Festo feasts on generative technologies

Rapid prototyping (RP) is the means through which Festo will gain competitive advantage, reduce cost, and increase device quality.
Rapid prototyping (RP) enables the contraction of the product development cycle by a substantial amount of time – say, eliminating 50-90% of it, said Dr. Eberhard Veit who spoke for the Festo Board of Directors during the company’s 6th International Festo Press Conference in Stuttgart, Germany on Tuesday.
In one case, Veit said, an electronic automation device went from idea to product in seven days rather than the usual 120 days.
The brief cycle is the type of manufacturing behavior that one needs to engage in true custom manufacturing on a grand scale. It is the quintessential lean, adaptive, and flexible manufacturing that accommodates demanding users and OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) now commonplace.
While RP is not a spanking new technology, Festo sees the techniques maturing now and that they will enable the company in direct manufacturing of metal parts that, in ten years time, will increase speed of manufacture by a factor of 20 and quality by a factor of five.
RP takes virtual designs from computer-aided design (CAD) or animation-modeling software, transforms them into thin horizontal cross sections, still virtual, and then creates each cross section in physical space, one after the next until the model is finished.
It is a process where the virtual model and the physical model correspond almost identically.
With additive fabrication, the machine reads in data from a CAD drawing and lays down successive layers of liquid, powder, or sheet material, and in this way builds up the model from a series of cross sections.
These layers, which correspond to the virtual cross section from the CAD model, fuse together in an automation process, creating the final shape.
Additive fabrication can create almost any shape or geometric feature.
‑ Nicholas Sheble

Working for a common bond

Networking is gaining a stronger hold of the industry and the various protocols are now getting their activities ready to go for the next year as the Open Device Network Association (ODVA) kicked off its 12th annual meeting Wednesday for common industrial protocol (CIP) networks in Denver, Colo.
ODVA is an international association comprising members from automation companies around the world. The association and its members support network technologies based on the CIP, which include DeviceNet, EtherNet/IP, CompoNet, and the major extensions to CIP — CIP Safety, CIP Sync, and CIP Motion. ODVA manages the development of these open technologies, and assists manufacturers and users of CIP Networks through tools, training and marketing activities.
Wednesday’s events included a synopsis of standards activities – who’s done what, and their development plans for the next 12 to 18 months.
Presenters such as Paul Didier with Cisco Systems, Rich Harwell from Eaton Electrical and Jorgen Palmhager with HMS Industrial Networks were on hand to give details about the joint special interest group (JSIG) progress in areas such as conformance, DeviceNet physical layer, EtherNet/IP conformance, CIP distributed motion, CIP safety ModBus integrations, CompoNet, CIP software tools and others. The groups go through two cycles of specifications enhancements each year. And each cycle can have as many as 30 or 35 enhancements.
Jonathan Parrott, chair of the conformance JSIG touted his group’s participation. “I was impressed by the amount of people who turned out Wednesday. Since the 11th annual meeting (in 2006), we formed this JSIG,” he said. “A work plan was approved with proposed changes. We’re now requesting support for test plan development from originating SIGs (safety, Modbus, and motion). We want to recruit experts from those groups.” Parrott said the special enhancements are a big driver, and the group is soliciting more member participation for test plan enhancements and beta implementation testing. “We want to develop test plan enhancements based on specification enhancements,” he said.
DeviceNet Physical Layer chair Brad Woodman said his group’s eight meetings over the past year included discussions on extending power supply cables (extending the current six meters to various lengths). “We created a chart for people who needed longer links to their power supplies,” he said. The group also approved a DeviceNet specification enhancement (DSE) for flat II cable and connectors equivalent to CompoNet Type 1. Other approvals included auxiliary power bus-off behavior and test frequency for different input impedance tests. Proposed plans for the next 12 to 18 months include auxiliary power connectors and guidelines, updating planning and installation guides, labeling requirements for indicators and switches, and a mechanical interest climatic, and electromagnetic (MICE) tutorial. MICE is a method for end users to describe their environment – to determine what kind of mitigations they need in harsh environments. “We wanted to put information in a common manual, but it may come out as a technical report so all users and vendors can get access to the technology as opposed to just vendors we put in the specifications,” Woodman said.
Other presentations included the advantages of CompoNet and CIP Motion. In 2007, ODVA released these specifications for the latest in the family of CIP networks. René Heijma, a product engineer in industrial communication with Omron Europe B.V. in The Netherlands, discussed CompoNet. CompoNet’s design allows it to meet other applications’ requirements using large numbers of simple sensors and actuators by providing high-speed communications, configuration tools, efficient construction, simple set-up, and high availability, all on a single network.
-- Ellen Fussell Policastro

