Management yields both more uptime and more efficiency, but it also can be a big contributor to your energy-saving and sustainability efforts.

		Must Industry Choose Between Security or Efficiency? - 11/14/11 Automation.com, November 2011 By Eric Byres, Byres Security Inc. On one hand, industry is becoming increasingly concerned about just how vulnerable control systems have become to outside attacks. At the same time, new tools and applications that improve efficiency, but increase that exposure, are appearing daily. So must we sacrifice these gains in efficiency if we want to be secure?

		Top 5 Roadblocks to Digital Factory of the Future - 11/14/11 Design News, November 2011 By Alexander Wolfe The roadblocks on the path to a seamlessly integrated engineering tool chain are many, and they're often hard to articulate.

		Avoid the Crisis - Achieve Zero Downtime - 11/10/11 Automation.com, November 2011 By Roy Kok In the terms of Automation, a crisis can be characterized as a loss of production (downtime), possibly of a simple piece of equipment, or it can be extensive, affecting major portions of the plant. Are we giving enough focus to the right areas, not focusing on the level of a "worst case scenario" type of crisis?

		Vision in the production process - 11/05/11 Control Engineering Europe, October 2011 By John Haddon, UK Industrial Vision Association Industrial vision systems can introduce automation into the production process at a number of different levels – from speeding up the inspection process to being an integral part of a statistical process control (SPC) system that can identify when a manufacturing process is moving out of specification.

		Has Open Architecture Delivered? - 10/28/11 Automation.com, October 2011 By Bill Lydon Since the 1980s, the automation industry has been adopting standards for networked industrial communications, software, and applications. Have users gained all the benefits originally envisioned?

		The Danger With Time Bombs - 10/21/11 Control, October 2011 By Pierre Grosdidier Time bombs prevent the execution of programs past a certain date and time. Vendors use them to enforce license agreements. Can your software vendor lock up your software so that you have to buy an upgrade? Maybe not.

		Have you evaluated your MOM strategy lately? - 10/17/11 South Africa Instrumentation & Control, October 2011 By Gerhard Greeff, Bytes Systems Integration New thinking has gone beyond MES into the realm of MOM (of which MES is but a part). A system cannot be specified using the AMR or the MESA MES definitions from the 1990s anymore and so another definition is required. MOM is a lot easier to define.

		Driving operational excellence in brewing - 10/17/11 Process and Control, September 2011 By John Taylor, AspenTech Article explains how both breweries and their suppliers must streamline processes in order to drive real profitable growth while still meeting customer demand.

		Testing the cloud - 10/17/11 Instrumentation, October 2011 By Dan Joe Barry, Napatech Cloud computing has become a reality, with more and more enterprises realising the benefits of remote hosting of IT services. This however, requires extensive test and management capabilities.

		Equipment Criticality: Assessment For Reliability - 10/15/11 Maintenance Technology, October 2011 Equipment criticality assessment is a key process in the development of any maintenance and reliability process. It provides the basis for determining the value and impact that specific equipment has on the manufacturing or production process, as well as the level of attention that equipment requires in terms of maintenance strategy and tactics.

		Managing Equipment Data Through Asset Virtualization - 10/15/11 Power, October 2011 By Costantino Lanza, INOVx Solutions, and Jason Makansi, Pearl Street Asset “virtualization” extends and combines the technologies of 3-D visualization and virtual reality for life-cycle management of power industry equipment. All data for a component, subsystem, or plant is stored as 3-D models of the actual plant, constructed using laser scanning techniques.

		MES – meeting the need for improved food safety - 10/15/11 Control Engineering Europe, October 2011 By Steve Diggines, STICORP With new FDA regulations, MES could play an important role in helping European food and beverage manufacturers that export to the US comply with FDA requirements.

		5 EMI Core Functions - 09/29/11 Automation World, September 2011 By Gary Mintchell AMR Research identified five core functions every Enterprise Manufacturing Intelligence application should possess.

		Digging Through Data to find Manufacturing Intelligence - 09/29/11 Automation World, September 2011 By Gary Mintchell Enterprise manufacturing intelligence (EMI) software, coupled with innovative ways of displaying information, is delivering such returns at plants large and small.

		Cyber Security Threats - Actions to Take - 09/26/11 Automation.com, September 2011 By Bill Lydon, Editor In Part 2 of my interview with Eric Byres, leading industrial automation cyber security expert, he expands on the challenges and solutions for industrial cyber security, and includes recommendations for actions to take to protect your company and assets.

		The Risky Side Of ERP - 09/24/11 Manufacturing.net, August 2011 By Michael P. Collins This article exposes the problems and the dark side of ERP and other IT software, if for no other reason than to make the sellers work harder on guaranteeing the benefits and exposing the problems that happen during implementation.

		Roadmap for Best Practices in Manufacturing - 09/24/11 Control, September 2011 By Dan Hornbeck, Rockwell Automation The combination of global safety standards, advanced safety technologies and innovative design approaches are turning safety into a core function that delivers significant business and economic value.

		Take a Bite Out of Lifecycle Costs - 09/24/11 Control, September 2011 By Dan Hebert How can automation be used to monitor, control and cut lifecycle costs for process equipment and components? The "big three" are reducing stress on equipment, enabling proactive maintenance and cutting energy use.

		Understanding asset failure - 09/20/11 Plant Services, September 2011 By David Berger, Plant Services Understanding your assets means knowing what they and their components are used for, the nature of their failures and which maintenance policies should be put in place to predict, prevent or react to a failure in the most cost-effective manner.

		The Challenge to Legacy Building Management Systems - 09/20/11 Automated Buildings, September 2011 By Jim Sinopoli, Smart Buildings Improved or advanced BMS systems will need to have “middleware” software tools and be able to standardized data from a variety of sources and systems into an open database structure.

		Availability in the cloud - 09/08/11 Control Engineering Europe, August 2011 By Mike Lees, Hardware PT In order to decide whether manufacturing is right to put its trust in the cloud, one has to consider the implications of any potential downtime – from a production and safety perspective.

		Cyber Security Threats: Expert Interview with Eric Byres, Part 1 - 08/28/11 Automation.com, August 2011 By Bill Lydon, Editor Cyber Security is a hot topic that has become more intense since the notoriety of the Stuxnet virus. I interviewed Eric Byres, one of world’s leading industrial automation cyber security experts, to gain a greater understanding of the challenges and solutions for industrial cyber security.

		Are GIS and EAM Systems Smart Grid-ready? - 08/18/11 Electric Light & Power, August 2011 By Jeff Hanna and Paul Yarka, Accenture Are our systems and databases that enable transmission and distribution business operations smart grid-ready? More specifically, are the GIS and EAM systems that underpin and support network operations sufficiently integrated to support and enable effective smart grid operations?

		SCADA Security's Air Gap Fairy Tale - 08/17/11 Automation.com, August 2011 By Eric Byres This tale doesn’t have princes or frogs in it, but instead it deals with SCADA and industrial control system security. It is the myth of the "air gap" between control systems and the rest of the world. Believing in it leads to a false sense of complacency by both end users and vendors, making it a very dangerous fairy tale indeed.

		All About the Cloud - 08/13/11 Control Engineering Asia, July 2011 By Thierry Decroix, et al Industrial equipment executives need to evaluate what cloud computing can do for their business and asking the right questions is the right place to start. Registration required to read story.

		IT Supports Lean Thinking - 08/13/11 Automation World, August 2011 By James R. Koelsch As automation professionals become more versed in Lean principles, they are ignoring the maxim that Lean manufacturing and information technology don’t mix.

		Is there a best practice for MOM, MES and MIS systems implementation? - 08/13/11 South Africa Instrumentation & Control, August 2011 By Neels van der Walt, Bytes Systems Integration Various pitfalls and challenges mark the road to designing and implementing MES (manufacturing execution systems), MIS (manufacturing information systems) and MOM (manufacturing operations management) systems successfully.

		CMMS for the asset lifecycle - 07/25/11 Plant Services, July 2011 By David Berger Many CMMS vendors provide a healthy balance of functionality that comes out of the box as a core CMMS offering and functionality obtained through seamless integration with CMMS partner software.

		Raising the I/Q of Intelligent Buildings - 07/25/11 Automated Buildings, July 2011 By John Pitcher, Scientific Conservation, Inc. New companies are appearing that use advanced algorithms to keep constant vigilance on facility operation on a daily basis. These algorithms are run on every piece of equipment and sensor available from the building automation system.

		Automation Upgrade and Migration Investment Strategies - 07/25/11 Automation.com, July 2011 By Bill Lydon, Editor There is a continuing discussion about upgrading aging automation systems and TCO is one method used to make decisions. These investments should be analyzed as serious strategic business investments within a defined lifespan. There are a number of factors to consider in this analysis including business, technical, and operations.

		Strategies for Energy Monitoring - 07/23/11 Design News, June 2011 By Al Presher Standard Ethernet networking and PAC technology, new software tools, and demand-response programs team up to identify energy savings and reduce consumption.

		More on Cloud Computing: What Does It Really Do? - 07/22/11 Control Design, July 2011 By Jeremy Pollard Partly cloudy: what's the real difference between this cloud data aggregation solution vs. a local server, local runtimes, with secure remote access?

		MES: the next generation? - 07/22/11 Control Engineering Europe, June 2010 By Bas Broers, Honeywell Process Solutions MES 2.0 solutions have matured to a level that makes them incomparable to system offerings of just a few years ago.

		Users Discuss Remote Operations Experience - 07/18/11 Automation.com, July 2011 By Bill Lydon, Editor At HUG 2011, four users shared their remote operations & monitoring experiences along with lessons learned. Included are recommendations of first steps for other companies considering remote monitoring and operations.

		Process Industries Rediscover Collaborative Production Management - 06/28/11 Automation World, June 2011 By Tom Fiske and Janice Abel Collaborative Production Management (CPM) is one of the hottest automation investment spaces in today’s process industries. After a couple of tumultuous years, companies once again are ramping up spending in CPM.

		Are We Making a MES of Information Technology? - 06/28/11 Automation World, June 2011 By Gary Mintchell Manufacturing Execution Systems, known as MES, have long seemed to be a solution in search of a problem. That’s not entirely fair, of course, but many people puzzle over what it is and how to apply it.

		MES/MOM Delivers Power to the People - 06/28/11 Automation World, June 2011 By Renee Robbins Bassett No matter what your industry or company size, now may be the time to upgrade—or install—the manufacturing operations management software your company needs.

		A Human Focus - 06/27/11 Control Engineering Asia, May 2011 By Hector Perez How paying attention to alarm management and HMI design can yield higher plant safety, productivity and profitability. Registration required to read article.

		The Business Case For PAS 55 - 06/27/11 Maintenance Technology, June 2011 By John Benders, Mincom Time to get ready. A standard's coming for asset management. Here's some insight into this framework for maximizing the return on your assets and improving safety. You'll need to think 'best practices.'

		Uncovering the Benefits of Industrial Ethernet - 06/20/11 Automation.com, June 2011 By Nuris Ismail and Matthew Littlefield Aberdeen surveyed over 150 executives about the current state of their manufacturing operations and industrial networks. This article explores how the industry leaders are taking advantage of industrial networking to enable real-time visibility into data to optimize production, maintenance, and safety.

		IT investments shift to the plant - 06/12/11 South Africa Instrumentation & Control, June 2011 By Tom Fiske and Janice Abel, ARC Advisory Group Collaborative production management (CPM) is one of the hottest automation investment spaces in today’s process industries. After a couple of tumultuous years, companies once again are ramping up spending in CPM solutions. There are many reasons for this upsurge.

		Improving decision-making for equipment assets - 06/12/11 InTech, June 2011 By John Renick Efficiency, uptime and profits can be increased with data driven predictive maintenance. But it is only when you are able to put data into motion—aggregate, analyze and act on it—that value can be demonstrated.

		Ethernet Advancements Help Deliver Integrated Plantwide Network Architectures - 06/07/11 Automation.com, June 2011 By Gregory Wilcox, Mike Hannah and Mark Devonshire Industry experts predicted that node cost, determinism issues and security risks would prohibit Ethernet’s growth into manufacturing, but it’s clear that this prediction hasn’t held true. We've experienced a swift rise and widespread industry adoption of Ethernet.

		Real-Time Visibility, Operational Agility and Flexibility driving growth of Industrial Networks - 06/03/11 Automation.com, June 2011 By J. Timothy Shea, VDC Research Group VDC Research partnered with Automation.com to conduct an extensive initiative into the market for wireline and wireless industrial networking infrastructure product markets. Recent research found that the demand outlook for wireline and wireless industrial networking infrastructure products will be quite healthy through 2015.

		Industrial Intelligence: Winning in the New World of Manufacturing - 06/01/11 Automation.com, May 2011 By Brian McDonald, Cisco Systems In the new global business environment, manufacturers are facing some of the toughest operational and strategic challenges in recent memory. Any new investment must pay for itself either through operational savings or revenue growth.

		Game changer - 05/27/11 What’s New in Process Technology, May 2011 By Charlie Mohrmann, Invensys Operations Management From the shop floor to the top floor, automation has caused a revolution. Despite this, mobile field workers are often still running around with clipboards. By empowering these workers with tools that enable them to learn new skills, make suggestions and directly tie their activities to their KPIs, job satisfaction and effectiveness can be increased.

		Combining Power and Automation Products to Serve Customers - 05/27/11 Automation.com, May 2011 By Bill Lydon, Editor ABB creates new role, appoints Brice Koch, to oversee relations with ABB’s largest customers and the development of opportunities in strategic growth areas such as rail, wind, water, solar, energy efficiency and smart grids. Koch will also be responsible for developing ABB’s service business.

		Mass Analytics Improve Process Control Performance - 05/27/11 Automation.com, May 2011 By Bill Lydon, Editor The PlantTriage "true believers" gathered at the ExperTune User Conference from around the world to improve their skills and share their project successes. The conference focused on ways to improve process control performance with training, access to industry experts, and case studies.

		Easier M2E (Machine to Enterprise) Integration - 05/26/11 Automation.com, May 2011 By Roy Kok Over the years, we’ve had sensor upgrades, improved controllers, better operator visibility, data archiving and analytics, and now we have enterprise integration for improved material management, corporate agility, regulatory compliance and a host of other features.

		Microsoft Partner addresses automation needs of ETO manufacturers - 05/23/11 Automation.com, May 2011 By Thomas R. Cutler Within the manufacturing sector, particularly those involved in Engineer-to-Order (ETO) manufacturing, there are special issues and challenges that typical ERP implementations don't address.

		Power plant control system software - 05/18/11 Plant Engineering, May 2011 By M. Szega, et al, PGE Power Plant Performance calculation software packages are new in the power generation business and help with power generation control, electricity grid control, and monitoring via SCADA system.

		When It Comes To Evaluating ERP, Have A Plan - 05/18/11 Manufacturing.net, April 2011 By Dylan Persaud, Eval-Source Organizations make several mistakes when evaluating software. The organization usually proceeds straight to the vendor demonstrations without a plan to get ramped up and educated within the space. The functional and technical requirements have not been gathered and the correct business process mapping has not occurred.

		Product Lifecycle Management: Speeding Up - 05/14/11 Industrial Automation Asia, April 2011 By Ajay Verma, VP Asia Pacific South, Dassault PLM is as much a business strategy as it is a technological solution. It applies collaborative business solutions to the development of products from conception to production, and maintenance and recycling, across the extended enterprise.

		Facilities management for manufacturing - 05/14/11 South Africa Instrumentation & Control, May 2011 By Leon Williamson, Wonderware The benefits of facilities management in a manufacturing environment are well documented. When facilities and manufacturing management are integrated on a common platform the benefits are apparent in every aspect of the business model.

		Back to Basics: Internet, next version, IPv6 - 05/14/11 Control Engineering, May 2011 By Mark Hoske Industry shouldn’t panic about the next version of the Internet Protocol, version 6 (IPv6), the transition from IPv4, or the recent exhaustion of the IPv4 address pool. Take advantage of opportunities, while you can.

		From the Field - ABB Automation and Power World 2011 - 05/11/11 Automation.com, May 2011 By Bill Lydon, Editor Here are a few highlights from ABB Automation & Power World 2011. The event attracted a record number of participants, totaling more than 4,200, and featured over 400 educational workshops and hands-on training sessions, over 45 customer-presented case studies, and an exhibition of ABB and partner products.

		Energy Optimization - Creating another Tower of Babel? - 04/25/11 Automation.com, April 2011 By Bill Lydon, Editor Energy has become a hot topic with vendors and standards organizations, many of which are offering and creating solutions for energy users.

		Identifying Automation System Tribbles - 04/25/11 Automation.com, April 2011 By Roy Kok How did Scotty know? How do you know when your systems are normal? Are the Dilithium crystals at their proper temperature and vibrational frequency for this Warp Speed and area of space? Could he be sure he caught every last Tribble, and none are blocking the cooling ducts to the Anti- Matter Drive?

		The changing role of process optimization - 04/24/11 Control Engineering Europe, March 2011 By John Taylor, AspenTech The process optimisation sector has evolved from point products focusing on specific workflow parts to providing a more integrated workflow capable of managing and handling the engineering challenges of the complete manufacturing supply chain.

		Dynamic Energy Management - 04/18/11 Automated Buildings, April 2011 By Peter Kelly-Detwiler, Constellation Energy Using demand response as a foundation, dynamic energy management takes the load monitoring and curtailment strategy a step further to combine the power of spot market intelligence, real-time monitoring, and automation technology to provide a complete and instant picture of current power usage and cost.

		Future is virtual for manufacturing IT - 04/17/11 Control Engineering, April 2011 By Dennis Brandl, BR+L Consulting Future IT environments will be built on virtualized systems, and this will include the multiple IT systems used in manufacturing. This includes databases, historians, HMIs, schedulers, and even controllers that we use to run our manufacturing operations.

		Top 10 Questions to Consider Before Buying an Industrial Robot - 04/01/11 Automation.com, April 2011 By Jeff Kamin, QComp Robots are the buzz for anyone in manufacturing, assembling, packaging or distributing products. Many end users rely on an integrator or OEM to provide a robot solution without really understanding the potential benefits and liabilities. This article poses some of the questions that a robotic user should consider prior to selecting a robot and a robot programmer/installer.

		Skid Integration Problems Solved by PLCopen Standards - 03/29/11 Automation.com, March 2011 By PLCopen North America The use of skid mounted equipment has become popular for a number of reasons but they pose some unique automation and control challenges that can be solved by using IEC 61131-3 and PLCopen standards.

		Demystifying real-time data acquisition solutions - 03/26/11 South Africa Instrumentation & Control, March 2011 By Gerhard Greeff, Bytes Systems Integration To get information, companies implement various real-time data acquisition solutions. But how do they decide which of these solutions to implement? MIS, EMI, MES and MOM – do you need them all?

		Oil Fields Yield Digital Data - 03/24/11 Control, March 2011 By Jim Montague Software tools that can extract and analyze all kinds of asset management data are turning offshore oil fields and facilities into more efficient, factory-like operations.

		ODVA Industrial Networks Energy Initiative - 03/20/11 Automation.com, March 2011 By Bill Lydon, Editor The intent of this energy initiative is to create a comprehensive approach to the optimization of energy usage for the industrial consumer that is scalable, open and inclusive for both users and suppliers.

		Get connected to your data - 02/28/11 Plant Engineering, February 2011 By Richard Witucki, Schneider Electric The avalanche of data in today’s modern industrial plants is overwhelming. And with it, comes a new set of challenges. How do you sort out what is important and avoid being buried by data?

		Software Validation And Verification Governance: A Risk-Based Approach - 02/28/11 Pharmaceutical Processing, February 2011 By Valarie King-Bailey, OnShore Technology Software errors can have catastrophic results on regulatory controlled processes if the applications are not properly designed, tested and implemented. While much focus is given to validation testing, governance of the validation process is often overlooked.

		Optimizing Plant Performance Using Predictive Diagnostics - 02/28/11 Valve Magazine, Winter 2010 Advances in intelligent control instrumentation have greatly enhanced the communications between controllers and plant personnel.

		OPC UA is Frictionless Bridge to New Automation Architecture - 02/21/11 Automation.com, February 2011 OPC UA elevates automation systems to the level of current computing technology by leveraging web services and Internet Protocol (IP), enabling automation systems to deliver increased value.

