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Automation.com, October 2012 By Bill Lydon, Editor My discussions with users at the IANA and IMTS shows make it clear that industrial automation is imperative to increase productivity, quality, and competitiveness in world markets. The event provides users and machine builders with an opportunity to see and compare offerings from multiple vendors in one trip.

Automation.com, October 2012 By Bill Lydon, Editor Executives from supplier and end-user companies, along with a leading industrial business analyst provided their insights into the future of automation and industry issues, including human performance and challenging new engineers.

Automation.com, October 2012 By Bill Lydon, Editor OPC UA technology provides an efficient and secure infrastructure for communications and has the potential to be the standard of choice to complete the vision of IP to the edge, commonly referred to as the "Internet of Things."

Automation.com, October 2012 By Nuris Ismail and Reid Paquin This research explores how industry leaders are taking advantage of industrial networking to enable real-time visibility into data to optimize production, maintenance, and safety - in particular, the adoption rate of industrial Ethernet protocols versus Fieldbus.

Automation.com, October 2012 By Bill Lydon, Editor Clemens Blum and Mary Ramsey discussed how Schneider Electric is taking a more holistic view on operations and helping customers meet energy efficiency and sustainably goals by making investments in open architecture platforms and web services.

By Mark Howard, Zettlex Potentiometers are still, by far, the most commonly used position sensor. They are widely seen as the low cost solution for many position sensing applications. But is their reputation for low cost justified?

Automation.com, October 2012 By Bill Lydon, Editor The goal of Intuition Executive is to integrate and manage information that companies typically house in applications and spreadsheets, allowing them to manage complex production operations, monitor processes and make operating decisions.

Automation.com, October 2012 By Bill Lydon, Editor Nathalie Marcotte suggested that attendees expand their view on modernization by not just thinking about the DCS, but the need to modernize the entire plant and operations.

Automation.com, October 2012 By Patrick Supanich, Contributing Writer Over the past year, a number of PROFINET technology developments and organizational structure changes have occurred. First, the release of specification Version 2.3 that covers applications from standard to high speed processes. Second, called performance upgrade, has dramatically increase the speed of the PROFINET network.

By Peter Seeberg and Jürgen Lange, Softing OPC specifications are created with the aim of permitting interoperability between products from different manufacturers. To ensure that a product actually complies with the specification it must undergo a series of compliance tests. Part 6 in a series of eight articles.

Automation.com, October 2012 By Bill Lydon, Editor It is hard to find another platform with the computing power and rapid prototyping capabilities of LabVIEW coupled with NI hardware. Because it comes at a price, their products are used in demanding industrial automation applications out of the reach of typical industrial controllers.

ISA would like to extend a special Thank You to our Partners for their support of ISA Automation Week, the organization and the global automation community.

By Bridget Fitzpatrick Track: Human Performance Bridget Fitzpatrick from Wood Group Mustang presented on the topic of Human Factors Engineering (HFE) in the context of Automation projects. The talk centered around defining HFE and providing an overview of how it applies to automation projects.

By Nikki Bishop Track: Asset Performance Wireless instruments, asset monitoring algorithms, and the combination of the two serves as a gateway to overall improvements in plant reliability, allowing operations to take advantage of market conditions to maximize profitability.

By Bill Lydon Executives from supplier and end-user companies, along with a leading industrial business analyst provided their insights into the future of automation and industry issues. Peter Martin, Ph.D., Vice President, Business Value Solutions at Invensys, assembled and moderated the panel. Here's a summary of the discussions.

By Bill Lydon, Editor Greg Hale, Disney's Chief Safety Officer and Vice President, highlights how Disney uses innovative technologies to implement safety and maintenance systems and improve guest experience, including those with disabilities, at all of their theme parks.

By Bill Lydon, Editor Four North American members presented why they support PI standards and are members of the board. User presentations further highlighted that existing plants have many types of networks that can benefit from efficient gateways and proxies to further enhance automation with new controls and instruments.

By Jonathan Wilkins, European Automation If the IoT becomes a fully fledged reality, system compatibility would no longer be an issue. Automation parts would be able to recognize whether they are reconcilable with equipment or overall systems without being shipped to the customer.

By Bill Lydon, Editor Dr. Peter Martin, Invensys Vice President, gave a passionate keynote by combining the elements of engineering, business, and evangelism. Martin believes the future of our profession is as bright as ever if we all work together to put knowledge to work and drive the great problems of the world out of existence.

By Thomas R. Cutler During 2013 the past-paced, ever-changing elements of automation impacting manufacturing, material handling, and logistics was remarkable. The prognosis for more automation innovation in 2014 is axiomatic and transformative companies will illuminate the possibilities of great efficiency, productivity, and profitability.