Nanogold at the end of the rainbow

“The best nanoproducts exist in nature, and if we can simulate them for the marketplace, we’ve got it made,” said Professor P. Somasundaran of Columbia University at the 2007 Chem Show in New York on Wednesday.
There were assorted interested parties participating in the Nanotechnology and Nano-Bio Workshop and Symposium at the Jacob Javits Center.
Representatives of textiles, coatings, several federal agencies, including the Federal Drug Administration, measurement scientists, battery makers, medical device designers, chemical suppliers, patent attorneys, venture capitalists, and entrepreneurs came to the all-day talk.
The common ground for these folks is they see a future for nanotechnology and they want to be ready and to get a piece of the action.
Somasundaran’s keynote address kicked the discussions off. His point was the simplest and most natural phenomenon can be tip-offs to future profitable product development.
“My first impression of this concept was in my homeland of India when I was child,” he said, “In our yard was a tree, a Mimosa tree, and when the sheep tried to eat the blossoms, the flowers would fold up, wilt, and display thorns almost instantly. This warded off the offending animal.”
Somasundaran is La von Duddleson Krumb Professor in the Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Science and the Director of the Langmuir Center for Colloids & Interfaces and founding director of the National Science Foundation Industry/University Cooperative Center for Advanced Studies in Novel Surfactants.
Examples of nanotechnology in modern use are the manufacture of polymers using molecular structure and the design of computer chip layouts.
There is some promise of nanotechnologies such as quantum dots and nanotubes.
Real commercial applications mainly use colloidal nanoparticles in bulk form, such as suntan lotion, cosmetics, protective coatings, and stain resistant clothing.
—Nicholas Sheble

Ninety-third Chem Show meets $93 a barrel

Weather and natural disasters flash across our TV screens and greenhouse gases and global warming may or may not be their cause.
Russell Heinen, spoke about green chemical engineering and its role in the global atmosphere, during the Chem Show’s opening keynote at the Javits Center in New York Tuesday.
The chemical/petrochemical industry and ancillary products are a primary source of greenhouse gases (GHG) and global warming.
Kevin Swift, chief economist for the American Chemistry Council, was supposed to give the keynote but couldn’t get to the venue … bad weather.
“Even the U.S. is acknowledging that there may be something called global warming as President Bush is making environmental proposals as recently as last week,” said Heinen, vice president at SRI, a consulting and information research organization that covers the chemical industry.
Large oil companies, formerly skeptical of the global warming concept, are on board too, for marketing and public relations purposes if nothing else.
“While regulations, water, product toxicity, product lifecycle, and government subsidies and the encouragement of the biofuel industry are all important influences on our business, the biggest concern and pressure now is that oil is $93 a barrel,” Heinen said.
“Carbon credits are certainly a factor in our future but energy is clearly the biggest concern of the chemical process industries (CPI).”
Heinen pointed out the numerous improvements in energy usage over the years by CPI and called on the three biggest emitters of GHG–the U.S., China, and the Middle East–to get on board with the Kyoto accords and REACH.
REACH is a European initiative whereby the burden of proof for demonstrating the safe use of chemical transfers from EU member states to industry.
These three countries/regions are responsible for 41% of the earth’s greenhouse gas emissions and so far have not joined international agreements to stifle the problem.
– Nicholas Sheble

Wonderware looks to future growth

The next frontier for automation: Africa.
“India, China and Eastern Europe are still forces, but a huge opportunity is in Africa,” said Mike Bradley Sr., Wonderware’s president during the final keynote address celebrating the software provider’s 20th anniversary at WonderWorld 2007 in Las Vegas. After looking at some demographics, he said, you can see the region will have one billion consumers coming of age in the next few years.
“The challenges are significant, but the opportunities are enormous,” he said.
While there is no real time line for when Africa will take off, Bradley said it could happen soon or it could take another 30 years or so.
In the near term, the key word for the automation industry remains change.
“We believe the global market will see profound changes in the next five years,” Bradley said.
The technology is there for end users to take advantage of it. It remains up to people to leverage their technology for maximum productivity. “Less than 10 years ago, manufacturing and IT didn’t even talk, now they are.”
In the coming years, communication will get even stronger.
“We believe manufacturers will have a closer collaboration with their customers,” Bradley said. Just think, “who would have thought you could have custom printed M&Ms purchased over the Internet for $50,” he said.
Bradley also talked about Wonderware’s newly launched InTouch 10.0 and System Platform 3.0 software.
“Easier to use software will break down barriers for engineers,” he said.
It’s all about graphics and InTouch 10.0 HMI software adds in Invensys’ ArchestrA graphics capability. This capability, along with Microsoft’s .NET, offers the potential to provide enterprise-wide visualization for real-time applications.
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.
“With this latest launch, we are not slowing down the pace, in fact we are going to accelerate the pace,” Bradley said. “Our intention is to allow you to add functionality as you need it. You can put in modules as you need them.”