		The underutilization of manufacturing intelligence - 02/17/11 InTech, February 2011 By John Nesi Businesses are discovering harvesting data that has been left dormant and isolated in disparate controllers, human machine interfaces, and other plant floor systems can provide vital information about overall equipment effectiveness, system uptime, energy use, and other key performance indicators.

		Innovations in CMMS and EAM are making life easier for the plant maintenance department - 02/14/11 Plant Services, February 2011 By Sheila Kennedy Vendors are taking steps to leverage trends and technologies in their ongoing quest to improve and simplify asset management processes. CMMS and EAM are expanding their offerings.

		Important Operating System Characteristics for Safe and Secure Applications - 02/11/11 Design News, February 2011 By Joe Wlad, Wind River When computing platforms are used in applications where safety or security is paramount, special requirements may need to be addressed.

		Cloud Computing—The Next Automation Wave - 02/11/11 Automation World, January 2011 By Rob Spiegel The view of cloud computing as a viable option for automation tools and applications flipped from skepticism to widespread acceptance in a couple of years. Cost was the final tipping factor that pushed plants into the cloud.

		Wireless mobile alarm implementation - 02/07/11 InTech, February 2011 By David Milne Excellence in integrated mobile alarm management requires attention to control, asset management, productivity, and regulatory issues.

		Device Diagnostics and Asset Management - 02/07/11 Control Engineering, January 2011 By Herman Storey, Herman Storey Consulting As field devices and networks get smarter, are we getting any smarter on how we use them and put that information to work? Effective use of automated diagnostic capabilities in devices in a larger context of an asset management program can provide huge benefits in manufacturing at many levels.

		Rockwell Automation's pursuit of process control - 01/31/11 Automation.com, February 2011 I recently interviewed the two key executives leading Rockwell Automation’s process industry initiative, Som Chakraborti and Steve Pulsifer. We discussed their focus on the process markets, PlantPAx, the sales channel, Ethernet/IP, wireless, and how they compare to traditional DCS systems.

		Pharmaceutical Automation Roundtable (PAR) - Part 4 - Wireless in Manufacturing - 01/25/11 Automation.com, January 2011 This is the fourth article in a series about the annual Pharmaceutical Automation Roundtable (PAR). Automation professionals from leading life sciences companies discussed the use of wireless technologies in manufacturing, citing specific successful examples.

		Major Automation & Control Trends 2011 - 01/25/11 Automation.com, January 2011 I am taking a risk at the beginning of the year to provide my thoughts on automation and control industry trends. I invite readers to contact me and share any other trends or expand on the trends listed. Trends include industrial Ethernet proliferation, leveraging information, remote monitoring, virtualization, mobile device usage, energy conservation and wireless implementations.

		Pharmaceutical Automation Roundtable (PAR) - 5 Part Article Series - 01/25/11 Automation.com, January 2011 This 5 part article series is based on the recent Pharmaceutical Automation Roundtable (PAR). Automation professionals from leading life sciences companies gathered together to discuss MES, visualization, software development, system life-cycle planning, executive governance, electronic testing, wireless and more.

		CMMS implementation isn't done until benefits are realized - 01/16/11 Plant Services, January 2011 By David Berger When and how do you celebrate a successful CMMS implementation? Although the day the new software “goes live” is an important project milestone, it sends the wrong message to bring out the champagne and T-shirts before the real work of benefits realization has begun.

		Pharmaceutical Automation Roundtable (PAR) - Part 2 - Virtualization & Software Configuration Management - 01/11/11 Automation.com, January 2011 This is the second article in a series that are the result of the annual Pharmaceutical Automation Roundtable (PAR). A PAR member started the discussion by relating their experience deploying Virtual Machine (VM) technology. Then the discussion turned to Software Development Environment & Configuration Management.

		Significant Financial Gains Come with Upgrading an Aging Control System to More Modern Technology - 12/21/10 Automation.com, December 2010 By upgrading aging control systems, manufacturers and processing companies are optimizing production flow and enjoying significant gains in productivity and ROI on their control system investments.

		Achieving High Performance through Analytics - 12/18/10 Pharmaceutical Manufacturing, December 2010 By Bikash Chatterjee, Pharmatech Associates Analytics is much more than just measuring and reporting data. The concept of using analytics as a catalyst for business improvement involves transforming an organization’s decision-making process and offers a foundation for business strategy and tactics.

		Get to know the PAS 55 asset management standard - 12/18/10 Reliable Plant, November 2010 By Mike Poland, Life Cycle Engineering The new PAS 55standard will not only pertain to physical assets but to all other organizational assets as well. It will explain what to do, not how to do it, and finally allow organizations to self-declare conformity.

		The 5 biggest risks to effective asset management - 12/18/10 Reliable Plant, December 2010 By Carl March, Life Cycle Engineering There are at least five risks that primarily contribute to an organization’s failure to optimally manage their assets: 1) not knowing what they have; 2) over- or under-maintenance; 3) improper operation; 4) improper risk management; and 5) suboptimized asset management systems.

		Dashboards for Buildings - 12/18/10 Automated Buildings, December 2010 By Jim Sinopoli For years the user interface was the typical BAS graphics, which generally looked like something designed in the 1980s. Today the more advanced integrated building management systems use the increasingly popular browser-based dashboards to present information to users.

		Business Intelligence and Building Automation Analytics - 12/18/10 Automated Buildings, December 2010 By Nino Kurtalj, Elma Kurtalj Every intelligent management decision will pay back quickly. The question is, are we able to distinguish information from terabytes of data?

		Lifecycle Technology - 12/18/10 Control Engineering Asia, November 2010 By Atul Mathur PLM grew out of CAD/CAM, but it has evolved to become a long-term strategic investment and initiative with proven impact on innovation and collaboration over the entire product lifecycle.

		Model-Based Design for Automation - 12/18/10 Design News, December 2010 By Philipp Wallner, B&R For OEMs, modularity of systems is not yet a widely deployed factor in the product development cycle. To make systems reuse a part of the design strategy, self-documenting simulation models can help sustain inter-departmental know-how and reduce time to market.

		Stuxnet: Cybersecurity Trojan horse - 12/14/10 InTech, December 2010 By Joe Weiss Much has been written about Stuxnet from many different sources and perspectives. However, there are still many misconceptions and lessons to be learned. The purpose of this article is to provide observations and recommendations for industrial control system (ICS) cybersecurity practitioners and standards organizations to consider.

		A Roadmap for a Safe and Productive Plant Automation.com, December 2010 Safety has always been a critical measure of success for industrial organizations. Aberdeen Group surveyed more than 230 manufacturing executives to understand how the industry leaders are able to improve productivity without compromising plant safety. This article will highlight the roles business processes and technology play in improving safety and productivity in industrial plants.

		Rockwell Automation Fair 2010 - Smart, Safe & Sustainable Manufacturing Automation.com, December 2010 Highlights from Automation Fair 2010 include an overview of Rockwell Automation's process control initiatives, their vision of a standard, unmodified Ethernet infrastructure, and the release of the Micro800 PLC product line, designed specifically for machine builders.

		Get closer to history with OPC - 12/12/10 What’s New in Process Technology, November 2010 By Matrikon Offline analysis of historical process data is an integral part of process optimisation and production tracking. OPC helps maximise the return on process history investments by providing a standardised mechanism for collection of real-time process data and by enabling scalable multivendor and distributed historical analysis solutions.

		Cloud Computing Proves Essential for Engineering Automation Teams - 12/07/10 Automation.com, December 2010 Power plant management represents one of the most demanding applications for engineering automation software. Equipment from different manufacturers must be coordinated, simultaneously using several protocols. Many facilities require the use of up to a million tags, refreshed at sub-second intervals.

		Invensys OpsManage 2010: Enterprise Control System - the journey continues... Automation.com, November 2010 At Invensys OpsManage 2010, IOM expanded on their Enterprise Control System (ECS). Steve Blair defined enterprise control as understanding and manipulating the real business drivers to optimize operations from plant floor through enterprise.

		Get It All Together For Plant Asset Optimization - 11/21/10 Automation World, November 2010 By Gary Mintchell Once limited in practice just to maintenance scheduling, asset management today requires a holistic view of the plant and all of its information in order to improve return on assets.

		Ensure CMMS data is good enough to trust - 11/21/10 Plant Services, November 2010 By David Berger If you’ve ever been surprised by the results of a query or report your CMMS generated, there are several possible reasons. Unfortunately and all too often, data quality is the culprit — “garbage in, garbage out.” If indeed that is the reason, your CMMS software is not worth the cost of the computer on which it runs.

		Product Lifecycle Management in the Food Industry: No Candy Coating - 11/16/10 Automation.com, November 2010 By Thomas R. Cutler Responding quickly to market trends with profitable, successful new products is the only way to achieve success in the hyper-competitive, margin-thin food and beverage marketplace. New products that drive revenue and meet customer and retailer demands are essential (while complying with stringent regulations.) Even one failed product development initiative is too costly.

		Automation solutions key to process management and optimisation - 11/15/10 European Chemical Engineer, November 2010 The latest automation solutions aimed at the chemical industry focus on reducing total cost of ownership, safety system development and delivery, improved functionality, and asset optimisation.

		The Great Data Link-Up - 11/15/10 Control Design, November 2010 By Jim Montague Despite the historical drawbacks and other new hurdles, some machine builders are finding ways to get machine performance data up to their business-level managers and clients. One of the newest ways to secure and distribute machine information is with the MTConnect standard.

		Lifecycle Technology - 11/15/10 Control Engineering Asia, October 2010 By Atul Mathur PLM grew out of CAD/CAM, but it has evolved to become a long-term strategic investment and initiative with proven impact on innovation and collaboration over the entire product lifecycle.

		Emerson Executive Point of View - 11/09/10 Automation.com, November 2010 Bill Lydon talks with Steve Sonnenberg and Peter Zornio about a number of topics including business challenges, what their customers should be planning for, wireless, cloud computing, and what technologies will have the greatest impact on automation.

		Historian's demise greatly exaggerated - 11/07/10 South Africa Instrumentation & Control, November 2010 By Elliott Middleton, Invensys To enable the analysis of a process, it is necessary to record information regarding operating parameters and states at the time of production. This is where the plant historian becomes a useful application tool.

		Industrial data now in the Cloud - 11/01/10 Automation.com, October 2010 By Bill Lydon Software Toolbox is now providing a cloud-based repository for industrial plant data which can be accessed with web-based clients. Industrial applications using cloud computing are starting to emerge. The IT world has been using cloud computing to lower ongoing support costs and provide greater flexibility.

		Asset tracking: How industrial computers get the job done - 10/20/10 Industrial Embedded Systems, September 2010 By Christine Van De Graaf Rugged computers go directly into equipment like forklifts, automating previously manual tracking tasks and improving speed, accuracy, and more. But not just any computer can step onto a forklift and survive the wear and tear.

		PLM: A Strategy Of Sustainability - 10/20/10 Industrial Automation Asia, November 2010 By Rama Tiwari, Autodesk South East Asia In a sea of increasing costs and constant change, manufacturing companies have to adopt the right practices in Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) to stay afloat.

		Optimised paper production: Part 3 - 10/20/10 South Africa Instrumentation & Control, October 2010 By Carol Jackson, OSIsoft A common strategy of mill-wide information systems in a pulp and paper company is to report production and costs to the mill’s ERP system at the end of every product run. This requires real-time measurement of manufacturing costs.

		Part 6 - How to implement MES and EMI - 10/20/10 South Africa Instrumentation & Control, October 2010 By Ugan Maistry, EOH Mining and Manufacturing All that is left is to see how MES and EMI should best be implemented to meet end-user expectations, minimise risk and deliver the best value.

		Worst Fears Realized - 10/19/10 Control, October 2010 By Nancy Bartels A scary piece of malware named Stuxnet is in town. Remember its name. Its arrival may make you want to change the way you think about control system security.

		Control engineering and information groups at odds? - 10/13/10 InTech, October 2010 By Bill Lydon, InTech Controls and IT people are tending to work closer together. According to the InTech salary survey, 47% of control engineers cooperate with their IT groups, and 8.1% of the salary survey respondents indicated the IT and engineering groups have been combined.

		Optimize. Innovate. Sustain. - 09/26/10 Automation.com, September 2010 Honeywell Process Solutions India organized its annual User Meet on 30th & 31st Aug 2010 at Madh Island, Mumbai on the theme of ‘Optimize. Innovate. Sustain.’ The event saw an overwhelming participation from companies across all industry segments and focused on providing solutions to increase business performance & protect automation investments.

		ERP: An Excellent Strategic Weapon - 09/24/10 IMPO, September 2010 By Cindy Jutras, Aberdeen Group ERP can be a strategic weapon. Not only does it provide a necessary infrastructure that forms the transactional system of record upon which a business is based, but it also serves as a source of cost savings and operational improvements, streamlining and accelerating business processes, allowing SMEs to compete on the same stage as larger companies

		Embrace Process Signature Technology - 09/24/10 IMPO, September 2010 Process signature verification is the capturing of the distinct signature or waveform of critical manufacturing processes as they happen and comparing this with a pre-determined standard. Deviations from the acceptable standard are readily identified and root causes easily determined.

		Future Hiring To Benefit Highly Skilled Workers - 09/24/10 Manufacturing.net, September 2010 Of 8 million-plus jobs lost to the recession -- in fields like manufacturing, real estate and financial services -- many, perhaps most, aren't coming back. In their place will be jobs in health care, information technology and statistical analysis.

		GIS Helps Improve Gas Utility Operations - 09/16/10 Pipeline & Gas Journal, September 2010 By Danny Petrecca, Telvent If utilized as an enterprise system, Geospatial information system technology can support and improve all levels of operations, including asset management, planning and analysis, field and design mobility, and operational awareness.

		Distribution Management Systems: Smartness In Control - 09/12/10 Industrial Automation Asia, August 2010 By Marina Ohrn and Hormoz Kazemzadeh, ABB Power Systems IT systems that support transmission and distribution operations have become more robust and powerful, and have now reached the point where multiple applications can be presented on a single platform. The future grid will be largely automated, being able to apply intelligence to operate, monitor and even heal itself.

		Graphics Lighten the Programming Load - 09/12/10 Automation World, September 2010 By James R. Koelsch Graphical tools have a life beyond the design and programming phases of a project. Because graphics allow users to see how the different function blocks or other elements of a program fit together, graphical tools are a kind of self documentation that is much easier to comprehend than ladder logic.

		Using Workflow to Bolster Plant Performance - 09/12/10 Automation World, September 2010 By Rob Spiegel Plants are using workflow processes to improve efficiency, support regulatory compliance and train new engineers.

		IT and Engineering Insight: Seven habits of unsuccessful projects - 09/10/10 Control Engineering, August 2010 By Dennis Brandl, BR&L Consulting Understanding if you are in an out-of-control IT project is important. Here are some traits of failing or soon-to-fail projects. If you have three or more of these project attributes, you need a project "reboot."

		Cimquest INGEAR Finds Eclectic Customer Base to Assist in Automation Automation.com, September 2010 By Thomas R. Cutler I recently interviewed eight distinct companies about technology, efficiency, and automation trends. While the numerator was different, the technology solution selected by each company, the denominator, was remarkably consistent. Each of these individuals interviewed performed one act in common. Each Googled the phrase ".NET PLC driver."

		Cloud Applications Save Big Dollars - 08/26/10 Automation World, August 2010 By Rob Spiegel Plants are turning to cloud computing for energy management, predictive maintenance and supply-chain support.

		Optimised paper production: Part 1 - 08/23/10 South Africa Instrumentation & Control, August 2010 By Carol Jackson, OSIsoft An infrastructure for providing mill information becomes a model for improving pulp and paper manufacturing. Technologies like ERP and MES are well known as tools to streamline business processes, but they need plant information before they can contextualise.

		Part 4 - Why MES? - 08/23/10 South Africa Instrumentation & Control, August 2010 By Ugan Maistry, EOH Mining and Manufacturing So far, we have looked at what information technologies are available. But the hard questions remained unanswered: why do you actually need these information technologies and what would happen if you ignored them?

		Doing IT on the factory floor - 08/23/10 South Africa Instrumentation & Control, August 2010 There are many drivers bringing IT to the factory floor but perhaps the key enablers are miniaturisation, low cost memory and communication abilities.

		Smart Grid tour educates industry and consumers - 07/27/10 Automation.com, July 2010 By Bill Lydon While the Smart Grid is going to take some time to develop, investing in energy conservation and efficiency has always made sense. Siemens Smart Grid Tour educates industry and consumers using thought-leadership panels, videos, interactive demos, and educational sessions on topics including automation, power distribution, generation, and transmission.

		A Plain English Guide to Modern Manufacturing Methods By Stephen Jannise, Software Advice Reducing cost, maintaining quality, and accelerating production are achieved through the combined efforts of lean manufacturing theories, Six Sigma methodologies, and flexible processes. It’s not a question of which manufacturing method is the right one, it’s a question of how to implement them all for optimum results.

		Examining cloud computing formations - 07/24/10 Plant Services, July 2010 By David Berger Despite the perception that cloud computing is a cheaper, cleaner and more expeditious option, this silver lining sometimes comes with a darker interior. Here are some potential disadvantages of cloud computing to consider when weighing CMMS options.

		3 Reasons Linux Is Preferred for Control Systems - 07/20/10 Automation.com, July 2010 By Krista Duty, Inductive Automation Linux has long been on the "wishlist" for control systems. Until now, most systems have been locked-in to the Windows operating system due to reliance on classic OPC. The name of the game is changing, however, with the arrival OPC-UA. The new standard was designed for cross-platform compatibility, which makes room for Linux to gain popularity in the automated control industry.

		Industry Perspectives from Honeywell User Group 2010 - 07/20/10 Automation.com, July 2010 By Bill Lydon Review the industry perspectives, technology and solutions from HUG Americas 2010. Highlights include an overview of five megatrends identified by Norm Gilsdorf, Honeywell's commitment to legacy products, training and service, and introduction of a new RTU, safety remote IO, in-controller batch manager, and turbo machine controller. Plus, see an example of control system virtualization.

		Best-of-breed vs ERP - 07/18/10 Manufacturers’ Monthly, July 2010 By Rob Stummer The number of stand-alone or ‘best of breed’ software applications has grown. These software products deal with only a segment of the enterprise, inhibiting the free flow of communication, and reducing efficiencies. The more these software products proliferate, the more difficult it is to extract real-time data for reporting purposes.

		Sustainable Production - 07/18/10 Control Engineering Asia, June 2010 By G Venkatesh Is your manufacturing enterprise built to last? Here’s just what it takes to become sustainable.

		Driving Technology and Innovation Together Automation.com, July 2010 By Bill Lydon Review the technology and innovations presented by Siemens at their recent 2010 Automation Summit, held in Charlotte, NC. Highlights include Siemens’ focus on energy, advancements in their process control offering, their industrial communications strategy and new distributed panel devices.

		Upgrading (or updating) instrument calibration programs - 07/13/10 InTech, July 2010 By Mike Cable Significantly improve your calibration program efficiency and compliance with a CCMS upgrade.

		Effective Decision Support in Near-Real Time - 07/11/10 Automation World, July 2010 By Allen Avery, ARC Plant data historians are moving beyond their traditional role as tools to collect and archive data to better understand past plant performance, to becoming powerful tools that can be used to help improve real-time operations.

		Metrics are Spreading to the Manufacturing Dashboard - 07/11/10 Automation World, July 2010 By Rob Spiegel Real-time metrics are helping plant operators fine-tune their plant processes to real cost savings.

		Real-time Information Boosts Manufacturing Decision Making - 07/11/10 Automation World, July 2010 By Gary Mintchell Manufacturers and producers continue to realize gains in productivity, efficiency and profitability by using real-time production data to empower operator and manager decision making.

		Setting The Pace - 07/11/10 Industrial Automation Asia, July 2010 By Andreas Huhmann, Harting Technology Group Automation IT couples industrial networking with Office IT innovation cycles to create a uniform, shared communication platform for all applications in manufacturing companies.

		Stop and Think! Solving Problems More Effectively Automation.com, June 2010 By Bill Lydon Leveraging the knowledge and know-how of the people in an organization is a powerful way to make improvements and solve problems. The difficulty is getting this done effectively and avoiding an ineffective committee that creates more problems. The Kepner-Tregoe processes and techniques are powerful tools to achieve better outcomes. This article explores the Kepner-Tregoe methods as a tool for automation professionals.

		Successful CMMS Implementation Strategies - 06/23/10 MRO, June 2010 By: Peter Phillips Of four methods to get a computerized maintenance management system working effectively, one stands out as best.