Operational excellence key for survival

Speed and time. Those are the two key elements today that either work for manufacturers or work against them.
If you listen to Peter Fingar, executive partner for the Greystone Group and author of numerous books on business strategy, there is a new world of competitors out there and they want to take away your business. So, manufacturers have to get smart, get fast and get it done yesterday, he said during his keynote address at Mesa’s Plant-to-Enterprise Conference in Orlando, Fla.
“It is now time to get ready for the global innovation wars,” Fingar said. ‘The next big thing in business is operational innovation. It is not what you do, but it is the way you do what you do.”
Fingar talks about Business Process Management (BPM) as a new way to enable manufacturers to integrate their processes with the enterprise IT systems to allow for greater collaboration.
Right now, Fingar said, “agility and responsiveness trump efficiency. We need to manage time as rigorously as we manage costs.”
What Fingar is talking about is for manufacturers to change into becoming more of a time-based manufacturer. “Time-based competition is process-based competition.”
In the end, it all comes down to how well the communication system works up and down the enterprise. “For agility to happen, we have to manage the silos from the top to the bottom. The network is the new value system,” Fingar said.
“Connectivity is making the world around us smaller, but it is making the business footprint larger,” said Matthew Bauer, director of Information Software at Rockwell Automation and chairman of MESA. “Information is the foundation for the next manufacturing revolution. The information revolution will have far reaching consequences and shape the world we live in.”
Manufacturing is going to change at three levels, Bauer said. One is the global economy is applying force on supply chains because there is a lack of timely information and control. In the recent cases in China which forced toy, toothpaste and peanut butter recalls, they have combined to give manufacturers brand exposure and potential liability. “Maintaining visibility across the supply chains can be a real challenge.”
The second level is expectations. Manufacturers expect more form their suppliers because end users expect more from the manufacturers. Everyone needs real time information.
The third level is technology. “Manufacturing enterprises are hungry for information flow that technology can provide.”
AMR’s analysis for software spending this year shows for the first time every spending plans for manufacturing outstrip ERP, Bauer said. The IT spending spotlight is now on manufacturing because the opportunities are abundant for reducing costs in manufacturing operations.
At the end of the day, Bauer said, it all comes down to how people can work with one another, namely the convergence of IT and manufacturing.
“These really are two different cultures that need to find a common ground because these are two different areas that are the key to the transformation that is occurring in manufacturing today.”
“The main ingredient in BPM today is how humans works together to get the work done,” Fingar said.

Emerson, Cisco sign partnership pact

Emerson knows the process automaton side of the business is not run by engineers anymore. They know the new technology not only deals with the plant process side, but it also deals with the IT world. So, that means more people have to sign off on big supplier contracts.
That is one of the main reasons behind Emerson's deal to partner with IT giant Cisco to offer open-standard wireless solutions. The companies unveiled the deal at the Emerson Global Users Exchange in Dallas.
Cisco, an IT networking provider, and Emerson will now be able to walk into manufacturers and explain both sides of the equation from the process side and from the IT side.
Emerson's wireless system monitors plant information for control and asset optimization. Cisco wireless plant networks deal more with worker mobility, voice over IP communications, tracking of personnel and assets.
"Our goal is to drive the transformation in the industrial market,” said Maciej Kranz, vice president of product marketing for Wireless Business Unit for Cisco.
“Together, we are going to expand the breadth of products out there,” said Peter Zornio, Emerson’s chief strategic officer.

Emerson wants to win

Make no mistake about it, David Farr wants to win.
The dynamic chief executive of Emerson gave his impassioned keynote address before 2,500 users at the Emerson Global Users Exchange in Dallas.
“We are increasing the game to make your lives easier and offer more value for your businesses,” he told the users.
“We have an enormous passion to win. I love to compete. I love to win. I love to make things happen and that is what it is all about.
“We are committed to this industry. We are second to no one and if people underestimate us they will not underestimate us when we come forward in the next couple of years.”
In Farr’s first keynote address at the users group meeting since he became chief executive seven years ago, he talked about how Emerson continues to get ahead by investing in the company. He said by investing in the technologies and in the people, Emerson will continue being the industry leader across the globe.
“We are a small company in St. Louis, Missouri at $22 billion. We are not a GE; we are not a Honeywell or an IBM. In our little world, we impact the customers and the industry we serve.”

Wonderware upgrades flagship HMI software

Time is money and if Wonderware has its way, it plans to save their customers quite a bit.
Billed as the most significant launch in the 20-year history of the Lake Forest, Calif.-based software provide, Wonderware Wednesday hit the market with its new version of InTouch 10.0, System Platform 3.0 software, and its Compact Panels, Development Studio.
“With this release we are focused on ease of use and total cost of ownership,” said Mike Bradley Sr., Wonderware’s president.
“We really want to own the real time space in manufacturing and in industrial facilities and infrastructure. We want to provide real time information for people in virtually every industry in virtually every country across the globe.”
The traditional software view of the world has level 2 and level 3, the HMI/SCADA and the MES EMI levels, but Bradley said this introduction will do away with those layers.
“What users want is a common real time system platform in visualization – a common framework so they can look at all their information from any system right to the hardware, right to the software.”
Users also want to implement software and hardware module by module.
“They don’t want a giant hairball of software to implement every piece at one time,” Bradley said.
Even a skeptical bunch, system integrators, remain upbeat about the launch because they think it will really boost end users' bottom lines.
“I believe there will be a 25% savings in development,” said Bill Sherwood, president of Progressive Software Solutions.
Some of the product highlights include:
It’s all about graphics in the industry these days and InTouch 10.0 HMI software adds in Invensys’ ArchestrA graphics capability. This capability, along with direct support for Microsoft .NET technology, gives the software the potential to provide enterprise-wide visualization for real-time applications. This upgrade, which is now running on the Microsoft Vista operating system but it can run with other Windows systems, has over 200 new features, including intuitive graphical interaction and animation techniques.
Development Studio brings together the engineering and IT departments to perform software application modeling, development, change management and deployment across InTouch, System Platform 3.0 and application modules. Development Studio can now deploy across devices running on Windows Mobile, Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows Server 2003.
System Platform 3.0 works with InTouch 10.0 by offering complete integration of ArchestrA application objects with ArchestrA graphics running inside InTouch HMI visualization.
Compact Panel provides a low cost bundle of InTouch 10.0 HMI runtime functionality, along with industrial touch screen operator panels operating Windows Mobile 6.0.
As an incentive to give the new offering a try, Wonderware is offering discounts for customers that upgrade their existing InTouch software licenses to InTouch 10.0 software and additionally purchase the Wonderware System Platform 3.0 and customer support.
To get people to test drive the software, Wonderware created a web site that allows users to walk through demo showing off capabilities, www.experience.wonderware.com.