Articles and News

By Bill Lydon, Editor Some industrial automation vendors and computer technology providers are offering cloud services that include historians, analytics, and complete MES (Manufacturing Execution System). These services offer a new way to improve operations by applying more computing power. Another important trend is leveraging new, more powerful controllers within the secure automation system environment. Should you be using one or the other, or both?

Payara technical support service delivers software updates, bug fixes and 24/7 support for Oracle’s GlassFish application server, which Oracle stopped supporting.

KnowledgeNet collects plant data from an OSIsoft PI historian and then uses computing, rules, fault propagation and workflow engines to reason over the data to identify the cause of performance gaps at Saudi Aramco Abqaiq Plants.

By Bill Lydon, Editor There is a growing frenzy over the application of Internet of Things (IoT) technologies to industrial automation. The question is, “Why do we want to do this?” The high level goal is to improve manufacturing processes in a number of dimensions, including efficiency, responsiveness, and the ability to meet individual customer needs in a timely manner.

Proficy Scorecard generates real-time views of information, from multiple data sources within the company, to provide actionable “Scorecards” for all departments in an organization.

Wonderware software integrated all their existing disparate systems, achieved reliable and cost-efficient control, enabled safe operations and created scalability for future growth.

Using Kepware’s KEPServerEX, Cascades now supports communications across all of its seventeen plants, seventeen paper machines, and nearly ninety converting lines with just one piece of software.

InfinityQS ProFicient manufacturing quality software provides companies with real-time visibility across the enterprise and into the supply chain.

Octapharma, a manufacturer of human protein products, is using the PAS-X Track & Trace Serialization Aggregation solution in Vienna.

By Greg Goodwin, LNS Research The manufacturing industries are constantly looking for ways to cut costs, increase revenue, efficiency, speed, and so on, and advancements in technology are key to furthering this cause. Today, there are several emerging technologies that are having a significant impact on how companies operate. And one that is being embraced with increasingly open arms is cloud manufacturing software.

Starting with version 4.7 RationalPlan Single is distributed as freeware under all Linux operating systems.

By Rick Zabel, Publisher & Editor Since Schneider Electric's purchase of Invensys, I have been waiting to hear some news about the integration of the two companies. That news, as it relates to software, was delivered last week at Schneider Electric's first Global Software Customer Conference.

Wonderware MES Performance software cut downtime by 50% and saves $400,000 annually at New Belgium Brewing in Fort Collins, Co.

InStep Software is a provider of real-time performance management and predictive asset analytics software and solutions.

Schneider Electric software now includes products from newly acquired Avantis, SimSci and Wonderware.

DB Sync uses a back-end RDBMS, such as Microsoft SQL Server or Oracle Database, to store device data in existing tables and download updates specific to each device.

By Bill Lydon, Editor The French aircraft manufacturer Airbus has stated futuristic long-range goals based on their corporate philosophy. The integration of cyber-physical systems and big analog data enables smarter production and allows operators and machines to collaborate in the same physical environment.

By Salvatore Castro, SAP The common view of OEE is the localized one of an operator trying to control the machine better during the shift. The more modern spin on OEE is trying to improve all operations to run more efficiently with the lowest overall cost back to the business.

FacilityConneX helps facility managers make better sense of vast amounts of data that comes from their facility operations and industrial equipment with Real-time Operational Intelligence (RtOI).

By Carlos W. Moreno, Ultramax What analyses of a database enable predictions which are valid in decision making. This review does not introduce new technical concepts. It explains to engineers why their knowledge of the processes that generate data needs to be integrated in the analysis of the data, and at what level.