		Ease Labor Pains With Asset-Performance Management - 06/23/10 Maintenance Technology, June 2010 By Margaret Wilson, USC Consulting Group Implementing an asset-performance management program before high labor turnover and aging equipment erode capacity, efficiency and profits can go a long way toward safeguarding a company's future.

		Look, Up in the Sky … It’s Cloud Computing! - 06/16/10 Managing Automation, June 2010 By Chris Chiappinelli An apt metaphor, the cloud remains hazy and undefined to many business leaders in manufacturing and the broader economy. Here is a primer on cloud computing’s formation and its industrial forecast.

		Integration Management: Aiming for Agility - 06/16/10 Managing Automation, June 2010 By Jeff Moad In a post-recession climate, manufacturers are focusing on plant-to-enterprise integration projects that will move them closer to the long sought-after goals of strategic decision making and real-time adaptability.

		Finding the Plant’s Intelligence - 06/16/10 Automation World, June 2010 By Alex Anderson Software applications and connectivity give managers insight into plant operations, enablng them to improve performance.

		Commodity manufacturing processes - 06/16/10 South Africa Instrumentation & Control, June 2010 By Gavin Halse, ApplyIT Business leaders have come to regard their IT systems as mere commodity infrastructures, unable to add new strategic value and in the same category as office buildings, telephones and photocopy machines.

		What is 'IT in manufacturing' about? Part 6 - 06/16/10 South Africa Instrumentation & Control, June 2010 By Deon van Aardt, Wonderware Southern Africa This final chapter will hopefully answer some of the questions organisations may be asking themselves.

		The power of integration exemplified at ABB A&PW 2010 By Bill Lydon, Automation.com The "Connect, Learn, Succeed" theme of this event was about users forming stronger working relationships with ABB. The event brought the opportunity to connect across disciplines and apply products and knowledge - focusing on the power of integration, particularly between automation and power systems. The event attracted more than 4,000 people and offered more than 400 educational and hands-on sessions and a 100,000 sf. exhibit area.

		The ERP Umbrella - 05/25/10 IMPO, May 2010 By Anna Wells In any modern plant, communication is key. But just what level does your facility really need and, perhaps more importantly, what can you manage? ERP is quite an undertaking, and many manufacturers find even the initial steps daunting.

		Operations Management: Choose An Alarm Champion - 05/25/10 Chemical Processing, May 2010 By Lothar Lang, LyondellBasell A good way to address concerns and get ownership is to appoint an alarm champion. This person's primary responsibility is to identify and resolve outstanding alarm issues.

		EMI Connects the Dots of Industrial Information - 05/23/10 Automation World, May 2010 By Marty Weil Enterprise Manufacturing Intelligence (EMI) refers to fast, meaningful data sharing between shop floor and business office.

		Technology boosting supply chain efficiencies - 05/19/10 Manufacturers’ Monthly, April 2010 By Alan Johnson The decision to invest in supply chain management systems has got a whole lot easier for the manufacturing industry following recent technology advances. Companies can now expect real ROIs in 6 months or less.

		Diagnostic Tools Are Only As Good as the Display That Operators See - 05/19/10 Control Design, May 2010 By Mike Bacidore HMI plays role in diagnostics: engineers can't troubleshoot problems without an operator interface that tells them what's wrong.

		Thin Clients Can Eliminate Software Issues - 05/19/10 Control Design, May 2010 By Jeremy Pollard Appications are installed and run from the server, and the clients just need run software such as VNC, VMware client or RDP protocol to connect to the server to use the server-based applications. The applications could range from Open Office to HMI and SCADA software.

		Exercise Control of Software Versions - 05/19/10 Control Design, May 2010 By Frank Riordan The best version-control technology does you no good if you don't have the discipline to follow it consistently.

		Part 5: What is 'IT in manufacturing' about? - 05/15/10 South Africa Instrumentation & Control, May 2010 By Deon van Aardt, Wonderware Southern Africa Dynamic performance management focuses on supplying individuals the exact information they need to monitor and adjust their activities and performance in terms of the company’s profit strategy and that means stepping across the artificial boundaries of ERP, MES and automation.

		Just how open is your software? - 05/12/10 Control Engineering Europe, May 2010 By Chris Cox, Codra The expectation of a user is that an open product will offer great flexibility and allow them to fully meet their customer’s specification with one product. So just how “open” does a product need to be for this to be achieved?

		Time For Action: When Windows Can't Protect You Automation.com, May 2010 By Torsten Rössel, Innominate Security Technologies The clock is ticking. In a few months, untold numbers of Windows 2000 systems will no longer have access to Extended Support and Security Updates, when these end in July 2010. Nor may there be adequate time for analysis and evaluation of alternatives, decision making, planning, preparation and implementation of a new operating system.

		Modeling & simulation speed process development Thomas Lange, Director of Modeling & Simulation at Proctor & Gamble, described how P&G has embraced software technology to test and refine designs and processes before committing them to the real world. P&G uses simulation and modeling across a wide range of disciplines, including product design, process design, machine design, supply chain and reliability.

		Implementing MES boosts profits - 05/02/10 InTech, April 2010 By Bianca Scholten Currently, several factories are replacing their 10- to 15-year-old, custom built manufacturing execution systems. An even larger amount of industrial companies have only just become aware of something called MES. They still have to convince management that MES is worth the investment.

		System Migration Attacks Skills Crisis Automation.com, April 2010 By Bill Lydon Daniel Tadie, Manager of Remote Energy Plants, Colorado Springs Utilities (retired) described a successful migration from a legacy DCS to a new system at Colorado Springs Utilities Birdsall power plant. I was impressed with the philosophy, methodical approach, system performance results, and significant improvements in operations.

		CMMS/EAM software tackles today's toughest challenges - 04/16/10 Plant Services, April 2010 By David Berger 10 key trends in the industry, including important features and functions to consider if you're contemplating the purchase of any CMMS/EAM products or services.

		Time For Action: When Windows Can't Protect You - 04/16/10 IMPO, April 2010 By Torsten Rössel The clock is ticking. In a few months, untold numbers of Windows 2000 systems will no longer have access to Extended Support and Security Updates, when these end in July 2010. Nor may there be adequate time for analysis and evaluation of alternatives, decision making, planning, preparation and implementation of a new operating system.

		Survive The Economy By Getting Leaner With ERP - 04/16/10 IMPO, April 2010 By Jim Shepard, Sr. VP of AMR Research Many dynamic and innovative mid-market companies have been so busy growing in the past that they never stopped to implement a comprehensive Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution. Hence, they are often constrained by the piecemeal systems they had adopted in the past.

		BAS-IT Convergence - 04/16/10 Automated Buildings, April 2010 By Greg Turner, Honeywell Building Solutions BAS-IT convergence is an everyday reality. New Web-based technologies are driving open standards (e.g., XML) that improve ease-of-use by delivering information to those who need it, when they need it, and how they want it, whether it’s a desktop computer or (highly evolved) mobile device.

		How to get the most out of your ERP system - 04/16/10 Manufacturers’ Monthly, April 2010 By Matt Sheard, Microsoft Australia It’s not uncommon for manufacturers to view ERP as an endless drain on resources. In some instances, we see that the source of this is manufacturers who are unsure or unaware of how to get the most out of their existing ERP investments.

		Measuring Performance - 04/16/10 Managing Automation, April 2010 By Julie Fraser When it comes to measuring production performance, specific analytical applications can be a platform for success. Quite a few applications are available, with varied scope and approaches. Here are some of the approaches that manufacturers use.

		Digital Factory a Step at a Time - 04/16/10 Managing Automation, April 2010 By Stephanie Neil Manufacturers are gaining competitive advantage by using simulation tools to create virtual models of the plant and accelerating product development through digital prototypes. But the dream of the digital factory still has yet to be realized.

		New Name For Existing Tools - 04/14/10 Automation World, April 2010 A new buzzword has been coined to describe the range of effects plant operators use to improve asset uptime and extend asset life: Asset performance management, or APM.

		Managing Assets For Improved Performance - 04/14/10 Automation World, April 2010 By Rob Spiegel Asset performance management (APM) has become the new buzzword for getting more out of existing equipment. The term includes everything from condition monitoring to analysis of historical data to determine when a valve may stick and cause a stoppage.

		OPC - What are my options in 2010? By Manny Mandrusiak, OPC Foundation The OPC Foundation has been receiving a lot of email lately regarding the different technologies that are now offered in the OPC portfolio in 2010. It is very easy to see where individuals could become overwhelmed with the number of options that now exist. Here at the OPC Foundation we have taken steps to bring some clarity to the marketplace by simplifying the OPC message regarding the three core OPC technologies: OPC Classic, OPC Xi, and OPC UA.

		What is 'IT in manufacturing' about? Part 4 - 04/08/10 South Africa Instrumentation & Control, April 2010 By Deon van Aardt, Wonderware Southern Africa Manufacturing execution systems (MES), the link between the shop floor and the top floor, is really the very heart of IT in manufacturing.

		Mechanical Engineering Career Assessment - 04/08/10 Control Engineering, April 2010 By Mark T. Hoske and Renee Robbins CE’s survey says while three-quarters of those practicing mechanical engineering are positive about their jobs, 10% advised against pursuing a mechanical engineering career. Almost half (47%) make $75,000 or more.

		Building dynamic value networks - 03/19/10 Manufacturers’ Monthly, March 2010 By Colin Masson The discipline of Supply Chain Management requires multi-enterprise collaboration. Is your multi-enterprise supply chain responsive, adaptive, agile, and efficient? How well does your multi-enterprise supply chain enable your people to profitably meet the demands of your customers?

		What is 'IT in manufacturing' about? - Part 3 - 03/13/10 South Africa Instrumentation & Control, March 2010 By Deon van Aardt, Wonderware Southern Africa Today, we have companies with what amounts to two IT departments – one in charge of making the money (production) and the other in charge of managing it (traditional business IT).

		Collecting Data Reports from Controllers - 03/13/10 Control Engineering, March 2010 By William Love, Kredit Automation & Controls A tutorial on how to create a simple solution using common off-the-shelf software to solve a variety of manufacturing data collection needs.

		The growing value of a CMMS - 03/10/10 Plant Services. February 2010 By David Berger Now more than ever before, building a business case for upgrading or purchasing a new CMMS has become much easier. A CMMS can be used to maximize asset availability, reliability and performance, while minimizing total cost of ownership for every asset class across your enterprise.

		Avoid the Domino Effect - 03/10/10 Chemical Processing, February 2010 By Nicholas P. Sands, DuPont, and Todd Stauffer, exida The performance of operators and the alarm system can markedly impact the quest to bolster safety and minimize unplanned downtime. Help is on the way from a new ISA standard. "Management of Alarm Systems for the Process Industries," ISA-18.2.

		New Gigabyte Industrial Ethernet Open Protocol - CC-Link IE The CC-Link Partner Association (CLPA) announced the release of the open architecture gigabit (GB) CC-Link IE Field Network. I recently met with two members of CLPA Americas to get an update on the latest CC-Link IE standard. Chuck Lukasik is the Director of CLPA Americas and John Woznaik is their Network Specialist.

		Extracting Intelligence from Sensor Data - 02/28/10 Sensors, February 2010 By Nigel Elkan, Knowledge Vector International The challenge isn't whether it is feasible to correlate sensor data from any one sensor source with any other set of current or future sensors. The challenge is to ensure that correlated events can be anticipated.

		The new manufacturing illness: IMDS - 02/28/10 Manufacturers’ Monthly, February 2010 By Harald Rossman Whether driven by regulation, technology or customer demand, problems have become so pervasive that an identifiable organisational malaise has taken hold across several different markets, one that we have labelled Information Management Deficiency Syndrome (IMDS).

		Outsourcing Your Engineering - 02/28/10 Manufacturing.net, February 2010 By Amanda Earing Outsourcing your engineering can free up your in-house engineering department to focus on other projects, and saves time and money.

		Unifying the Physical Infrastructure to Advance Lean - 02/28/10 Managing Automation, February 2010 By Stephanie Neil Moving all building automation systems into a unified physical infrastructure that can control the lights, security cameras, and climate from one box makes it easier to manage all aspects of the entire building and saves money as well.

		Technology Directions - A Fuller Lean Toolbox - 02/28/10 Managing Automation, February 2010 By Stephanie Neil ERP, supply chain, warehouse management, and even PLM software products are teaming up with lean practices to drive overall operational excellence gains for many manufacturers.

		Highlights from the ARC 2010 Orlando Forum General Session - Part 1 By Paul Miller and Dick Hill, ARC Advisory Group Tuesday morning's general session for all forum tracks included presentations by Andy Chatha, ARC's President and Founder, Marty Edwards from the DHS Control Systems Security Program at Idaho National Laboratories (INL); Thomas Lange, Director of Modeling and Simulation at Procter & Gamble; and Ralph Rio, Research Director, Enterprise Advisory Services here at ARC.

		MES and EMI - 02/19/10 South Africa Instrumentation & Control, February 2010 By Ugan Maistry, EOH Mining and Manufacturing Some industries do not require the full range of MES functionality while all companies will benefit from the visibility that EMI provides into their realtime performance and the ability to analyse cause-and-effect scenarios.

		IT in manufacturing: Part 2: Managing disparate information assets - 02/19/10 South Africa Instrumentation & Control, February 2010 By Deon van Aardt, Wonderware Southern Africa Each functional area of a manufacturing company must have access to the select information it needs from the other functional areas if all the departments are to integrate as one company rather than operating as disparate business units.

		Without a trace - 02/16/10 InTech, February 2010 By Dennis Brandl The problem of traceability does not stop at the plant door. In order to meet the real requirements for traceability and recall control, some sort of method is required for cross-enterprise traceability.

		Seventh sense for fault analysis The gas/steam turbine power plant in Budong, South Korea detects faults up to an hour in advance and provides advice on how they can be avoided. Diagnostic and simulation software from InfoTeam predicts alarms and shutdowns.

		Make or Break with Project Management Project management is critical to ensuring projects are implemented correctly, on time and within budget. Good project management also communicates to your management or stakeholder that you are a professional. These are thoughts from my experience managing many projects and consulting to clients on projects. The most valuable lessons were learned when taking over projects that were in serious trouble.

		Cost-Effective Inventory Tracking and Automation for Small Manufacturing Operations Reducing the processes and steps in manufacturing axiomatically reduces errors. The number of manufacturers that duplicate automation instructions just through re-entering data multiple times is staggering and results in direct loss of productivity, effectiveness, accuracy, and customer satisfaction.

		Fusion energy: 3D software helps engineers develop next stage - 01/24/10 International Power Engineer, January 2010 By Nick Lerner Fusion power technology is mankind's biggest engineering challenge. Leading scientists, engineers and planners are working towards the solution significantly aided by the availability of 3D model based data held within a single software environment.

		Databases – The Perfect Complement to PLCs Automation.com, December 2009 By Steve Hechtman, Inductive Automation SQL and relational databases form the bridge to integrate processes, machinery and people together. Working with SQL is remarkably similar to working with PLCs and ladder logic. And that’s why the PLC programmer is best suited to implement solutions involving PLCs and relational databases.

		Trace, Track and Control: High Production Output at Low Costs Automation.com, January 2010 By François Monette and Matt Van Bogart A TTC system provides real-time visibility of all work-in-progress (WIP) and materials on the factory floor, eliminates human errors associated with material handling and equipment, and provides a history of the product lifecycle to minimize the number of products that need to be returned if a recall occurs.

		ERP Is Reaching The Shop Floor - 01/20/10 Automation World, January 2010 By Rob Spiegel The suppliers of enterprise resource planning systems have bolstered their MES applications to support manufacturing processes.

		Don’t cloud your compliance data - 01/20/10 Control Engineering, January 2010 By Dennis Brandl Cloud computing is coming! Even the best security and data integrity processes may not be enough. Make sure your company’s legal advisors are involved.

		Invest in Your Own Backyard - 01/20/10 Control, January 2010 By Paul J. Galeski Capital expenditures (Capex) may seem like discretionary costs that could be eliminated during these lean times. However, your best opportunity—with lower risk and higher returns—is to invest in your own interests in the fields of automation and enterprise integration.

		Success Tactics from High Growth Automation Distributor Gross Automation is located in Brookfield, Wisconsin, 90 miles north of Chicago; the company sells and installs a number of control and automation products with ABB products being one of their flagship lines. I talked with Bob Gross founder of Gross Automation to learn about the company and his thoughts on the industry.

		OPC UA - New Secure, Platform-Independent Standard Offers More Value Bill Lydon recently spoke with Roy Kok of Kepware to gain a better understanding of OPC UA. It is important with new technology to thoroughly understand its advantages so you can gain value and avoid misapplying it. Kepware, founded in 1995, has a great deal of OPC knowledge and knowhow as a leading supplier of OPC software.

		Executive Interview - Sudipta Bhattacharya, President & CEO Invensys Operations Management (IOM) By Bill Lydon, Automation.com Bhattacharya and I discuss the new organizational structure and his management philosophies. Bhattacharya is an engaging and personable man that clearly expresses the organization's mission while acknowledging that he continues to seek better answers. Bhattacharya has an interesting combination of experience and knowledge that encompasses process controls, enterprise systems, and supply chain.

		Rockwell Automation Fair 2009 - Smart, Safe & Sustainable Manufacturing By Bill Lydon As usual, Rockwell Automation Fair was an impressive event with over 8,000 attendees. Rockwell's continued focus on process control punctuates their very direct message that the Logix architecture can meet all control and automation requirements from discrete to process control.

		The Real-Time Enterprise - 12/06/09 Control Engineering Asia, November 2009 By Peter Martin, Invensys The combination of real-time operations business management and real-time operations safety management provides the basis for truly effective operations. The real-time enterprise, effectively managed, reduces energy costs, increases plant safety and improves overall production while helping to achieve environmental sustainability.

		The New Lean Manufacturing Enterprise By Thomas R. Cutler Manufacturing executives often possess exception manufacturing, engineering, and production expertise, yet lack management knowledge. Many of these manufacturing owners run organizations with 50 to 500 employees; more than half report feeling overwhelmed. The manufacturing business owners are often shocked to learn, not only how much is wasted, but the real effect it has on the enterprise.

		Enterprise Control System Defined - OpsManage 2009 Sudipta Bhattacharya, President & CEO Invensys Operations Management (IOM), opened OpsManage09 with his keynote presentation. Bhattacharya displayed energy, vision, conviction, and a plan that he openly shared, including the rationale for the company's new organization and business approach.

		Siemens Industry's New Automation Organization By Bill Lydon Interview with Raj Batra President, Industry Automation Division Batra was formerly vice president, Automation & Motion, for Siemens Energy & Automation. The Industry Automation division, based in Alpharetta, Ga., encompasses automation products including programmable logic controllers (PLCs) and controls for discrete and process automation.

		Making BAS And Enterprise Systems Work Together - 11/24/09 Building Operating Management, November 2009 By Rita Tatum How do vendors move data from intelligent devices to the link layer and then up to the application layer? The short answer is vendors are using Web services and Internet connections, with various combinations of open protocols, standards and proprietary solutions.

		BAS And Enterprise Systems - 11/24/09 Building Operating Management, November 2009 By Rita Tatum Many in the industry believe that the integration of building automation and enterprise systems is the wave of the future. But getting those systems to communicate is a different process than expanding or upgrading the building automation system. Because it involves the corporate network, IT is far more involved.

		Machines Have Their Say - 11/21/09 Control, November 2009 By Nancy Bartels Machines are getting better at telling us what's wrong with them. more and better sensors and sophisticated algorithms make predictive maintenance practical—and help close the loop between the plant floor, EAM systems and ERP.

		Manufacturing Intelligence Not a Buzzword in Manufacturing Software - 11/17/09 Automation World, November 2009 By Michael Bachelor, Bachelor Controls Manufacturing Intelligence is more a strategy or way of defining and approaching solutions to problems and opportunities. However, a well-designed strategy will use software products that can make the adherence to standards and application of specific technologies easier.

		Process Analytics Finds Process Problems - 11/17/09 Process Industry Informer, November 2009 By Jack Wilkins, Canary Labs Process Analytics and Intelligence—sometimes called Manufacturing Intelligence—has transformed the way companies produce goods, understand their manufacturing processes, and ensure a quality product in ways we could not have foreseen ten years ago.

