We found that sometimes it takes plain old analog human-to-human communication, as well.
Managers and engineers need information quickly in order to keep the company running profitably. A variety of networking and software technologies ride to the rescue. Automation World Editor Gary Mintchell explores some technologies beyond fieldbuses, including cellular and wireless, in the article beginning on page 24.
One of the newer Web standards is called Web Services. Contributing Editor James Koelsch describes how companies are exploiting this new standard as a means for reaching across networks and into disparate databases to collect information on demand, and make your data talk, in this article beginning on page 31.
Contributing Editor Rob Spiegel takes on the unenviable task of explaining several of the more popular industrial networks, known as fieldbuses. What he found is that while networks have stabilized, there is a new debate over device description languages. Could another “fieldbus war” be brewing? Read his analysis beginning on page 36.
The new frontier of automation is finding a way to automate data movement from factory floor databases to business level databases in such a way as to enhance corporate decision-making. As Contributing Editor Kenna Amos says in his article beginning on page 41, “Do it wrong and you’ve got a communications problem worse than the Tower of Babel.”
Arguably one of the best success stories of suppliers and users working together to build a standard for information exchange is OPC. Broadening from its roots as “OLE for Process Control” to an interoperable communications specification, OPC provides a standard way to move data within industrial automation applications. Editorial Director Jane Gerold describes the latest innovations in this article beginning on page 47.
Johns Manville, the insulation manufacturer, is a great example of how a company can leverage human-to-human communications to drive business returns. In an exclusive interview with Gerold, Dick Cunningham, program director for advanced process, explains how Six Sigma, Lean Manufacturing, and interdepartmental teamwork pay off.
