This issue of Automation World explores strategies that manufacturing professionals are developing to successfully integrate manufacturing information flow.
Wireless industrial networks offer compelling potential advantages. Automation World Managing Editor Wes Iversen looks at how some end users are beginning to cash in on the technology, while others are still holding back, in an article beginning on page 30.
In an effort to deploy standard industrial networks, engineers have taken networking protocols from the Internet and Web. Contributing Editor Terry Costlow shows how these protocols are finding their way into industrial networks, in an article that starts on page 36.
Engineers and information technology professionals apparently agree on one thing—Ethernet is the best way to provide a networking backbone to the factory. In an article beginning on page 40, Contributing Editor Rob Spiegel shows why Ethernet is gaining popularity.
Automation World’s mission from its beginning in 2003 has been to show manufacturers how the appropriate application of technology, combined with collaboration within the automation team, can make manufacturing more competitive. In an article beginning on page 45, Editor In Chief Gary Mintchell recognizes the work of five professionals whose stories appeared in our pages during the past 12 months.