		Plant Automation and Supply Chain Execution Converge - 11/11/09 Control Engineering, November 2009 By Frank O Smith Manufacturers’ increasing integration of automation and enterprise technologies are being used for a variety of purposes, from production margin optimization to strategic energy efficiency decisions

		Cyber security: Vendors fight back - 11/11/09 Control Engineering, November 2009 By Dennis Brandl New aspects of control system software are reducing the need for manufacturing IT personnel to be security experts.

		Changes at ISA - A Current Volunteer Leader's Perspective - 11/06/09 by Don Frey, ISA Volunteer Leader Faced with unprecedented declines in demand for training, advertising, and exhibit space, the ISA has had to make drastic cuts in its budget for 2010. Some significant areas where cuts have been made are in the areas of professional staff, frequency of publication of InTech magazine, ISA E-News production and distribution, and future ISA EXPO offerings.

		Virtual Training & Operations The most thought-provoking demonstration at the 2009 IPS User Group Conference was the new EYEsim virtual reality system. It puts a user into a virtual plant and allows interactive operation, just as in a real plant. The user wears 3D glasses and uses a joystick to interact with the simulation. It is like playing a video game. Activities include walking through the virtual plant, checking controls, closing valves, reading gauges, and other tasks. The demonstration was complete with a simulated plant fire and the operator was guided to the shutoff valve to suppress the fire.

		Skimping on the training puts your CMMS project at risk - 10/22/09 Maintenance World, October 2009 Training for users of a computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) is a multiple-phase process. There are three areas of training needs. Make sure people who will operate the CMMS are familiar with computer basics and the operating system. If not, provide them with basic training so they are ready for CMMS application training.

		Condition Monitoring of Steam Turbines By Performance Analysis - 10/22/09 Maintenance On-Line, October 2009 Many power generation steam turbine generators today are required in service well beyond their intended lifetimes. Dismantling for inspection is expensive, and owners need to consider all relevant information in making the decision.

		Integrating Application Silos With Your CMMS - 10/22/09 Maintenance On-Line, October 2009 For companies that view maintenance management as critical to achieving their business objectives, some of the biggest pieces of the puzzle are the core CMMS modules.

		Cost Effective Insurance: The FMEA Process - 10/22/09 Maintenance Technology, October 2009 By Gerald O. Davis, Davis Materials & Mechanical Engineering Failure Modes & Effects Analysis (FMEA) is a structured procedure for achieving improved reliability and continuity of operation in critical equipment and processes. Briefly, the method consists of defining conceivable failure modes, determining the effect of each, assigning weighting factors and deriving numerical results that allow a logical ranking of corrective measures.

		Where Is Process Automation Headed? - 10/22/09 Chemical Processing, October 2009 By Norm Gilsdorf, Honeywell Process Solutions Six key technology trends will greatly influence how plants cope with the challenges of today and how they’ll operate by the end of the next decade: sensors, wireless, knowledge applications, convergence of IT and process control, and more.

		2009 Emerson Global Users Exchange - Engaging Minds. Amazing Results. Steve Sonnenberg, Executive Vice President of Emerson Process Management, opened the conference by emphasizing the biggest challenge of attendees will be to "translate this knowledge (gained) into amazing results when you bring these ideas back home."

		ASM Alarm Management Guidelines and ISA-18.2: How Do They Stack Up? - 10/19/09 Control, October 2009 By Walt Boyes The ISA Standard and the ASM Consortium guidelines both offer important information about alarm management. Although their approaches differ, they complement one another.

		The seven habits of highly successful control engineers - 10/10/09 What’s New in Process Technology, September 2009 Highly successful control engineers didn’t become that way by accident. The most successful engineers develop habits that improve results and the recognition of those results.

		Coping with change - 10/10/09 South Africa Instrumentation & Control, October 2009 By Deon van Aardt, Wonderware Southern Africa The problems manufacturers are trying to solve today are far more complex than they were 10 years ago and there is every indication that this trend will continue into the future. What has plagued industry is the ability of software to cope with change.

		Mill maintenance, it’s all in the planning - 10/10/09 Process & Control Engineering, October 2009 By Daniel Braithwaite, Outotec In an ideal world, mill maintenance would only ever take place over planned shutdowns. Whilst this ideal may never be achieved, with good planning, steps can be taken to identify potential problems early and minimise unexpected mill breakdowns, saving thousands of dollars and wasted hours in the process.

		Return on assets: To the max! - 10/10/09 InTech, October 2009 By Greg Hood and Wil Chin To enhance asset management, companies are selecting condition-monitoring solutions that are on an open database platform and have features such as standard vibration data types, the power to perform calculations, and the ability to integrate seamlessly with the plant-floor control and process systems.

		When eBOMs and mBOMs converge - 10/10/09 Control Engineering, October 2009 By Frank O Smith Product lifecycle management (PLM) software is linking manufacturing and engineering to improve manufacturing process management.

		Lawyers And Computerized Maintenance Management Systems - 09/20/09 Maintenance Technology, September 2009 By Dave Bertolini, People and Processes Ever wonder what would happen if the data in a CMMS had to help defend maintenance decisions in a court of law? If only this were something out of a fictional television drama or vivid, sweat-inducing nightmare. It's not.

		BACnet and Enterprise System Integration - 09/20/09 Building Operating Management, September 2009 By Rita Tatum Today, the technology exists to extract data from BAS and send it to enterprise systems, then send it from those systems back to the BAS. But the technology is complex. Even in sophisticated companies with significant IT expertise, the process is a challenge.

		The Growing Integration of Enterprise Systems and BAS - 09/20/09 Building Operating Management, September 2009 By Rita Tatum The marriage of BAS and enterprise systems is made possible by Web technology — essentially XML and web services. Though the technology has been available for several years, its use is now gaining ground as large organizations strive for an integrated enterprise infrastructure.

		The Virtual Plant - 09/20/09 Control Engineering Asia, September 2009 By Maurizio Rovaglio and Tobias Scheele Until recently, the use of virtual reality (VR) had been limited by systems constraints. Advances in hardware processing power and software development will allow VR to be used as the interface with computer-based multimedia activities that include training, process design, maintenance and safety.

		Machine Data Acquisition Capabilities Grow - 09/20/09 Control Design, September 2009 By Phil Burgert Better data acquisition technologies for factory settings are raising interest among machine builders and their customers. Maintenance and service top the list of benefits that can be leveraged, but increasing capabilities for enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems also are coming along.

		5 Parts of ISA95 - 09/20/09 Automation World, September 2009 By Rob Spiegel The ISA95 standard is made up of five individual parts. Each part offers specific definitions to support different aspects of interfacing control systems with enterprise systems.

		ISA95 Moves Toward Global Adoption - 09/20/09 Automation World, September 2009 By Rob Spiegel More than a decade since its conception, the ISA95 standard for connecting enterprise IT to control systems is seeing use across a wide range of industries.

		Track & Trace Becomes a Critical Operations Tool for Manufacturing - 09/20/09 Automation World, September 2009 By Gary Mintchell Originally deployed for incident mitigation or avoidance, track-and-trace applications are now essential tools for achieving operational excellence.

		Plant Intelligence - 09/16/09 Industrial Automation Asia, September 2009 By Martin Ahrens and Holger Oettel, WinCC, Siemens The increasing volume of process data requires that the integration of corporate processes is both horizontal and vertical. A SCADA system meets this challenge with extended functions for web-based analyses, ad-hoc reports and characteristic value-based evaluations.

		Digital Prototyping Comes Naturally to 140 Year Old Company On a recent visit to A.T. Ferrell Company, I learned how they are using digital prototyping, modeling, 3D CAD, finite analysis, stress analysis, and other new tools as a transformational business strategy to improve sales, quality, efficiency, and productivity. Using the Autodesk Inventor software suite, A.T. Ferrell is taking advantage of these advanced methods at a fraction of the cost of other solutions.

		True control system objective - 09/13/09 InTech, September 2009 By George Buckbee and Lew Gordon It is not enough to know the performance of your control system could be better. To focus improvement efforts effectively, you must identify, quantify, and prioritize problems. You should also then be able to track and confirm the benefits of any type of corrective action.

		Operators on alert - 09/13/09 InTech, September 2009 By David Hatch and Todd Stauffer As plants run closer to their performance limits with fewer operators and support staff, alarm management is becoming paramount to maintaining plant safety. The key to maximizing the safety protection the operator provides is creating an environment where they are able to detect, diagnose, and respond to alarms properly and on time.

		Are you looking forward to Windows 7? I’m not - 09/13/09 Control Engineering Europe, September 2009 By Mike Babb Windows 7 is the same old stuff, just re-arranged a little bit to make you think you’re getting ‘the latest technology.’ In the past 15 years Microsoft has done nothing new in the way of office software technology, yet they have millions believing the illusion that they have.

		Dashboards present more than just information - 09/13/09 Control Engineering Europe, September 2009 By Christina McKeon, Infor Today's software dashboards are not your typical user interface, portal or report generated by the IT department. Three areas of dashboard evolution will impact your day-to-day manufacturing life sooner rather than later. Here's what you need to know.

		How and when to fold an IT project - 09/13/09 Control Engineering, September 2009 By Dennis Brandl Many manufacturing IT projects do not finish, not necessarily because they failed, but because of changing requirements, changing business conditions, company mergers, or changes in products and processes. It's important to know when to fold a project, but it is equally important to know what to do when you fold a project.

		Explanations and applications of Statistical Process Control - 08/27/09 Reliable Plant, August 2009 By Mettler Toledo SPC is far more than a control chart or a mere capability index. It is a system that uses process data to describe a prototypical manufacturing process in connection with its environment. The goal of the method is to intervene in the process before tolerance violators occur, and thereby optimize the entire process.

		Get IT, engineering together on MES effort - 08/27/09 Plant Engineering, August 2009 By Bianca Scholten Traditionally, IT departments handle the ERP and other systems used in the office. The functionality in these systems belongs largely on ISA-95 Level 4. Engineers are working in a completely different world, with programming methods like ladder logic, SFC and function blocks. They’re active on ISA-95 Level 2 and lower. But who takes care of automating activities on ISA-95 Level 3; in other words, MES?

		Managing an open system - 08/27/09 Plant Engineering, August 2009 By Shawn Gold, Honeywell Process Solutions For all the benefits open systems provide, they pose significant IT challenges. End users can only rely so much on their automation suppliers for support to keep process control networks secure. The reality is that plant engineers are now responsible for increasingly complex open automation architectures and the specialized IT support functions that go along with them.

		Historian use improves process optimization - 08/27/09 Plant Engineering, August 2009 By John Leppiaho, GE Fanuc, and Derick Moolman, CSense Systems The benefits of Advanced Process Control and advanced analytics have become increasingly well established in the process industry. Through continually evolving technologies, the benefits of APC are now accessible to a much broader range of industries and users by providing mainstream tools and leveraging diverse industry experience.

		OPC UA Redefines Automation Architectures By Bill Lydon, Automation.com The new OPC UA technology provides an efficient and secure infrastructure for communications - from sensor to business enterprise computing for all automation systems in manufacturing and process control. OPC UA leverages web services to provide a single programming paradigm in a scalable architecture that can be implemented is a range of devices - from embedded to enterprise.

		Only Get Clever When You Need To... - 08/24/09 Maintenance On Line, August 2009 As with many such challenges, solutions are often sort with the assistance of the ubiquitous computer controlled management system and Building Management Systems (BMS) have often been seen as the way forward.

		Data Security and Integrity On Your CMMS - 08/24/09 Maintenance On Line, August 2009 Your CMMS data is never 100% secure from mechanical breakdown, natural disasters, human error, or malicious acts.

		Beyond the Data Warehouse - 08/24/09 Pharmaceutical Manufacturing, August 2009 By Joseph S. Rothman, Aegis Analytical It’s time to shatter the myth of one-stop process data access—dynamic mapping engines allow users easier access to both discrete and time series data.

		Ageing plant and the implications for asset integrity - 08/24/09 European Chemical Engineer, August 2009 Many assets around the world are currently operating beyond their nominal design life and require an effective asset integrity management approach to be implemented to combat the issues of ageing plant.

		Asset performance management: improving process productivity - 08/24/09 European Process Engineer, August 2009 Plant operators face ever greater challenges due to the increasing level of automation, rising diversification in product structures and the growing trend towards integrated industrial assets.

		How Does Your Control System Measure Up? - 08/24/09 Chemical Processing, August 2009 By George Buckbee, ExperTune Most sites have spent millions of dollars on control systems — an individual loop may cost upwards of $10,000 to implement when you consider expenses for engineering, sensor, wiring, controller, valve, configuration and programming. Yet, is this sizable investment paying off as well as it should?

		It's in the pipes - 08/16/09 InTech, August 2009 By Kelly Doran In pipeline control centers around the world, it is not uncommon to see alarm summary screens completely filled with multiple pages of acknowledged and unacknowledged alarms. Improved alarm management will deliver quieter control rooms and better alarm flood control/avoidance.

		The myth and magic of OPC - 08/16/09 InTech, August 2009 By Patrick Dixon and Michael Velarde OLE for Process Control is a widely adopted industry standard for communication between applications in a control system: It’s a beautiful thing when it works. Unfortunately, there are times when OPC shows its uglier side.

		Why more decision-making data is flowing to engineers - 08/14/09 Control Engineering, August 2009 By David Greenfield The trend in manufacturing information technology has been to push plant floor data up into the enterprise systems for better decision making by corporate executives. Now, companies are having it also flow back down to the plant floor for real-time decision making by the plant floor operators and engineers

		What plant managers should know about information technology Automation.com, August 2009 By: Christopher Eckert & Attilio Bellman, Siemens IT Solutions & Services Plant managers require IT solutions that support production lines, just-in-time scheduling and demand planning. However, forecasting and demand planning is not standard in today's IT and manufacturing environments.

		True enterprise automation - 07/21/09 InTech, July 2009 By Peter Woodhull Manufacturing companies have been slow to adopt new technological approaches to business process management for reasons including resistance to change, cost, and fear of losing functionality in existing legacy IT systems. Service-oriented computing has the potential to combine these technologies in order to get greater control of processes that span multiple systems.

		Return on Imagination - Honeywell User Group (HUG) 2009 Honeywell Process Solutions continues to grow in a number of dimensions including: additional products, wireless, energy, PLCs, independent system integrator initiatives, and Integrated Master Automation Contractor (IMAC) focus. This year’s attendance was lower than previous years, but David Wade, Honeywell Users Group Americas Chairman, officially opened the HUG 2009 conference commenting that there were more than 50% new attendees.

		Beyond alarm management: Improving operator effectiveness - 07/19/09 Plant Engineering, July 2009 By Diego Izarra, Invensys Process Systems A properly rationalized and accessible alarm database not only improves operator effectiveness, it also has a significant impact on maintaining corporate goals for health and safety, environmental sustainability and financial performance.

		Remote service reduces maintenance costs - 07/19/09 Plant Engineering, July 2009 By John W. DuBay, ABB Remote service provides you with a cost effective way to keep your plant running at peak performance, for a fraction of the cost of traditional approaches.

		Step by step - 07/19/09 Plant Services, July 2009 By David Berger Process mapping is a technique that allows users to represent key processes graphically to more easily discuss and evaluate their effectiveness. By comparing “current state” process maps with “future state” maps, users can visualize the changes required to achieve expected savings and benefits. At a more detailed level, process maps also show how systems such as your CMMS support the process flow.

		Balancing CMMS User Configurability with Centralised Control - 07/19/09 Maintenance World, June 2009 By David Berger For most companies, gone are the days when users were forced to conform to a rigid framework dictated by the CMMS vendor and strictly controlled by the Information Systems department. Users today enjoy freedom to customise the content, look and feel of their CMMS environment on a variety of devices, from handhelds to desktops.

		Facility Software Implementation: Facts to Consider - 07/19/09 Building Operating Management, July 2009 Most vendors have a cadre of dealers or consultants who will do implementations, so one of the first decisions facility executives should make is whether they prefer to buy directly from a vendor and task the vendor with the implementation, or whether they’re comfortable letting one of a vendor’s business partners or dealers handle the sale and implementation.

		Evaluating Facility Software Vendor Business Models - 07/19/09 Building Operating Management, July 2009 Because training is rarely free, determining how much can be spent on training and what exactly that money will buy is important. Decide whether training will be onsite – which is usually preferable and less expensive – or at a vendor training facility

		RFPs Scorecard Make it Easier to Evaluate Facility Software Vendors - 07/19/09 Building Operating Management, July 2009 How are facility executives to find a quality software vendor amidst the clutter? What are the characteristics facility executives should look for in a long-term software partner? And, just as importantly, what red flags indicate that facility executives should run for the hills?

		Can OPC Bridge the Engineering-IT Divide? - 07/19/09 Automated Buildings, July 2009 Randy Kondor, OPC Training Institute Driven by technology, the IT-Engineering convergence continues to affect control and security systems where they overlap. The contentious and disputed area of intersection between Engineering and IT is also where OPC lives and works.

		Advanced solutions key to creating competitive advantage - 07/15/09 Process Engineer, July 2009 By Tobias Scheele, Wonderware For process plants to run at maximum efficiency, there has to be seamless information transfer during the design, construction and operation phases.

		Manufacturing Mobility: The Key To Productivity - 07/15/09 Manufacturing.net., June 2009 Surveyed manufacturing IT decision-makers cite an increase in mobile solutions’ importance and found mobility applications save a daily average of 42 minutes per employee.

		"Going Green" Isn't Easy, but MES Can Help - 07/15/09 Control, July 2009 For many companies, “going green” is no longer a buzzword, but an important business imperative that can lower costs and provide a competitive advantage. Manufacturing execution systems (MES) can be a crucial tool to reach that imperative

		Web 2.0 tools Conduct in Concert - 07/15/09 Control, July 2009 By Jim Montague Increased computing power is allowing colleagues to move themselves and their documents from user-located and maintained servers and software out into web-based environments on the Internet. These tools can be used by process control engineers to improve set-up, operations and maintenance of their applications and plants.

		Service Oriented Architecture and its Impact on Automation - 07/14/09 Control Engineering, July 2009 By Dennis Brandl Service oriented architecture (SOA)—everyone seems to be talking about, teaching, selling, or implementing it, but there is also a lot of confusion about what it really is. This article is a guide to understanding what it is, how it works, and how it applies to manufacturing-related applications.

		OEE Goes Real Time - 07/14/09 Automation World, July 2009 By Rob Spiegel Plants find efficiencies through dynamic or real-time measurement of equipment effectiveness. More and more, plants are turning to OEE to get increased efficiencies from their existing equipment.

		Software via the internet offers a cost-effective alternative to licensing - 07/14/09 Asia-Pacific Engineering News, July 2009 For most companies it is probably a fair assumption that their internet connection will suffer less downtime than their in-house severs. The SSL (secure sockets layer) cryptographic protocol, which is commonly used by SaaS vendors, offers high security and is routinely used for applications such as electronic commerce.

		MES: take the time upfront - 07/10/09 What’s New in Process Technology, July 2009 By Tom Gill, and Dean Ford, Maverick Technologies MES spans the entire enterprise, capturing and summarising disparate data into a clear vision of a whole plant's operation. Sufficient time must be allocated at the beginning of the design effort to accurately capture and organise the information that defines the existing operation and the desired results of the MES.

		New developments in automation software - 07/10/09 South Africa Instrumentation & Control, July 2009 By Andrew Ashton In speaking with some industry experts the feeling was it is the 'same old same old,' but digging beneath the surface there are many significant changes taking place, such as XML, OPC, Automation ML, common tagging, asset management and CAEX.

		Intelligent Diagnostics: A Smarter Way To High Production Availability And Cut Costs - 07/10/09 Process Industry Informer, July 2009 By Gary Provis, Siemens intelligent diagnostics is not just ‘nice to have’ for companies but, nowadays, more a strategic necessity to help stay ahead of the competition.

		Revealing Analysis - 07/10/09 Control Engineering Asia, June 2009 By Jack Wilkins, Canary Labs Today, manufacturers use large volumes of real-time process data, generally stored in a process historian, as the foundation to drive realtime analytics and dashboards, which improve their ability to detect and react to process bottlenecks or quality issues.

		PAT Looms over Pharma - 07/09/09 Control, June 2009 By Rich Merritt Pharmaceutical manufacturers have been dragging their heels on adopting process analytical technology (PAT) techniques for years, but now the pressure is on—PAT is one stroke of a government pen away from changing from an advisory to a requirement.

