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By Pat Garrehy, Rootstock ERP software providers often confuse potential customers with cost comparisons relating to software license, implementation, ongoing maintenance, future enhancements and customizations between Cloud and On Premise solutions. The costs are actually about the same.

By Bill Lydon, Editor John Carey of BP Castrol challenged capital intensive industries that generally think they are impervious to change. Carey suggests that there is a great of chance for change and emphasized that it is important to consider how we need to adapt, change our behaviors, and organizations to compete.

By Robert Myles Given the issues present in large-scale PLC/DCS systems and the advantages offered by Dedicated Alarm Annunciators, the additional cost to include one as a redundant system is well outweighed; particularly when the system or the process they are protecting and the cost of a shutdown (or worse) is taken into account.

By Bill Lydon, Editor For a new project or existing systems replacement/migration, life cycles should be part of the analysis when making a decision to purchase a control & automation systems. Your company’s manufacturing competitiveness and TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) are directly impacted by the supplier’s lifecycles of the automation products that you purchase.

By Mark Howard, Zettlex Nowhere is the trend towards non-contact sensing more evident than in position measurement. With such a bewildering array of options, it can be difficult to select the most appropriate instrument for a specific application.

By Pat Garrehy, Rootstock Software Since the late nineties, SAP and Oracle have dominated On-Premise ERP in the large, Tier-1 manufacturing enterprises. Today, unlike a few years ago, there are Public Cloud ERP software applications that can support small and medium sized businesses

By Thomas R. Cutler More than 80% of large (200,000+ square foot) distribution centers throughout North America and Europe are expanding automation spending in 2013-2015. The challenges for large operations include an effective turnkey solution with superior design, increased production, and reduced costs. Automation is at the heart of these solutions.

By Bill Lydon, Editor The lack of skilled talent and the retirement of current workforce is a topic at every industry conference. The problem is I hear few near-term solutions. Here is my analysis of the situation and a list of viable action items for those companies who are serious about reinvesting in our future.

By Bill Lydon, Editor The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) put forth “The Grand Challenges for Engineering” in 2008 to stimulate interest in technology and innovation. I believe the automation engineering profession can contribute to these Grand Challenges in the near term.

Automation.com, January 2013 By Nuris Ismail & Reid Paquin of Aberdeen Group Unplanned downtime, inability to maintain planned production rates, safety and environmental incidences are all problems that can be traced directly to recurring equipment failure and operation mismatches in production rates and capacities.

Automation.com, December 2012 By Bill Lydon, Editor The Rockwell Software Studio 5000 unified engineering and design environment is a framework for engineering collaboration - the start of a new system architecture built on a SOA, "a bottom up build," that will evolve over the next few years.

Automation.com, December 2012 By Bill Lydon, Editor BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) refers to the growing trend of letting employees use their own devices as operator Interfaces for business and automation systems in the workplace.

Automation.com, December 2012 By Bill Lydon, Editor The foundation of the Enterprise Control System (ECS) is an integration framework that ties applications together in an open Services Oriented Architecture (SOA) that allows systems to be deployed with standard components and minimizes customization.

Automation.com, December 2012 By Bill Lydon, Editor The BIG-EU collaboration has the goal to optimize the data flow between systems utilizing BACnet communications (building automation) and industrial/process control systems.

By Steve Coulton, Kooltronic The primary purpose of electrical enclosures is to provide protection and safety for the components they house. Without proper cooling, components can be subject to damaging heat, shortening their longevity and reliability.

Automation.com, December 2012 By Bill Lydon, Editor Maintenance strategy is becoming an important topic because of aging systems and the lack of experienced personnel. The goal of a maintenance strategy is to achieve the highest automation system availability consistent with the organization's safety, capital investment and profit goals.

Automation.com, January 2013 By Bill Lydon, Editor Art to Part has been a vision since the 1970's to have a holistic computer aided product design to manufacturing process. The technology is available today, but manufacturers also need to make organizational changes to fully leverage it.

By Pat Garrehy, Rootstock After more than a decade of controversy, there is agreement on many of the benefits and evolution of Cloud ERP. Will it eat into SAP's and Oracle's business?

By Will Selby, Automation GT Companies that are tired of poor quality manufacturing in third-world countries are coming back to the U.S. Automation makes it possible.

Automation.com, January 2013 By Bill Lydon, Editor Industrial Ethernet networks and protocols have become a workhorse of automation systems. But how extensively should it be used? Ethernet is not ideal in all applications. Consider the good, the bad and the ugly.