		Asset performance management: improving process productivity - 06/24/09 European Process Engineer, June 2009 Plant operators face ever greater challenges due to the increasing level of automation, rising diversification in product structures and the growing trend towards integrated industrial assets.

		Condition monitoring matures - 06/24/09 Plant Services, June 2009 By Sheila Kennedy Recent innovations in condition-monitoring technologies address the key barriers to implementation by minimizing the upfront investment, simplifying installation and use, improving speed and accuracy, supporting diverse technologies, and streaming complex analytics.

		Flexible, agile and scalable - 06/24/09 Plant Services, June 2009 By David Berger As your company’s needs shift, it’s critical to monitor the transformation and report how your business is doing to support timely and effective decisions. The more advanced CMMS packages provide comprehensive business intelligence tools that assist users in data collection, analysis and reporting.

		Web Based CMMS Systems - 06/24/09 Automated Buildings, June 2009 By David Knight, Web Work by Tero Thanks to advances in Computerized Maintenance Management Software (CMMS) technology, maintenance professionals are able access their work database from anywhere, using their BlackBerry, cell phone, laptop or other mobile device.

		Professional Services Leverage Technology David Johnson, President and CEO Yokogawa Corporation of America, noted that more customers are taking advantage of the company's professional services. In this one-on-one interview, Bill Lydon asks Gary Hodgson, Yokogawa's Business Development Manager of Professional Services, to discuss how their service offerings utilize technology to improve productivity.

		Business Performance Management -- The New Operational Strategy - 06/20/09 Manufacturing.Net, June 2009 By Thomas Silvestri, Opus Global Group Business performance management -- the measurement and implementation of the most successful operational standard or strategy available in an industry -- can be one of the most effective tools for increasing a corporation's efficiency, productivity, and, ultimately, earnings.

		Performance Management - Looking for the Hidden Clues - 06/20/09 Managing Automation, June 2009 By Stephanie Neil Business performance management tools can help you discover much-needed operational efficiencies. But, particularly in tough times, it’s best to keep it simple.

		Automation Tools: Managing Supply Chain Risk - 06/20/09 Automation World, June 2009 By Alex Anderson The latest automation supply chain tools help companies avoid problems, or deal with them quickly if they do occur, to minimize damage to their brands.

		The Future of Workflow Is Automated Knowledge - 06/20/09 Automation World, June 2009 By Rob Spiegel In the not-too-distant future, workflow structures may carry the knowledge that typically lives in the brains of long-time plant operations staff.

		Alarm Management: Getting Alarms Right - 06/20/09 Automation World, June 2009 By Gary Mintchell Presenting the appropriate alarms to the appropriate person in a timely manner is one of the toughest challenges facing the automation team—especially in process industries.

		Predictive Emissions Monitoring for Regulatory Compliance - 06/16/09 Control Engineering, June 2008 By Rich Hovan, Pavilion Technologies Software-based continuous emission monitoring proves to be a more viable- and cost effective- tool for controlling emissions than traditional hardware-based systems.

		Information systems get the power of one - 06/16/09 PACE, May 2009 By Dean Tresidder, Rockwell Automation From adopting elements of IT to innovative database design, the modern generation of SCADA and manufacturing execution system (MES) software are several steps ahead of their predecessors.

		Capitalize on Crisis! - Review of Yokogawa 2009 User Group Conference The Yokogawa User Group Conference had an enthusiastic group of automation professionals in attendance. In his opening remarks, Con Lau, GM Marketing of Yokogawa of America, discussed the Asian representation of crisis that is made up of two letters - danger and opportunity. “Where there is danger, there is opportunity.” People attending were looking for opportunities to improve operations and efficiency.

		Managing collaborative production Plant Engineering, April 2009 By Marc Leroux, ABB Largely defined as systems that sit above automation and below business systems, MES is slowly being eliminated as ERP suppliers push their applications down into manufacturing, and as automation vendors extend their functionality upward.

		Balancing CMMS User Configurability with Centralised Control Maintenance On Line, May 2009 By David Berger For most companies, gone are the days when users were forced to conform to a rigid framework dictated by the CMMS vendor and strictly controlled by the Information Systems department. Users today enjoy freedom to customise the content, look and feel of their CMMS environment on a variety of devices, from handhelds to desktops.

		Slow Progress in Discrete Industries for Wireless Sensors Control Design, May 2009 By Phil Burgert The current value proposition for wireless sensors in discrete manufacturing is rooted in new opportunities to collect manufacturing data where it previously was not possible.

		Make the Most of Historical Process Data Chemical Processing, May 2009 By Dane Overfield, Exele Information Systems A data historian and the right tools and resources, coupled with continuous data collection during uptime and downtime, allows analysis that can provide insights about production downtimes, enabling you to increase your runtime, product output and profits.

		Emerging ISA Standard Basis for Alarm Management Strategy Automation World, May 2009 By Larry O'Brien The International Society of Automation’s ISA S18.02 standard provides a much needed, standardized framework for implementing an effective and sustainable alarm management strategy in process plants.

		Unlocking Asset Management's Hidden Value Managing Automation, May 2009 By Stephanie Neil Manufacturers marching to the beat of doing more with less are taking a second look at how asset management can cut costs, increase productivity, and even start new revenue streams.

		DeepDive: Course Correction in Enterprise Integration Managing Automation, May 2009 By Jeff Moad Recession pressures are forcing manufacturers to scale back big-bang, enterprise-wide, plant-to-enterprise integration initiatives. But many continue to invest in a more targeted approach with quicker returns.

		Technology Directions - The Right Tools for the Job Managing Automation, May 2009 By Jeff Moad The recession-inspired move by many manufacturers to scale back big-bang, plant-to-enterprise integration initiatives in favor of targeted, quick-return projects has not gone unnoticed by technology vendors. Vendors have begun tailoring their software to better address industry-specific manufacturing pain points.

		Invest Wisely In Your IT Infrastructure Manufacturing.net, May 2009 By Blake McLane, CyrusOne Coupled with the struggling economy, investments in IT are more critical than ever. Companies must be very selective in where their IT capital dollars are spent in order to sustain a competitive advantage in the market, while meeting their financial obligations as a company.

		The Power of Real Time Intelligence Control Engineering, May 2009 By Frank O Smith Real time control is not just for the factory floor. It has begun to appeal to enterprise management wanting to gain competitive advantage. While very few organizations are there yet, the ones who are have the capacity to do things that have never been done before.

		Securing industrial control systems against threat of cyber infection Asia-Pacific Engineer, April 2009 By Alistair Rae We are all aware of the need to protect desktop computers from viruses and other malware, but what about industrial systems? These are generally less well protected, yet a malicious attack or an infection with malware can have devastating results. Fortunately there are ways to reduce the risks.

		Software via the internet offers a cost-effective alternative to licensing Asia-Pacific Engineer, April 2009 Thanks to high-speed internet connections, users can now work with software that is hosted remotely and accessed via a web browser. This type of remotely hosted software application is known as software as a service (SaaS). Product lifecycle management (PLM) and collaboration tools are starting to become available as SaaS applications, plus there are several knowledge management packages to choose from.

		Plant Floor Intelligence: Digging for Dollars Automation World, April 2009 By Wes Iversen By providing improved visibility of plant floor data, enterprise manufacturing intelligence software enables smarter decisions that yield bottom-line results. The payoffs from EMI software can be handsome indeed. And just as with skinning a cat, there are a multitude of ways in which the digging can be accomplished, and a plethora of vendor tools that can be deployed.

		Virtually There: Digital Manufacturing Simulates Survival in a Bear Market Automation World, April 2009 By Alex Anderson Digital manufacturing is the integration of digital models of product designs with manufacturing processes. Proponents of the technology insist that despite the high cost of admission, digital manufacturing is just the ticket to help lead manufacturers out of the economic downturn.

		Containing Wireless Cyber Security Threats Automation World, April 2009 By Wes Iversen Electric utility operators already have their hands full in achieving compliance with mandatory federal Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) standards aimed at cyber security in the electric power industry. But when the use of wireless technologies is thrown into the mix, the problem gets even more complicated.

		Give the Green Light Control Design, April 2009 By Chris Roach, FKI Logistex As manufacturing and distribution warehouse systems adopt more complicated and inter-networked technology, the ability to fix controls and software issues in-house and on-site diminishes. The best solution is often to allow individual OEMs access to their installations through secure, remote-access VPNs.

		Next-Generation Wireless Asset Management Sensors, April 2009 By Scott D. Constien, Enfora Next-generation wireless asset management systems are incorporating lower power electronics, cellular technologies, and GPS to enable more robust, flexible, scalable systems that reduce operating expenses and improve business productivity.

		Adroitly Manage Alarms Chemical Processing, April 2009 By Peter Andow, Honeywell Process Solutions Many plants have primarily relied on rationalization of a relatively small number of bad actors (often just the "top 10" or "top 20") — this certainly can yield good performance improvements. But rationalization of bad actors usually doesn't significantly impact subsequent alarms floods because a large number of different alarms are likely to occur.

		Diamonds Are Forever, So is Real-Time Data By Thomas R. Cutler Software products make it easy for jewelry organizations, large or small, to acquire process data from any source, analyze that data in real-time, and instantly notify process owners of variation.

		Getting Real About Simulation Control, April 2009 By Bob Sperber Emerging and eye-popping 3-d graphics and virtual reality technology are giving plenty of game to process control testing and training simulators integrated with offline process control systems.

		APC — Productivity Tool or Shelfware? Control, April 2009 By Dr. James Ford Advanced Process Control (APC) is a fairly mature body of engineering technology, with Model-Predictive Control (MPC) being universally accepted as the preferred APC technology for most continuous refining, chemical and petrochemical processes. Unfortunately, many installed and commissioned MPC controllers have fallen into disuse – in short, expensive APC software has turned into “shelfware.”

		Weighing, workflow and traceability South African Instrumentation & Control, April 2009 By Andrew Ashton In the food, feeds and pharmaceutical industries, regulatory compliance means that traceability and weighing are inseparable. One of the problems that end users face is that their batching systems are not well integrated with their overall data management.

		Deep Dive: The Digital Factory Is a Work in Progress Managing Automation, April 2009 By Stephanie Neil Manufacturers are embracing such digital manufacturing concepts as virtual commissioning, simulation, and cross-functional process integration, but few have arrived at a comprehensive implementation of the idea.

		Hitting Your Numbers Managing Automation, April 2009 By Jeff Moad Implementing profitable-to-promise processes and technologies makes a lot of sense. So why aren't more manufacturers doing it?

		Eliminating Waste In Supply Chain Processes Manufacturing.net, March 2009 By Stacy Lee Bersbach, Direct EDI In this era of economic difficulty it is important to make every penny and minute count, as time is money. Most successful companies strive to optimize a supply chain which decreases waste and activities that do not directly add value. This can be achieved through developing lean supply chain management methods

		PLM, a Silver Bullet for Manufacturing? Autodesk has another take on it! By Bill Lydon PLM (Product Lifecycle Management) is being promoted as the next investment manufacturing companies should make to improve quality, efficiency, and productivity. Autodesk is promoting Digital Prototyping as a better approach for the majority of users with significantly lower complexity and cost.

		Clearing the Integration Hurdles Control, March 2009 By Dan Hebert Integration between plant control systems and higher level computing platforms has never been easier because of the spread of standards that define terms for data exchange among disparate computing systems. Because these technical integration hurdles are coming down, implementation costs are dropping rapidly.

		Catching the Drift Control, March 2009 By Bob Sperber Calibration management software provides one environment for managing instrument data, test protocols, work processes and documentation. The software downloads documenting calibrators to eliminate manual typing before the test, and makes automated data entry more thorough and accurate than manual operations allow.

		Manufacturing Visibility Achieved Control Engineering, March 2009 By Jeanine Katzel Once-simple manufacturing execution tools are blurring the lines between business functions and the plant floor. MESs now may be able to achieve the efficiency and agility manufacturers need to survive in today’s economy.

		Generic Batch Procedures for Flexible Manufacturing Control Engineering, March 2009 By Aaron Wood, Eli Lilly & Company Traditional full batch control creates a sequence of the entire process-specific recipe. This is fine for products you make again and again, but is not flexible enough for single-development product campaigns. Generic batch offers greater flexibility, but without the operator error pitfalls of manual procedures.

		Can You Do Asset Management Yourself? Control, March 2009 By Rich Merritt Building an asset management (AM) system is sort of like building a race car. You can put a vehicle together with parts and labor, or you can buy one already built. Can you do asset management yourself? Of course you can. But can you afford to?

		The grand convergence in manufacturing InTech, March 2009 By Dan Knight and Brian Oulton The deployment of Ethernet has pulled IT and manufacturing professionals together, often creating turmoil, but often creating opportunity to improve efficiencies, drive company-wide best practices and provide transformational change that improves the competitiveness of manufacturers.

		Winning Strategies and Best Practices for Sustainable Manufacturing By Bill Lydon, Contributing Editor The initial focus of the ARC Forum in Orlando was sustainable manufacturing strategies as they relate to environmental performance and resource management. Based on the recent economic downturn, the conference was expanded to address strategies for bottom line business sustainability of process and discrete manufacturing companies.

		Extend the Value of ERP Chemical Processing, February 2008 By Fred Reever, CISUG, and Frank Kochendoerfer, SAP Chemical companies have adopted ERP systems and made them their “transactional hubs.” Such systems have shown tremendous business benefits, but the benefits to the manufacturing arena are less defined and a correlation of ERP benefits to manufacturing hasn’t been evident.

		Changing the embedded development model with Microsoft .NET Micro Framework Industrial Embedded Systems, January 2009 By Mike Rohrmoser, Digi International Microsoft .NET programming in a much lighter, more embedded environment coupled with an embedded microcontroller sounds too good to be true, but it's possible now, thanks to a small .NET platform well-suited for next-generation devices.

		Efficient Asset Performance Management Process Industry Informer, February 2009 By Frank-Uwe Hess, T.A. Cook Consultants. One particularly important aspect of every optimisation project is the acceptance of change by company employees. A consultant always incorporates both management and employees in the change process early on and in this way achieves greater acceptance for new solutions.

		More Than a Scorecard Automation World, February 2009 By Gary Mintchell The concept of Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) has been developed to provide a model for defining measurements and their analysis. This is a metric that manufacturers should be even more concerned with now, given the current economic climate in which they are trying to extract more capacity from current assets.

		Network Management Struggles At Grassroots Level Automation World, February 2009 By C. Kenna Amos Though still in relative infancy, there’s a turf struggle in network management. IT [information technology] managers are penetrating the plant-floor space and making security and purchasing decisions that control engineers historically have made

		Living in a Virtual Machine Automation World, February 2009 By Gary Mintchell Managing a large number of personal computers (PCs) in an organization can be a nightmare for information technology (IT) professionals.

		Socializing Plays a Role In Network Security - 02/24/09 Automation World, February 2009 By Terry Costlow Technology plays a big role in securing corporate networks, but it won’t work unless companies set up good processes for employees. Employees need to understand not only the rules, but also why those rules are needed, before they will remember to implement them at all times.

		Assembly Line Control and Sequencing: Make or Buy? Automation World, February 2009 By Ralph Rio Today, being competitive and growing the business demands product variety. A second trend is reducing set-up so the line is easier to change over. This helps manufacturers move to assemble-to-order (ATO) and eliminate finished goods inventory. A third trend is just-in-time (JIT) inventory management. These trends are driving the development of advanced software applications that can manage the complexity.

		Why Use Software Verification? Control Engineering, February 2009 By Paul Humphreys, LDRA Ltd Software development often proves far more expensive than expected. Evidence indicates that the earlier a defect is discovered in development, the less impact it has on both the timescales and cost. Developers of nonsafety critical systems can benefit from the type of rigorous standards employed within the aerospace and automotive industries.

		Enhancing Plant Asset Management with Wireless Retrofits Power, February 2009 By Paul Sereiko Wireless technology is a mostly untapped resource in the power generation industry that can have a significant impact on the way business is done. It enables a greater degree of connectivity among devices for enhanced monitoring and asset utilization and has led to the development of new applications that improve productivity, uptime, and overall business performance.

		CMMS versus EAM Plant Services, January 2009 Some vendors, consultants and industry analysts continue to push the distinction between CMMS and EAM but it causes nothing but confusion in the marketplace. Most of the more popular CMMS packages can be used as an EAM solution.

		A three-point approach to effective alarm management Plant Engineering, December 2008 By Michael J. Martinez, Invensys Process Systems Proper alarm management helps an operator return the monitored process to its normal operating condition. Computer-based control and operator interfaces offer flexibility and simplify adding new alarms to meet changing needs.

		Don’t Fumble Your Tech Funding Opportunity Pharmaceutical Manufacturing, January 2009 By Peter G. Martin, Invensys Process Systems Need money from the bosses for IT and other technology investments? Don’t drop the ball. Getting the ear, and pocketbook, of senior management requires a game plan based on a firm appreciation of the stats—both costs and ROI.

		Automation is not just about robots American Machinist, January 2009 Software packages and related hardware tools can be used to reduce the amount of labor it takes to run a machine shop, and usually those tools also increase the quality and accuracy of the work. In addition, they give the shop owner new capabilities that can help make a shop more productive and profitable.

		Parallel Programming Makes Most of Multicore Processors - 01/24/09 Automation World, January 2009 By Gary Mintchell Traditional logic has been sequential—that is, a program executes one step at a time. But today’s increasingly complex systems often require several things to happen at the same time and then be brought together.

		Changing Perspectives Improves Asset Management Automation World, January 2009 By Gary Mintchell Bringing asset management up to global best-in-class status often requires a change in perspective and approach. The process needs a defined strategy to know where to go and how to get there.

		Enablng Technologies: Visualizing the Agile Manufacturing Enterprise Managing Automation, January 2009 By Jeff Moad Software vendors are enabling agility with tools that deliver real-time data, automated exception alerts, and more flexible applications. Vendors also are focusing on tools that allow manufacturers to quickly make decisions and take action based on that real-time visibility

		High Performance Computing: Pursuing Innovation In Tough Times Manufacturing.Net, January 2009 By David Graff, Microsoft One way in which manufacturers can innovate during tough times is by using high performance computing (HPC) technology to simulate real-world scenarios and products, saving materials and labor costs. An HPC cluster contains a group of connected computers that simultaneously work on a job, delivering results more quickly and cost effectively than a standalone system.

		New Economy Requires Manufacturers To Plan Better Manufacturing.Net, January 2009 By Ric Ratkowski, Host Analytics A manufacturer’s ability to plan and navigate its activities in a downturn can be critical to its survival. Integrated business planning is designed to help manufacturers become more agile; tie detailed sales forecasts at the production-line level to materials plans, plant scheduling and costing models.

		PLCs, PACs and DCSs Can Do Windows Control, January 2009 By Rich Merritt The capability of today’s PC-based industrial computers are overcoming engineers’ resistance to “the Wal-Mart of Operating Systems.”

		Doing more with open-source and recycled systems Control Engineering, January 2009 By Dennis Brandl, BR&L Consulting To get projects like equipment track-and-trace systems, automated network intrusion detection, and specialized device servers (such as bar codes, weight scales, and industrial printers) back on track, consider the low-cost alternatives available through open source software and recycled servers.

		Factory floor visualization Control Engineering, January 2009 By Andy Balderson and Brent Meranda, Parker Automation While various HMI packages offer Web access or Web publishing, the technologies of most do not meet the needs of the factory floor. Inadequate software performance slows data sharing and remote HMI use on the factory floor—but it doesn't have to be that way.

		Asset Lifecycle Management HazardEX, November 2008 Asset Lifecycle Management (ALM), it leverages the capacity of a user's existing automation while at the same time simplifying integration of new generations of technology.

		SCADA Systems: Unknown Connections Could Spell Trouble Power Engineering, November 2008 By Michael Markulec, Lumeta Corp. The complex designs, interconnected nature and extreme sensitivity of SCADA and other process control systems mandate that utility organizations implement comprehensive plans for assessing and mitigating potential network vulnerabilities and threats. To do this successfully requires development of comprehensive security risk management programs that start with gaining control over network risk.

		Rationalising work processes South Africa Instrumentation & Control, January 2009 By Daniel Coetzee, GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms - Today, a manufacturing environment is evolving that supports process orchestration, workflow and alerting. MES solutions are moving into the realm of operations process management: enterprise manufacturing intelligence (EMI) solutions can now include workflow capabilities in their dashboards, making systems more actionable and capable of performing simple execution.

		Alarm management as a winning strategy South Africa Instrumentation & Control, January 2009 By Dave Wibberley, Adroit Technologies The ultimate objective of an alarm system is to prevent, or at least minimise, physical and economic loss through operator intervention in response to the condition that was alarmed on any given process. Many alarms are simply ignored by operators because so many are either inconsequential and/or irritating.

		Mineral processing applications South Africa Instrumentation & Control, January 2009 By Johan van Tonder, Anglo Platinum With today’s competitive manufacturing environment, companies must look at which technology can help them deliver more quickly, cheaply and efficiently to meet their customer’s demands. MES software aims to provide operator support, production scheduling, genealogy tracking capabilities and accurate, real-time visibility into production performance.

		Motor Condition Monitoring: Efficiency does Matter Control Engineering Europe, December 2008 By Timothy M. Thomas, Baker Instruments The concept of Predictive Maintenance has now become accepted practice, worldwide. Locating, defining, and acting on potential problems before they become catastrophic is the main objective of a predictive maintenance programme.

		Where’s the Remote? Control Design, December 2008 By Mike Bacidore Any IT department worth its bandwidth has built a wall of security that keeps its data communications secure and reliable. The conflict arises when IT security must be compromised to accommodate things like remote diagnostics or troubleshooting of machines.

		Integrating Your EAM Software Into Your ERP Solution Manufacturing.net, December 2008 By Amanda Earing EAM software allows maintenance managers to write up work orders, schedule personnel and manage other aspects of its department, but integrating with an ERP solution will tie the EAM into other departments, making inventory, purchasing and communication with the entire company much easier.

		Way to Grow Mechanical Engineering, December 2008 By Jean Thilmany Small companies often find that ERP systems give them better control of inventory, production schedules, and engineering projects than they’d previously had. However, Implementing an ERP system is usually not a simple affair.

		Optimizing plant alarm systems without compromising personnel safety, equipment protection, and plant security Energy Tech, December 2008 By Joseph A. Macdonald Implementing an effective alarm management program begins with consolidating a plant’s aging analogue plant controls into a single, modern digital control system that includes coordinated control of turbines, burners, plant logic, scrubbers, data acquisition, and performance monitoring.

		Protocol Blenders and Information Creators Automated Buildings, December 2008 By Jim Sinopoli and Neil Gifford Middleware deals with the babble between building automation systems. The bulk of systems are legacy propriety systems in existing buildings that have little or no integration and generate little or no meaningful information about the performance of the building. Middleware can leverage those existing investments.

		The Front End Automated Buildings, December 2008 By Darryl Trombley, Metro Environmental Today’s climate of open systems, competition and integration has left many building owners and facility managers wondering what the heck they bought and left them dealing with a Building Management System (BMS) that has created more frustration than help.

		Call it convergence: Software strategists raise emphasis on integration - 12/27/08 Plant Services, December 2008 By Paul Studbaker Everywhere software is spoken, the emphasis is on what’s being done to make connections, build custom dashboards, enable automatic alarms and notifications, and empower individuals with the information they need when, where and in the context required to help them squeeze out higher productivities, reliabilities and efficiencies.

		Is IT relevant to the chemicals industry? South Africa Instrumentation & Control, December 2008 By Gavin Halse Can the ¬effective use of IT add ¬significant ¬value to a chemicals business and if so how should IT be managed as a strategic resource? From experience this appears not to be the case. We still see IT and the plant systems managed separately in many chemicals companies.

		Software Tips From the 10 Best Shops American Machinist, November 2008 By Larry Haftl All of the shop managers surveyed recognize the critical role that computer software has in making their operations successful, all incorporate the power of computer software into a program of continued productivity improvement, and have taken care in choosing and software that is appropriate for their operations.

		Why use software for calibration management? PACE, December 2008 By Dirk Kuiper, AMS Instrumentation & Calibration Every plant has some sort of system in place for managing calibration operations and data, but the different methods for doing it varies greatly in terms of cost, quality, efficiency and accuracy of data.

		How to Control asset maintenance PACE, November 2008 By George Buckbee George Buckbee, Expertune Most large process plants have invested millions in their control systems. Yet it is typical that more than 30% of the system is off-line at any given moment. Getting the best performance from the control system requires a structured approach to control system asset management

		Rockwell Automation Fair 2008 Review By Bill Lydon, Contributing Editor As usual, the Rockwell Automation Fair was an impressive event with over 11,000 attendees and over 90 Encompass partners. This is a very successful show that creates enormous goodwill and is the most successful control show in North America. Training is becoming a big part of the event and allows users to justify the time and money to attend. Distributor travel packages also make it much easier for users to attend the event.

		Optimize Asset Lifecycle Performance through Better Asset Information Management ARC's Asset Lifecycle Management (ALM) Forum began with a keynote presentation from ARC Vice President Sid Snitkin who discussed Asset Information Management (AIM). Tom Fiske, ARC Advisory Group Senior Analyst discussed the value of modeling and simulation of manufacturing processes to improve actual results. Greg Toomey, VP Traditional Power Segment, SKF presented a case study describing an effective lifecycle maintenance program.

		Wireless & Networking Dominate ISA EXPO 2008, Product Highlights The emphasis on networked communications whether wired or wireless was visible at the event. We review the ISA Wireless Industrial Automation Standard (SP100) Committee meeting in Houston, which drew a standing-room-only crowd. Other product highlights include: PLC/Programming Learning Package, EtherNet/IP Controller, Single Board Industrial Controller, Remote Eyeballs for Wireless Reading Gauges, Quad Process Safety System, Universal Gas Transmitter and HMI Enhancements.

		Rules for software success Control Engineering Europe, November 2008 By Dennis Brandl, BR&L Consulting The sad fact is that a lot of new-technology manufacturing IT projects fail to meet their goals. However, there are some simple rules to apply to software projects that significantly reduce the risk of failure.

		The Need for Asset Information Management in the Utilities Industry Electric Light & Power, December 2008 By Terence Leung, NRX Organizations invest billions in physical assets but largely ignore the information that keeps them running. To reduce schedule and cost in capital projects and ensure the integrity of operating assets, organizations must significantly upgrade the information foundation that enables safety and business improvement.

		Industrial Ethernet Growth Slowed by FUD By Bill Lydon, Contributing Editor The promise of Industrial Ethernet is clear: it will revolutionize manufacturing by tightly integrating control and business systems, if users can overcome their fear, uncertainty and doubt(FUD). One failure can trigger a cascade of problems and result in a significant loss of time and money. There are many issues surrounding the use of Ethernet in industrial control applications that give control engineers reasons for concern.

		Managing software life-cycle issues Power, October 2008 Software ranges from shrink-wrapped products available “off the shelf” to custom corporate implementations of enterprise systems that require sessions with shrinks to keep everyone sane. Regardless of its complexity, every piece of software a plant uses, or interfaces to, poses critical issues that require life-cycle management.

		Upstairs, Downstairs Control, October 2008 By Bob Sperber In the control arena, all DCS vendors either offer a historian or tie to others, and they are typically installed with a firewall above. This presents problems for OPC, but not for SOA-generation tools such as Web services and XML

		Layered approach builds standards into distributed power generation Intech, October 2008 By Ellen Fussell Policastro Portland General Electric integrated its GenOnSys distributed standby generator system with an MES system control center SCADA system. This generator system manages 45 MW at 21 customer sites with 32 generators spread out over a large geographical area.

		Small ETO Manufacturers Double Output with Same Staff By Thomas R. Cutler, Contributing Author Success in a competitive market is forcing every manufacturer to make their business more responsive to client demands. The pressure is constant for better, faster, and cheaper solutions. This is particularly difficult for engineer-to-order businesses.

		Asset Lifecycle Management & The Digital Plant Plant Engineering, September 2008 By Sid Snitkin, ARC Advisory Group Critical human and information assets lie “hidden” behind the equipment façade and their development must be synchronized with the equipment throughout design, build and commissioning to achieve rapid operational readiness goals.

		Integrating Asset Management and Maintenance Control Engineering Europe, September 2008 By Bill Broussard, Emerson Process Management A goal of 80 per cent planned maintenance is attainable when a plant asset management (PAM) platform is integrated with maintenance strategy during engineering design. When PAM is a consideration from the beginning of a capital project, the long-term benefits will include greater equipment availability, fewer emergencies, and lower maintenance costs over the life of the plant.

		It’s Still Not Easy in the Middle Control, September 2008 By Dan Hebert When it comes to directly linking process plant-floor automation with ERP systems, there’s lots of talk, but relatively little action. Despite years of discussions, seminars and product announcements, actual applications making this linkage are few and far between.

		Domino Theory Control, September 2008 By Rich Merritt For several years now, ISA88 has been accepted worldwide as a way to define recipes and control batch processes, and ISA95 is gaining more acceptance as a way to connect batch control systems to higher- level software, such as data historians and ERP. But users and vendors are beginning to discover that both ISA88 and ISA95 can be used for more than just batch.

		Getting into Discrete Control, September 2008 By Rich Merritt Part 2 of Domino Theory. ISA-88 is moving into discrete automation, too.

		Information Nuggets in the Track and Trace Data Stream Automation World, September 2008 By Gary Mintchell A track-and-trace system includes a data input system, software that includes a historian and analysis tools, and visualization and reporting. While none of these systems is new, manufacturing professionals have discovered an important by-product of collecting all this data—information about the detailed working of the manufacturing process.

		What's Sweet About OPC UA? Automation World, September 2008 By Rob Spiegel While it’s still officially in draft form, OPC UA is already getting adopted in the marketplace. Its individual parts have been released over the past year with the final parts getting released in just the past couple of months.

		ISA - Change the name to represent the industry By Rick Zabel, Automation.com The proposed name change of ISA (to "International Society of Automation") is up for a vote again during ISA Expo in Houston, October 14-16, 2008. Last year, the change was voted down, but I have yet to hear a compelling argument against the change. And there are many reasons for the change. If ISA is truly the global society of automation professionals, then its name should reflect its cause. It's time for a change!

		Improved Labor Productivity Through Traceability By Thomas R. Cutler Traceability provides production and plant managers a new toolset for realizing value and boosting profits as well as addressing labor issues - cost, productivity, and labor-related quality.

		Open Network Options Control Design, September 2008 By Paul Miller and Joe Feeley OPC Unified Architecture (UA), abandons the Microsoft–based structure of its much-criticized, DCOM-based, OPC DA predecessor and embraces open, vendor-independent Web Services. OPC UA ties together functions from earlier OPC specifications and enables a common services-oriented architecture (SOA) environment.

		Information Nuggets in the Track and Trace Data Stream Automation World, September 2008 By Gary Mintchell A track-and-trace system includes a data input system, software that includes a historian and analysis tools, and visualization and reporting. While none of these systems is new, manufacturing professionals have discovered an important by-product of collecting all this data - information about the detailed working of the manufacturing process.

		Where are your assets? Plant Services, August 2008 By David Berger Most CMMS vendors have added fields and functionality to better collect GPS coordinates, as well as to integrate with the more popular GIS systems such as ESRI and Intergraph. This is especially valuable for CMMS users who work with a large and widespread asset base, such as utilities and pipeline companies, or where assets are constantly moving.

		Automation, IT Find Teamwork Pays Control Engineering, August 2008 By Jeanine Katzel Controls and information system personnel are building joint teams that are optimizing manufacturing operations in new ways. Business pressures and technology advances both enable and encourage the collaboration.

		Data acquisition: get it right Control Engineering, August 2008 By Mark T. Hoske Data acquisition quality relies upon how closely the representation of reality matches what’s being measured. Reality, however, may differ significantly depending on the point of measurement and how variable their process.

		Data deletion, or letting go is hard to do Control Engineering, August 2008 By Dennis Brandl Despite the desire to retain data, there is also an important reason to delete it. While deleting old and no-longer-relevant data can save disk storage and reduce backup requirements, the primary reason to delete data is litigation discovery cost.

		Integrating Environmental Processes Control Engineering, August 2008 By Rob McGreevy, Wonderware Environmental controls are a critical part of manufacturing and can be fully integrated into larger plant-wide control systems to leverage reporting and historian capabilities.

		Historians Make a Comeback Automation World, August 2008 By C. Kenna Amos There was a time when people thought data historians would go by the wayside, but because of their ability to retain high-fidelity data in a very compressed format, we’re seeing a resurgence in historian use. We’re also seeing historians being a repository and providing real-time data manipulation.

		State of Manufacturing & Automation in the U.S. Looks Good Could it be that high fuel prices, the weak dollar and crises in the U.S. manufacturing industry are creating opportunities? Andy Chatha of ARC Advisory Group thinks so. He says the U.S. industry has suddenly become competitive on the world market, and companies are no longer moving operations overseas. Instead, many are expanding their facilities, and he predicts a boom in automation right here in the U.S.

		Meet the Next Generation of OPC Sensors, July 2008 By: Tony Paine, Kepware Technologies A new generation of OPC, known as OPC-UA, is upon us. This latest generation of OPC-UA delivers solutions to problems of the past, adds significant new capabilities, and provides a foundation for future developments.

		Biopharmaceutical Process Control: Part Two: Process Modeling Pharmaceutical Manufacturing, June 2008 By Michael Boudreau and Gregory McMillan, Emerson Process Management First order plus dead time, high fidelity and multivariate statistical models are valuable tools for batch operation improvement. These online models can accelerate design of experiments and process design.

		Protecting Critical Machinery Maintenance Technology, July 2008 By Deane Horn, Emerson Process Management For the most critical rotating equipment in the plant environment, three scenarios must be accounted for: the unpredictable, the predictable and the controllable. The complete solution covers all three scenarios by providing protection monitoring, prediction monitoring and performance monitoring all integrated with the process control system.

		Fix me Plant Services, July 2008 By Bob Sperber While developers of computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) or enterprise asset management (EAM) packages are steadily adding capabilities for handling condition-monitoring tasks and opening their technology platforms for greater connectivity, CMMS and condition-monitoring systems still aren’t capable of being plugged directly into each other.

		Selecting an automation systems integrator is about more than cost Advanced Manufacturing, July 2008 By Chris Stergiou Once upon a time, most plants had in-house machine design departments to develop new equipment. Alas, this is no longer the case as manufacturing doctrine is driven by a strategy of outsourcing non-core competencies. This “back to basics” approach means that in-house efforts are geared to product design and development and this has created a manufacturing process knowledge gap as in-house engineers are focused on production

		IT project management in manufacturing: biggest obstacles are time and scope Advanced Manufacturing, July 2008 By Jennifer Colasanti Info-Tech recently completed in-depth research on IT Project Management. Data was collected from 51 manufacturing organizations representing a variety of company sizes. Not a single manufacturer surveyed indicated that they were “very successful” at executing projects on time. Managing scope creep was at the top of the list of challenges.

		Tools Provide Global Collaboration Automation World, July 2008 By Gary Mintchell Managing today’s manufacturing enterprise is impossible without collaboration. Most companies have employees located in facilities around the world who need to work together in real time. New technologies are required to enable widespread collaboration.

		Getting Up the Profit Hill Faster Automation World, July 2008 By Gary Mintchell The complexity of manufacturing demands study and reflection to keep production lines moving. One of the biggest challenges is finding where the problems are that cause reduced output of finished goods. Manufacturers have an array of good tools to help them implement proven operational excellence strategies.

		Without a Trace Managing Automation, July 2008 By Jeff Moad OEMs are turning over more responsibility for designing, assembling, and even maintaining subsystems to suppliers in the interest of reducing lead times and sharing program risk and cost. At the same time, OEMs are demanding that suppliers provide more — and more up-to-date — information about things like what specific parts are in a given subsystem, when the parts were produced, by whom, under what conditions, and what quality tests were performed on them.

		Ready for Control in the Field? Control, July 2008 By John Rezabek If you have an investment in intelligent field devices that can handle 80% of the control in your plant, why put the entire burden on your host? Users should let hosts churn away at the more demanding advanced control and optimization, and leave the day-to-day, garden-variety PID to the field devices.

		Managing Batch Processes in 2020 Control, July 2008 By Dave Harrold The handwriting is on the wall. Like it or not, where and how we manage batch processes will differ dramatically by 2020.

		Integrating Asset Management and Maintenance Control Engineering, July 2008 By Bill Broussard, Emerson Process Management A goal of 80% planned maintenance is attainable when a plant asset management platform is integrated with maintenance strategy during engineering design.

		Flirting with disaster InTech, July 2008 By Michael Carey A true disaster recovery plan needs to not only address software but also hardware and the network. It also needs to address prevention and recovery and take into account the ability to protect systems using current technology and legacy systems where replacement hardware may not be available.

		What Happened to all Those 'Flexible' Factories? Assembly, June 2008 By Austin Weber No matter what definition is used or how it is interpreted, it’s beginning to look like the flexible factory concept may be just a myth.

		Measuring Return on Automation Automation World, June 2008 By Gary Mintchell When operations managers and engineers evaluate how to improve manufacturing processes, they often look at implementing new or improved automation systems. They know the operational benefits the system is designed to bring—improved quality, less waste, reduced manpower, increased productivity, faster product changeover and the like. They may not have even thought about the larger financial ramifications to the corporation.

		Corporate IT Helps Plants with Security Automation World, June 2008 By Rob Spiegel The best solutions for securing the plant usually come through strong communication between plant operators and IT personnel. One of the more popular emerging solutions is the creation of a team consisting of plant engineers and IT staff. This team takes on the responsibility for securing the plant, and no decisions are made without input from both control engineers and IT staff.

		Tactics for Plant Security Automation World, June 2008 By Rob Spiegel The information technology (IT) department at an enterprise offers a range of ways to secure the plant network. But not all of these tactics are appropriate for the plant. Control engineers have to pick and choose to make sure the network is secure, while also making sure security tactics don’t interfere with availability or safety.

		Office/Plant Security Clash Automation World, June 2008 By Rob Spiegel According to ARC, the conflict between the plant and the information technology (IT) group stems from a long list of conflicting missions, systems and priorities.

		Be Precise: Modeling Enhances Standards Automation World, June 2008 By Terry Costlow Standards,the lifeblood of the technology world, are being improved by a shift to models, which reduce ambiguity and reduce the possibility that various interpretations will cause incompatibilities.

		Better Manage Your Business, Your Plant Control, June 2008 In-plant wireless technology isn’t just about communicating and integrating process information flows. It’s also about enabling a broad range of business and plant management applications - some well-defined and already at work, and some as yet to be imagined.

		Don't judge a supplier by its name By Frank Hurtte, Contributing Author. For those of us who live and breathe the rarified vapors of technology based automation, it's pretty hard to fathom how life existed without electronic automation. Yet, it has been a short 30 years since the venerable PLC became anything more than a novelty outside of the Big 3 in Detroit. Sometime in the late 1970s, microprocessors changed our lives forever. Since those early days, the power of these tiny chips forever changed the way we think about manufacturing.

		Go mobile to improve your CMMS system Plant Engineering and Maintenance, May 2008 By Kris Bagadia Mobile computing offers a proven strategy for efficiently populating data into a CMMS system. Many maintenance departments have adopted mobile technology to collect data. Rather than sending skilled technicians out in the field with a clipboard, they're given mobile devices with a full list of their work orders, detailed job plans and asset histories—readily available at their fingertips.

		What is OPC UA and how does it affect your world? Plant Engineering, May 2008 By Simone Massaro, ICONICS OPC-UA is an important building block that enables users to build the next generation of software automation solutions. With complete backward compatibility ensured, vendors will have much to gain – and nothing to lose – by adopting the new OPC Unified Architecture.

		Regional Manufacturing Expos Prove Most Valuable By Thomas R. Cutler Deciding which conferences, webinars, and expos are worthwhile for manufacturing engineers and buyers to attend often feels like a dangerous yellow brick road, never knowing quite what to expect.

		Software Services Integrate Applications Automation World, May 2008 By Gary Mintchell Some may think the idea of manufacturing information flowing “from sensor to boardroom” may just be an unachievable dream. After all, the reality of manufacturing information is that there are a multitude of different applications that each store information in different ways and communicate using differing protocols and methods.

		Blending Plant Operations with Enterprise Management Automation World, May 2008 By Rob Spiegel The war between plant operations and IT is over. Here’s a look at the major trends in information technology that are having a direct and growing impact on plant operations.

		6 Key Mobile Adoption Drivers for the Chem Processing Industry Chem.Info, May 2008 By Joe Granda, Syclo Leading-edge organizations that have adopted mobile technology as a best practice are realizing a new level of efficiency, which is reflected in their operations and on their bottom line. Author outlines the six main benefits of mobile technology in chem. processing.

		What’s needed in process automation? Chemical Processing, May 2008 By Mark Rosenzweig A recent survey of end users by Jacobs Engineering Group provides an extensive wish list for field instrumentation, including disposable instrumentation for disposable process components; Class 1 Division 1-rated I/O modules; power-over-Ethernet instruments; and built-in control module logic, including alarming. Wish lists also cover controllers, HMI, control systems, batch, and more.

		Monitoring Bioprocesses Pharmaceutical Manufacturing, May 2008 By Ravindra Gudi, Honeywell Technology Solutions The fermentation process is already fraught with risk. Monitoring offers an early warning system that can ensure batch-to-batch consistency and minimize waste. An early detection of “events” such as faults or sub-optimal behavior, can lead to corrective action, when possible, to alleviate the fault or to shut down the batch to prevent depletion of expensive feed material.

		MES ownership up in air Intech, May 2008 By Bianca Scholten Traditionally, there are two parties that take care of automation: IT and engineering. What can they learn from each other? How can they combine the best of both worlds in order to develop, select, implement, and maintain better MES solutions, and last but not least, to use these solutions?

		Advances in Control Loop Optimization Control Engineering, May 2008 By Vance VanDoren Loop tuning is still a critical element of loop optimization, but thanks to recent advances in control theory and commercial software products, the control operations of an entire plant can now be optimized to maximize overall profitability, not just individual loop performance.

		Manufacturing Control Systems Bridge Production and IT - 05/17/08 Control Engineering, May 2008 By Ronald E. Menéndez, Genentech, and Darrell Tanner, Honeywell ISA88 and ISA95 concepts underlie the capability of manufacturing control systems to unify MES and PCS technologies and connect enterprise and plant floor control systems in batch process industries.

		Data Analytics in Batch Operations Control, May 2008 By Robert Wojewodka and Terry Blevins Over the last 10 years, significant progress has been made in the development of technology and understanding needed to apply online statistical analytics to batch processes successfully. Integrating such tools into a process control system can provide many benefits.

		SCADA and Data Collection Industrial Networking, May 2008 By Joe Roegner, SCADA technician Orange County Today, we have better computers and better methods to store data. Unfortunately, it hasn’t lived up to the promise of what the Information Age shows us is possible. Many of us are caught up in corrective maintenance of our SCADA systems and have little time to work on developing data-collection systems.

		Report Generation InTech, April 2008 By Michael Carey The true shock may hit when the software you thought would capture the specified project data does not do what you thought it would do. The solution to the problem can be to reduce report requirements, purchase a report package, or develop custom software.

		The Year of .... OPC-UA Control Engineering Asia, April 2008 The Chinese Year of the Rat also spells launch time for the long awaited OPC-UA specification, and the furry rodent actually has a lot in common with the latest version of the automation system interface standard.

		Ingredients for Success Control Engineering Asia, April 2008 By Jim Ricigliano In all areas of manufacturing and pharmaceutical companies particularly, adopting new information technologies has become serious business. Collaboration, real-time, agility and visibility are words used to describe the desired end results and how production and business processes should work..

		Use people skills and your CMMS to build management excellence Plant Services, April 2008 By David Berger Frontline supervisors are absolutely critical in ensuring the success of any major change initiative, such as implementing a new CMMS or getting more out of an existing one.

		Alarm management life cycle provides process insight Plant Engineering, April 2008 By Prasad Pai, GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms As HMI/SCADA systems transition from being visualization tools to analytical tools, alarm management systems have gained importance and are now central to the success of an effective control system.

		IT: The eighth hidden waste Plant Engineering, April 2008 By Kevin Prouty, Motorola When lean principles are embraced by IT, the IT department can become a multiplier of efficiencies throughout the enterprise by moving information closer to the point of activity throughout the company. The implementation of continuous improvement initiatives in IT further amplifies the “Lean factor” in manufacturing processes.

		Understanding Enterprise Performance Management Managing Automation, April 2008 By Joshua Greenbaum Performance management goes beyond data collection and reporting. Managers need to know in real time what is happening and why. Only then can they decide their next steps.

		Standards benefit batch SA Instrumentation & Control, April 2008 By Andrew Ashton Companies are finding that many of the ISA-88 principles for batch control can be applied in the continuous process field and in packaging automation.

		Two Years Later: A Look at the Demand Driven Supply Chain Technology By Thomas R. Cutler Materials and Plant Managers improve productivity through automation of repetitive, time-consuming management functions as well as elimination of waste built into manual kanban card process. In a Demand Driven Supply Chain (DDSC) there is instant availability of real-time inventory data as well as an automatic calculation of proper replenishment levels. Much has changed about Demand Driven Supply Chain issues and technology in the past two years.

		Where Are Control Architectures Heading? Main Street Managing Automation, March 2008 By Stephanie Neil Standards-based control architectures—such as Cisco Ethernet switches, Intel processors, and Microsoft .NET Web services, to name a few--are pushing open the factory doors and driving manufacturing data out into the mainstream of enterprise activity.(Registration required)

		Getting Standards Under One Roof Managing Automation, March 2008 By Stephanie Neil Most application integration has relied on proprietary point interfaces or middleware that multiplies over time, becoming expensive to build and maintain. What many want is one language that can be spoken between the plant floor and enterprise applications. Standards groups are at work. (Registration required)

		Performance Anxiety? Managing Automation, March 2008 by Joshua Greenbaum Before you pay good money for the latest in performance management EPM/CPM software, think rationally about how you might use the information you'd gain. (Registration required)

		Manufacturing 2.0 Advanced Manufacturing, March 2008 By Scott Bury If there was a software tool that could help you find the information you didn't know you had, could leverage the knowledge of your customer base while you’re developing new products, and could speed the time to market for those new products, would you use it? Manufacturers are definitely interested in “Web 2.0,” and the possible use of blogs, podcasts and wikis in their businesses. But there seems to be some hesitation about implementing them internally.

		Take Steps to Stymie Cyber-Criminals Automation World, March 2008 By C. Kenna Amos What drives better security is manufacturing taking responsibility for itself.

		Measuring DFMA savings Automation World, March 2008 By Wes Iversen By using design for manufacture and assembly methodologies, some manufacturers are reaping impressive factory floor savings. The standardized DFMA process provides a conduit for communication within the organization and the supply chain. It also provides a means for identifying the financial impact of an efficient design.

		Modern test systems strike it rich with data management strategies Embedded Computing Design, March 2008 By Joe Spinozzi, Cyth Systems Test data can spew rapidly from a manufacturing environment, and unless a plan to manage and analyze it is in place, opportunities for improvement may be missed.

		Database Alternatives for Real-Time Intelligent Devices Embedded Computing Design, March 2008 By Jan Liband, ENCIRQ Corporation Managing data with embedded database technologies simplifies development and can increase application reliability. However, performance, determinism and memory requirements are common concerns, especially in real-time systems. Registration required.

		Embedded databases: Why not to use the relational data model Embedded Computing Design, January 2008 By Duncan Bates, Birdstep Commercial embedded data management engines are gaining acceptance and in many cases becoming a hard requirement for most applications.

		CAD/ERP Data Integration: 2 Ways About It Industrial Automation Asia, March 2008 By Ricardo Talbot, Elmo Solutions In response to the critical need to ensure data synchronisation between design and manufacturing intensive departments, two approaches exist that enable manufacturing companies to extract and transfer metadata from CAD/PLM systems directly into ERP.

		Building Manufacturing Efficiency Control Engineering Europe March 2008 Today, many pharmaceutical plants typically operate at somewhere around 30% efficiency, with a few world-class operations reaching the 70% range. The Pfizer facility in Puerto Rico formed a cross-functional team to focus on creating more competitive costs through implementing an OEE data gathering and reporting system.

		Connecting the Plant to the Enterprise Control Engineering Europe March 2008 By C.G. Masi Japanese industrial automation engineers are working to link the shop-floor with enterprise-level networks.

		Connecting control systems to the internet January 2008 Relatively few industrial control systems are currently web-enabled, even though the advantages are clear to see. However change is in the air as new technologies and new confidence reach the market.

		Integration Operations to Enterprise Control, March 2008 By Dan Hebert Internal staff, your automation vendors, system integrators and your ERP vendor all insist they are best positioned to integrate your plant floor with your ERP system. Who is right?

		Getting quality down PAT Intech, March 2008 By Baha Korkmaz, Arnold Martin, and Cenk Undey Using the concepts behind process analytical technology (PAT) is one effective tool to achieve better quality, especially when incorporating batch standards, such as ISA88.

		A ‘Plant with a View’ Assembly, February 2008 Today’s manufacturing execution systems (MES) allow engineers to cut through the clutter and “see” what’s really going on. By pulling data directly from the plant floor and processing it with the system’s analytic software, engineers can get a real-time snapshot of what is happening at either the workstation level or plant-wide.

		IEC 61131 Cage Match—Prologue Control Design, March 2008 By Jeremy Pollard Columnist reminisces about the beginning of IEC 61131, when the reality didn’t live up to the claims.

		Automation Professionals Seek Missing Link for Transactional Six Sigma by Thomas R. Cutler Many manufacturing organizations fail to achieve the full benefit of Six Sigma efforts because their tools lack connectivity to the business systems generating the data.

		Simplifying Integration Logic Development by Joel Nash, As One Technologies As business operations evolve they require richer and more widespread inter-process integration. Because each case involves a unique combination of technologies and business rules, shrink-wrapped MES packages cannot implement the rich integration that is needed. The requirement goes well beyond communication pipes and protocols, integration requires developing custom software. The problem is that custom software is difficult to develop and maintain.

		IT makes Advanced Manufacturing Tick Machine Design, February 2008 By Matt Mason, Avatech Solutions Design-engineering software that can’t communicate well with manufacturing is a recipe for trouble. A software component of Windows called the .NET Framework is helping to boost productivity by reducing software communication problems.

		Rethink batch-manufacturing alarm systems Chemical Processing, February 2008 By Joseph S. Alford It’s not unusual for a manufacturing facility to average more than 1,000 alarms/month. Some of this is due to the increasing implementation of smart sensors and valves. These devices communicate a large amount of information with the host process control computer. Perhaps it’s time for an alarm remediation project.

		Accessing Plant-Floor Intelligence Pharmaceutical Manufacturing, February 2008 The pharmaceutical industry is embracing enterprise resource planning (ERP) and the concept of Service-Oriented IT Architecture, with a growing number of manufacturers building platforms based on SAP or Oracle.

		ISA88 Beyond Batch Automation World, February 2008 By Rob Spiegel The tenets of ISA88 are now being applied to packaging, as well as to continuous and discrete manufacturing. Companies are beginning to use the standard in areas never expected, from maintenance to machine part analyzing and equipment allocation

		Struggling For Clear Responsibilities in MES Automation World, February 2008 By Bianca Scholten Although the technical gap between IT and Engineering is getting smaller, the chasm between the departments still is huge. This heavily impacts the success of MES implementations.

		The Horse with Stripes Control, February 2008 By Walt Boyes Many IT security professionals now profess to be “industrial cyber security experts” because they understand “SCADA” and have worked for years in enterprise IT and enterprise cybersecurity. But it takes more than that to function properly in the industrial controls environment.

		Time for Plant and Corporate IT to Grow Up Control, February 2008 By Charlie Gifford, 21st Century Manufacturing Solutions Subject: the bloody war zone in manufacturing operations management (MOM) systems. Neither side realizes how large and complex job it is to integrate and translate between the plant and business in real-time.

		The Status Quo Isn't Control, February 2008 By Jeffrey R. Harrow Web applications may be the next big thing in computing. Consider how web apps might enhance customer solutions: all the applications could reside and run on an always up-to-date web-based server that can access an extended information set. If it's you who provide this remote web app as a service, you can generate a continuing revenue stream! Are You Ready?

		3D Does It Control Engineering, February 2008 By Renee Robbins How do control engineers help change production line capabilities quickly? Early adopters of PLM software say it’s about pushing the technological limits with 3D modeling, process simulation, and virtual commissioning.

		Integrating Enterprise and Plant IT Functions Control Engineering, February 2008 By Jim Ricigliano, Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, and Matthew Bauer, Rockwell Automation When pharmaceutical manufacturing processes are automated there are many benefits, but implementation can demand difficult choices. Integration often brings enterprise IT onto the plant floor.

		Benefits of a downtime accounting system for mining SA Instrumentation & Control, February 2008 By Dennis Cox, Citect Africa An effective manufacturing execution system (MES) that collects and organises downtime events to increase visibility and comprehension can help mining operations stay competitive.

		Use Spreadsheets to Estimate Modeling Parameters CEP, February 2008 By Thomas Co, Michigan Technological Univ. Dynamic process modeling based on non-uniformly sampled data and multiple sampling runs, even for nonlinear systems, can be performed using spreadsheet implementations of the weighted-least-squares (WLSQ) and Runge-Kutta WLSQ methods.

		Food Automation Operations Face Increasing Rigor By Thomas R Cutler Automation is the only solution for problems in the food processing industry. Labor issues, the increasing need for traceability, food safety, and competition from low-cost global manufacturing fuel the growing trend toward increased automation in the sector.

		Using XML in Automation Automation World, January 2008 By Gary Mintchell The Web standard for communicating information, the eXtensible Markup Language or XML, is more than eleven years old. Its use in automation is still in infancy, however.

		Integrated Development Environments Go Virtual, Global Automation World, January 2008 By C. Kenna Amos Expand a single-node system by a couple or more nodes, or change topologies, or connect computers to another server—and “things get complicated. Feasible remedies to these induced complexities lie with integrated-development environments (IDEs).

		A Better View of the Plant Automation World, January 2008 By Rob Spiegel New HMI tools are taking data from programmable logic controllers (PLCs) and displaying it throughout the enterprise via Web browsers. Likewise, HMI systems are sending intelligible information from the enterprise down to the shop floor.

		Better ways for reliable, deterministic data distribution in industrial systems Industrial Embedded Systems, January 2008 By Laurent Seraphin, PrismTech A missing piece in the software jigsaw puzzle is the tedious requirement to get applications to talk to one another. This article explains the inner workings of Data Distribution Service (DDS) and how it transports real-time data to where it’s needed.

		Mathematics of information Control Engineering, January 2008 By Dennis Brandl Most control engineers will eventually have to build or specify a database to hold instrument data, analysis data, or production reporting data. This is the point when understanding the underlying structure and mathematics of databases becomes important.

		Convergence of IT, Automation Intech, January 2008 By Constantino Seixas Filho and Vitor Finkel Organizations remain frozen in the 1980s: IT reports to finance; Automation to maintenance. Lack of a clear definition of who is responsible for what in the organization inevitably leads to dysfunction. A united front between the two departments could lead to big manufacturing gains.

		Software Review: Software speeds engineering calculations Machine Design, January 2008 By Bill Fane Review of Maple 11 mathematical software by long-time user.

		Alarm management: realising the value What’s New in Process Technology, December 2007 The alarm system is the primary tool for identifying abnormal operations and helping plant personnel take timely, appropriate action to move the process back to operational targets. Effective alarm systems create effective operators; ineffective alarm systems pose a serious risk to safety, the environment and plant profitability.

		Striking at the heart of condition assessment Power Engineering International, December 2007 By: Dave Randl, QinetiQ, UK Remote visual inspections of machinery and pipework have always had limitations because of the inherent inflexibility of fibrescopes and videoscopes. The unique articulation of a guide now opens up the possibility of navigation through areas not previously possible, allowing a more comprehensive plant condition assessment.

		The math behind Six Sigma metrics Vision Systems Design, January 2008 By Valerie Bolhouse, Certified Six Sigma Blackbelt Descriptive and inferential statistics are the foundation of Six Sigma. The Six Sigma program employs a practical, disciplined approach to collecting and analyzing data to understand and improve process capability by reducing variability. Performance, capability, and improvement can all be quantitatively described by the common language of statistics.

		Remote monitoring closes the gap between meters and breakers Plant Engineering, January 2008 By Jack Smith Remote monitoring helps plant managers make informed decisions about operational efficiency, system reliability, employee safety and energy costs.

		Process control: Managing the modernization process Plant Engineering, January 2008 By Jack Smith When process industries face control system modernization, they also face inevitable decision opportunities. Changes can range from simple component replacements to a full-blown overhaul.

		Layers Protect Access to Controls Control Design, January 2008 By Loren Shaum, contributing editor Unfortunately, passwords get passed around. Access in the wrong hands often leads to machine downtime, costing thousands.

		Meeting the Changing Needs of Manufacturers Through Advanced System Integration Practices by John Nichols, Apex Manufacturing Solutions A systems integrator not only adds value through traditional automation systems, but also by integrating control systems, quality systems, supply chain networks, enterprise documentation systems, asset management systems, business systems, and intra/internets to provide a holistic view of all aspects of a manufacturing company’s business.

		Complex Data Management in the Flat World: Creating Interoperability & Collaboration By Objectivity Manufacturing, process control and automation require the ability to monitor and correlate data and data’s relationships from different sources in a real-time environment. Streaming event data can be correlated to provide predictive alarms and intelligence to solve problems before they occur.

		Talk to me, Baby Control, November 2007 By Bianca Scholten How ISA-95 can lead to, if not world peace and universal love, at least a plant where all the departments can talk the same language

		Service Plant Soon? Control, November 2007 By Nancy Bartels EAM is different from industry to industry. Just what is enterprise asset management? CMMS, EAM, PM, CBM, ERP or some combination?

		What’s Driving the Industrial Marketplace? Control Engineering, October 2007 Sumiya Donna Imam, Freescale Semiconductor Whether on the factory floor or an offshore oil rig, there is increasing need for additional functionality. Sophisticated real-time software systems and powerful processors are needed to meet this demand.

		OPC-UA Averts Interface-Protocol Explosions Automation World, October 2007 By C. Kenna Amos Two principal features make OPC-UA a communication mechanism across various protocols or standards: its ability to model complex things, and the basic set of services it provides.

		Cutting the Cost of Compliance Control Engineering, September 2007 By Hank Hogan Regulatory compliance costs can be cut through the use of hardware and software, although the savings may not be direct.

		What cost migration? Intech, September 2007 By Christopher A. DaCosta and Ken Keiser It is difficult knowing when to act, or not react, with a system upgrade or migration. The details of each pathway are many. Here are 10 migration routes one should consider when planning and moving to newer technology.

		Cookin' Up a Fine Elixir CONTROL, September 2007 By Jim Montague End-users, system integrators and suppliers are implementing ISA-88-based solutions in many new and unexpected applications

		Faking It Isn’t All Bad CONTROL, October 2007 By Walt Boyes and Nancy Bartels Simulate or model your loop tuning, operator training, advanced process control or optimization for savings, safety and skill-building

		Robotics software platforms review By Michael Somby This article gives a short overview of general-purpose robotics software platforms currently available for service robotics applications. The article is a compilation of the knowledge the author accumulated during experimentation work.

		Simulating for Mechatronics Machine Design, August 2007 By Brian MacCleery, National Instruments Modern simulation software lets engineers spot electromechanical problems long before they get to the stage of real hardware. An ideal system for virtual machine prototyping should account for the dynamics of mechanical transmissions and payloads, electrical motors and drives, and such embedded control-software tasks as motion trajectories and PID tuning.

		The Evolution Of A Distributed, Federated Object Query Engine By Leon Guzenda, Chief Technology Officer, Objectivity, Inc. This White Paper describes the evolution of the general purpose Objectivity/DB object database from a homogeneous, navigational object access tool to a distributed, federated (heterogeneous) query engine.

		Hitting the Relational Wall - 08/12/07 by Dr. Andrew E. Wade, PhD, Objectivity Relational Database Management Systems (RDBMSs) have been very successful, but their success is limited to certain types of applications. As business users expand to newer types of applications, and grow older ones, their attempts to use RDBMS encounter the "Relational Wall," where RDBMS technology no longer provides the performance and functionality needed.

		Digital Manufacturing Takes Off Control Engineering, August 2007 By Frank O Smith Product lifecycle management (PLM) software could be coming to a control system near you. Maybe not to tomorrow, but given recent developments, sooner than you might suspect.

		When RTOS Really Is Needed Control Design, August 2007 By Loren Shaum, Contributing editor For many machine builders producing similar machines in large volume, the control system has to be compact, often fast, and embedded. For these volume OEMs, a non-Windows platform can make sense.

		Building Trustworthy Software Control Engineering, July 2007 By Hank Hogan Control system reliability today increasingly depends on software. Manufacturers are doing more to ensure reliability, but control engineers have to do their part – and perhaps change their ways.

		Recipe Management with ISA-S88 Control Engineering, July 2007 Michael Wood, Rockwell Automation One of the issues challenging batch manufacturers is the need to manage recipe development effectively with less dependency on the process engineering staff. By combining open standards with batching software, this need can be met.

		Alphabet Soup Improves Business visibility Control, July 2007 By Dave Harrold The technical details of using S88, S95 and other tools are well-documented. The reason why using them makes good business sense hasn’t been well known - until now.

		Automated Monitoring of Production Assets Process Industry Informer, June/July 2007 By Darren Greener, Emerson Process Management, Europe Diagnostic information generated by continuous monitoring warns of potential problems and provides a basis for predictive maintenance.

		New threats demand new code analysis tools Embedded Computing Design, July 2007 By Gwyn Fisher, Klocwork Developers cannot depend on old code review processes and testing tools to find all the bugs and potential vulnerabilities in today’s connected devices. Modern static analysis tools, however, provide a complete system view and detect any weaknesses in the code that could lead to a malicious attack.

		The ABCs of XML, Part 4 Control, June 2007 By John T. Sever, President, Cascade Controls This article provides more of what you need to know to survive in the world of connected data by identifying a few common problems you are likely to encounter transforming XML into other formats.

		Integration across the fourth dimension Control, June 2007 By Keith Larson, VP Content, Putman Media In the heavy continuous process industries, well-evolved simulation tools exist to aid in process design, but how well do they really integrate with the mechanical design tools they feed?

		Customize your software? Control Design, June 2007 By Loren Shaum, Contributing Editor Our TechFlash focus this month offers suggestions on newer software tools that let builders rely on off-the-shelf software to do their HMI customization.

		OPC Holes Create Swirl of Controversy Automation World, June 2007 By Terry Costlow, Contributing Editor Viruses and hacker attacks that occur daily in IT may be inching closer to the factory floor. Recent disclosures about security flaws in the OPC standard raise concerns that the security-through-obscurity concept that has helped protect production lines no longer exists.

		Connecting the Plant to the Database Automation World, June 2007 By Rob Spiegel, Contributing Editor Tools that communicate directly from automation devices to enterprise databases and back help companies improve efficiency.

		Manage diagnostic data Control Design, May 2007 By Daryl Mather Data management—you either love it or hate it—is one of the vital areas that support modern facility asset management. It’s an area that we often neglect, creating opportunities for people with less than adequate levels of asset management knowledge to make large-scale mistakes.

		Washing Inefficiencies Right Out Of That Plant Automation World, May 2007 By Gary Mintchell, Editor in Chief The main uses of today’s MES software are found in its correlation with Lean and Six Sigma programs, plus regulatory response to increase manufacturing throughput.

		Islands Of Information Connecting The Software Enterprise Automation World, May 2007 by Rob Spiegel, Contributing Editor Plants are using OPC and XML-based connectivity such as OPC-UA to create data loops from plant systems to enterprise IT.

		SystemC: the SoC system-level modeling language Embedded Computing Design, May 2007 By Jerry Gipper An SoC is literally a system on a chip consisting of both silicon and embedded software. Its design involves complex algorithm and architecture development and analysis similar to that performed in system design.

		Q&A: The Impact of NI LabVIEW 8.5 on Machine Builders By Brian MacCleery, NI senior product manager How National Instruments LabVIEW as well as multicore and FPGA technologies are impacting machine builders and the growing mechatronics segment.

		Why Most ERP Vendors Stay Away from Process Manufacturing Process manufacturing is a relatively small market compared to markets such as discrete manufacturing, retail and professional services; the size of the market is commensurate with the few quality software solutions for process manufacturers, whereas discrete manufacturing, retail and professional services have hundreds of software solutions, from entry level through Tier One

		Upgrade Streamlines Application Software Control Engineering – February 2007 Rick Hannasch, president of Magnum Engineering In this semiconductor application, the original system split interface, security and configuration utilities between HMI and PLC. The goal in replacing the HMI hardware and software was to provide the requested resolution and detail while dramatically reducing PLC program complexity by offloading the security and configuration functions to the HMI.

		Local Technology Selection: To VAR or Not to VAR by Thomas R. Cutler. Among the thousands of software firms selling their goods, there is a wide divide based on those which utilize VARs (value added resellers) and those with “corporation-only” salesforces. There are pros and cons to each management scenario. Those companies which avoid the VAR methodology argue that inconsistency in quality among VAR consultancies, lack of product knowledge and expertise, and lost margins negate the advantages of using these “outsiders.”

		Measure. Decide. Act. Applying Real-Time Feedback to Deliver Business Results By George Buckbee, P.E., ExperTune Inc. To control a business, key measures include sales, profit, productivity, and cash flow. This white paper discusses appropriate measures for control of single loops, unit operations, and entire businesses. The “right things” have a few common characteristics.

		Six Decisions You Must Get Right Before Upgrading Your Automation System By Control Systems International Automation upgrades often fail because buyers fail to make a few critical decisions early in the upgrade process. This report identifies the critical decisions you must make early and correctly in order for your upgrade project to be cost effective, achieve your goals, and reduce the risk of incorrect startup and operation

		Control System Asset Management Most large process plants have invested millions in their control systems. Yet it is typical that more than 30% of the system is off-line at any given moment. Getting the best performance from the control system requires a structured approach to control system asset management. This paper lays out specific plans for establishing a control system asset management program.

		Real-time Linux, past and present Embedded Computing Design, March 2007 By Daniel Walker, MontaVista Software Linux traditionally has been considered a general-purpose server or desktop Operating System (OS), and as a result is often viewed as incapable of true real-time functionality. However, this assumption has proven false on multiple occasions. In fact, various Linux approaches begin with a dual OS, Linux, and Real-Time Operating System (RTOS) and continue down the path of low latency, resulting in Linux as the RTOS. Typical real-time approaches entail running an application on bare hardware or using a small OS, which is considered tightly bounded and specifically created for use in real-time applications

		What Happens in Plant Stays in Plant InTech, March 2007 By May Permann, et al, Idaho National Laboratory While players in automation are becoming more aware computer systems are vulnerable to cyber attack, especially those controlling our nation’s critical infrastructure, some don’t always implement control system security procedures and devices consistently and effectively. To remotely manipulate a control system, an attacker must gain access to the control system local area network (LAN), discover and understand the process, and then control the process. Researchers at INL report progress in cyber security.

		Data access from everywhere Control, March 2007 By Dan Hebert, Senior Technical Editor A number of hardware and software tools make mobile data access practical. On the hardware side, lots of mobile devices with 2-in. and up color displays and connectivity to cell phone networks and the Internet are in the hands of operations, maintenance and management personnel. On the software side, off-the-shelf software is now available to enable mobile device access to a number of existing plant data sources. These packages take advantage of new Microsoft technologies that provide high levels of security with a minimal amount of programming

		The Language of Device Integration Control Engineering, March 2007 By Hans Georg Kumpfmüller, Siemens A&D, SC division The Electronic Device Description Language (EDDL) allows integration of all devices uniformly into a control system—from a simple sensor up to a complex drive. Furthermore, the device description provides information on maintenance and diagnostic functions of a field device, and serves as an electronic data sheet. New device, maintenance, and diagnostic functions can be integrated with little effort and at any time into the EDD.

		Automation Studios Integrate Users’ Wish Lists Automation World, January 2007 By C. Kenna Amos While Microsoft Corp.’s Visual Studio is an integrated development environment for general Windows and Web-based applications, the “automation studio” focuses on industrial automation applications. Today’s automation studio integrates a common set of configuration tools; standard, widely used configuration languages; and configuration simulation tools that can minimize time to market.

		Don't be Alarmed Intech, January 2007 By Gary Goble and Todd Stauffer Alarm management is one of the most undervalued and underused assets of process automation. An important factor lending itself to human errors is the cacophony of alarms, which preclude the operator's ability to respond quickly and correctly. As alarm systems become less effective, they diminish the effectiveness of the entire automation system.

		Managing Alarms Control Engineering, January 2007 Jeanine Katzel Technology is good, so more technology must be better. Right? Wrong. More is not always better. The advent of the microprocessor and the proliferation of the modern distributed control system (DCS) made it easy to alarm something…everything, in fact…at little or no cost. As a result, many facilities today have an overwhelming number of notifications daily, leading to frustrating, sometimes confusing, and occasionally tragic situations.

		Alarm management improves plant operations Control, January 2007 By Dan Hebert, Senior Technical Editor Alarm management is a hot topic, perhaps because incorrect presentation of alarms often confuses operators. This article shows how better alarm management empowers operators to improve plant performance.

		The Line InTech, March 2007 By Eric Byres, Byres Security Sound security strategy, whether military, physical, or cyber security, is the concept of "Defense in Depth"-firewalls don't fail me now. Firewalls are a fantastic tool in the security toolbox, but industry has misused them. The solution to securing the plant floor is to build a proper defense-in-depth strategy that does not over rely on any single technology. It also means first creating a proper electronic perimeter around the control system and then hardening the devices within.

		Not your Father’s RTOS Control Engineering, March 2007 By Hank Hogan Embedded real-time operating systems (RTOSs) have changed, adding greater connectivity while meeting new safety and security certifications and considerations.

		Does your Automation System have Integrity? An automation system is an essential ingredient of efficient, flexible, and reliable operations. Automation systems are heterogeneous in nature and continue to evolve in complexity. Maintaining the integrity of these systems is more challenging than ever, but is also essential for achieving operational excellence. There are numerous risks involved in not utilizing a configuration change management strategy for automation systems. These risks can easily be mitigated through a comprehensive configuration management strategy.

		The Generic frame work for future development in Industrial automation and process control (IAC) software development. This paper describes about the development of a component based generic framework for developing industrial automation applications, making it scalable, reusable and modular . The problem specifying the need of the framework and then solution to the problem with the component based framework for typical IAC application is discussed. The paper also analyze the software development environment for industrial automation application using this framework.

		Hierarchical State Machines in the Automation Process Often during the process of supporting, modifying or re-engineering automation software, I have found myself making the same conclusion: “This is a Hierarchical State Machine trapped in the body of a C program, struggling to get out!” It seems that many programmers tackle a problem in the A to Z approach, creating a program that is chained to the original programmer’s concept of how the process is to be automated. The result is a system that is difficult to support, suffers from instability, and is difficult to add or modify functionality. This article will introduce you to the concept of a Hierarchical State Machine (HSM) and show you how this approach works so well in software engineering for the automation industry.

		Implementing Performance Monitoring in Your Plant Much of industry recognizes that optimized controller performance increases plant efficiency. There are now case studies in every industry showing the benefit of continual assessment and diagnoses of controller performance. But how do you get started with performance monitoring? This paper outlines the 5 steps.

		The Link Between Automation KPIs and Enterprise KPIs Enterprise Key Performance Indicators, or KPIs, measure the goals of business and help management to allocate resources. Process & Control KPIs measure the effectiveness of the process and the control system, and help plant-floor personnel to allocate their resources. When the process is running well, Control System KPIs improve, and enterprise KPIs improve. Driving Automation KPIs to their optimum in turn drives Enterprise KPIs toward management goals.

		Thinking of Using Microsoft Windows NT or XP Embedded? The use of Microsoft Windows NT and XP Embedded operating systems offers many attractive benefits while providing rich functionality that can be added to an embedded application.

		Windows XP for embedded applications The embedded version of Windows XP is a componentized version of the well-known Windows XP Professional operating system. Instead of everything being wrapped tightly into a single package, XP Embedded breaks the OS down into more than 10,000 individual components, allowing developers to create systems that have the functionality and familiar features of XP. One of the most attractive features of XP Embedded is that it is much smaller than XP for desktop systems — so small, in fact, that it can fit on a 512 MB CompactFlash® card, and still leave room for system applications and data backup. The CompactFlash card resists vibration and shock for reliable storage and can be replaced easily for fast system upgrades.

		Institutionalizing Alarm Management What is alarm management? Most plant personnel equate alarm management with reducing alarms; however, this is only one piece of the puzzle. The whole puzzle involves providing operators with enough information to prevent abnormal situations and to prevent the escalation of those abnormal situations that cannot be prevented. This paper reviews the benefits of alarm management, the causes of alarm problems, and a description of a proven approach that many industry leaders have adopted to realize the benefits of good alarm management practices.

		Data Transport Utility (DTU): An Introduction and Overview Most control engineers and system analysts are faced with the challenge of ensuring product quality and lowering manufacturing costs. This challenge is complicated by a number of issues. Data Transport Utility (DTU) is an emerging technology that provides a backbone or infrastructure for building solutions in a seamless fashion, integrating best-of-class technologies with existing systems, while at the same time cutting development and support costs dramatically.

		Why Industrial Information Management (IIM) and .NET is the Answer This paper considers how using Microsoft .NET systems can help manufacturers enhance competitive advantages by sharing information in real time to maximize collective resources and deliver superior value to customers. Industrial Information Management, (IIM) leverages the .NET capabilities by enriching data into valuable information through downtime, quality, reporting and other analysis modules, and making it available for decision-makers throughout the enterprise.

		.NET - Putting Software Developers in the Picture We have heard that .NET is a bold new initiative from Microsoft. We’ve seen Microsoft wield .NET as part of its diversification into enterprise applications markets. We are aware that where current COM/DCOM technologies have faltered, .NET has succeeded in delivering integrated, web-enabled applications. But, what lies beneath all the hype and buzz? What supplies the foundation for this new generation of software products? And, how can developers leverage this initiative to produce software solutions for enterprise wide collaboration and information sharing?

		Understanding Microsoft's .NET Technology & Its Impact on Automation Application Development Technology is an evolution, not a revolution. Sometimes we see advancements take place quickly, but when viewed from a high altitude vantage point, it’s often easier to see and understand the thread of technological evolution rather than the discrete events related to specific advancements. This paper will take just such a high altitude look at the development of Microsoft’s .NET technology with the intent of helping industrial automation users understand the context of .NET and what it might be able to do for users in the future.

		Accessing Databases Using OPC In any industry, databases are the foundation of many automation applications. Databases are consistently used as a gateway to interface with the outside world, whether to a process optimization application, Computer Maintenance Management System (CMMS), composition analyzer, or a custom, in-house application. Widespread industry acceptance of OPC has made it necessary for many organizations to convert archived data to real-time data and vice-versa. OPC can take advantage of real-time values from what once was a relational database by using Generic Database Access (GDA) technology.

		Integrating Production Line Automation Systems with Office Information Systems With the growing popularity of Ethernet Networks and the abundance of hardware and software solutions available, it is possible to integrate all components of a typical Production Facility into a tightly knit system. Office database & information systems that handle such tasks as production scheduling, data collection, invoicing, bill of ladings, certificates of analysis, order tracking, etc. can all be seamlessly integrated with the production line control system to share real-time data over common Ethernet networks.

		Production Monitoring and Data Mining –No Strip Mining Allowed! In essence, data mining is the process of sifting historical data to find data that supports a premise, or produces a pattern. The implication is that only favorable data is discovered, making the process somewhat dubious. There are a variety of ways data can be mined, including manually, or with increasingly sophisticated analysis software that includes artificial intelligence and neural network modeling tools.

		How do we keep our Control Systems ahead of competition and provide enough flexibility with all the latest technology trends? Traditional control systems used by competition are either proprietary embedded controllers or a “closed” HMI married with a PLC. Most HMI products force integrators to use their HMI software, thus limiting their capability. Enhancements and updates are usually slow to come, making it difficult to keep up with technology. On the control side, PLC’s have evolved very little over the years. Support for scripting and larger function libraries help, but developing advanced & adaptive control algorithms are difficult to impossible on most PLC platforms.

		Vision software helps check parts fast By Ed Drozdowski. president of Accu-Tech Application story describes how vision software is used by an accredited contract-measurement lab to trim time off projects while still providing exact measurements and readily traceable standards of accuracy. The software helped make a smooth transition from tactile to vision measurement without learning complicated programming. The software allows use of a wide range of vision sensors instead of, or in addition to, tactile probes.

		If You Can't Beat IT, Join IT Joseph Ogando, Senior Editor, Design News Factory floor data has simply become too valuable to leave on the factory floor. End-users are demanding the data be passed up to MES and ERP systems. But the typical factory floor is IT's worst nightmare.

		A look back at Microsoft in manufacturing By Jeremy Pollard, CET, Control Design Columnist Jeremy Pollard reflects on the way Microsoft-based technology revolutionized the face of machine control. You can’t go to a manufacturing facility of any size and not find a PC on the factory floor that isn’t running a Microsoft OS. Microsoft allowed basement companies to form, and create reasonable software because it was “easy.” But the low-hanging fruit has been long picked. The technologies we enjoyed 10 years ago are getting old or have disappeared.

		Boost SQL server IQ By Archie Jacobs, Manufacturing Automation LLC When Microsoft released .NET technology, writing software for embedded operating systems such as Windows CE became as easy as writing a desktop application. Microsoft’s .NET environment includes a SQL server client for Windows CE, making it very easy to write a small VB program that can read and write to a SQL server. With this advance and the release of Visual Studio 2005, Microsoft created a tighter integration of SQL servers, and made writing a database application simpler.

		Five Things You Should Know about Microsoft Windows Vista Michael Neal, LabVIEW Product Marketing Manager, National Instruments Windows Vista includes hundreds of new features and many notable changes and improvements, including striking visual effects, improved search capabilities, security enhancements, and a 64-bit option. This article highlights many several aspects of Windows Vista to consider if you are contemplating migrating to this new operating system.

		Ghost writers on the web By Jeffrey R. Harrow, Principal Technologist, The Harrow Group Software programs can generate text on a given subject that seems relevant, but a casual reading shows it has no meaning. I came across a software program that generates text relating to a given subject. When skimmed, pages of these paragraphs seemed to be relevant to the subject at hand and flowed together as you’d expect. But even a casual reading quickly made it clear that the text was semantically null—it sounded good, but it had absolutely no meaning!

		OPC-UA Provides Scaleable Communication between the Plant Floor and Enterprise Craig Resnick, ARC Advisory Group Manufacturers and technology providers recognize the importance of integrating, exchanging, and synchronizing data and information between plant floor systems and enterprise systems. Information about the assets of the plant floor systems needs to be provided to the business applications in the enterprise world, providing real-time information to make effective decisions. Therefore, it is important to understand the OPC Foundation’s Unified Architecture (OPC-UA) functionality and its capability to integrate plant floor systems to the enterprise.

		OPC-UA, Linking the Legacy Craig Resnick, ARC Advisory Group Dealing with multiple generations of automation products is an issue that affects all manufacturers whose plants are not brand new, regardless of revenue, profitability, industry, application or geography. State-of-the art automation products may be continuously added or used to replace legacy automation products wherever an appropriate business case can be made. This creates a big challenge for manufacturers to find a way to not only provide interoperability between plant floor and enterprise, but also to provide a link between multiple generations of legacy automation products. The OPC Foundation is addressing this challenge with their soon to be introduced OPC Unified Architecture, or OPC-UA.

		Getting the Most From Plant Assets By Rob Spiegel, Contributing Editor, Automation World An asset management system can help plants figure out that something’s about to blow before the equipment actually blows. Asset manager software applications can read device data through a fieldbus network to interpret and display the device’s problem before the device fails and shut down the process. This article shows how to accomplish asset management with Foundation Fieldbus, Hart and Profibus fieldbuses.

		Debunk plant myths about diagnostics Chemical Processing, February 2007 By George Buckbee, ExperTune, Inc. Your current control system can probably do more than you think. Everybody can agree that diagnostics are a good thing — they can identify problems early, and keep the plant running at peak performance. Learn how your existing control systems and analog instruments can deliver diagnostic capabilities, at a fraction of the cost of system or instrument replacements.

		The Future of Information in Intelligent Devices - 02/17/07 Rather than ever more centralized, large-scale intelligence, technology has evolved towards highly distributed, intelligent networked devices. Benefits of networked, intelligent devices will be many (but not the same for manufacturers and users). The future holds access to more data, highly distributed networks, access to data in real-time, the ability to collect information about customer use, and product differentiation. Data Historians will be key to archiving and retrieving the data generated by intelligent devices. The Internet is evolving to interconnect all network-attached devices, effectively becoming the largest data acquisition and control network.

Automation.com Real-time Information for the Automation Professional May. 25, 2012

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