C your way clear to improved processes

Customer, cost, and compliance are the three Cs to pay attention to when you’re trying to improve processes in your plant, said Gary Reiner, senior vice president and chief information officer of GE during his talk before GE Fanuc Discover 2007 attendees in St. Louis.
He gave his analysis of how his company tackles the three Cs on its supply chain journey, which “by no means” is complete, he said. “We’re in the early stages. And while we’re all struggling with the same things,” the three Cs are the most important.
The change in the cost environment is due to the change in the world of commodities, Reiner said. The dichotomy over the past ten years is anywhere from two times to nine times for the average price of crude oil, steel, copper aluminum, nickel molybdenum, and rhenium (a critical thing for GE because of its high-melt temperature). “I don’t know of a time in history when the world has changed as much as it has in the past ten years,” he said. “This is really unprecedented. It’s the first time in history we’ve had critical components to all our cost structures changing this much, this quickly.”
Why? China has driven 80% of the raw material consumption growth over the past six years of nearly every raw material, he said. And it will be consuming a disproportionate amount until it catches up with other countries–like Japan and Korea. “The other thing about China is not only is it consuming a tremendous amount of raw materials but it’s growing other companies’ economies,” he said. “It’s growing Brazil, Africa, the Middle East. These countries are supplying China with their hunger.”
Normally, what happens is demand goes up and then supply goes up in order to meet that need. And price comes back to where it was. “The challenge we face as customers of raw materials is supply constraints are real,” he said. “Five years ago we never thought this would happen. All these things were slowing down the global economy, so companies didn’t invest.” Now when they go to companies like Bechtel, asking them to build a copper mine or steel plant, they have to wait until 2013 because they’re all busy until then. “Over the next four to five years we see a consistent high-level price with the small possibility that in five years, prices will come down a little bit. Demand will be so persistent though from emerging markets consuming this stuff that it’ll be hard to keep up with.”
Lean Manufacturing from a GE perspective is the best way of getting productivity out of the manufacturing facilities. “We define it as moving material through a factory as fast as possible. We learned it form companies like Toyota and Dell,” he said. And bringing that product to the customer as quickly as possible is what leads to greater customer satisfaction.
“The single thing that matters more than anything else is responsiveness,” he said. “How quickly can we respond to customers’ needs, get a proposal, a service call? More often than not when I place an order, what I want to know is how quickly can I get it delivered? We define that from our customer’s perspective. If it’s a radiologist ordering diagnostic equipment, it’s order to image. When they have it up and running, they can create an image of a patient and get paid.” With energy, it’s order to electricity generation, with aviation, it’s order to fly, with rail, order to power. “We want to make progress on that every month, every quarter, to provide better customer service. Again lean manufacturing is essential.”
‑ Ellen Fussell Policastro

GE name change reflects pioneering spirit

GE Fanuc is no longer GE Fanuc Automation, CNC or Embedded Systems. The new name is GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms.
The goal is to close the gap between the original name and the new company, which has invested in new technology, created new products, and expanded capabilities to meet customers’ need around the world.
In August, the company formed GE Enterprise Solutions, which focuses on information management and automation solutions and includes the various GE Industrial businesses, with Charlene T. Begley at the helm.
Maryrose T. Sylvester president and chief executive of GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms, took attendees of Discover 2007, the company’s users conference in St. Louis, Missouri, on a journey they hope will be a gateway to productivity.
In the early days settlers were overcoming challenges, but they came back with opportunities. In 1803, Louis and Clark were in a realm of fear and uncertainty as they entered the Corps of Discovery and the brave new world it promised. But they came back to share with the rest of the world. “We too in the industry have been on journey of transformation and change,” Sylvester said.
“When you think about what’s changed in the world and in automation, it’s startling,” she said. “Those plant managers had some great tools but they’re only half as good as what we have today. At that time automation was truly a new frontier. People who preceded me were true pioneers, leaving a legacy that’s continued to build in the last 20 years. We’re talking about providing solutions instead of point sources,” she said. “In 1987, it was about getting the data. Today, it’s about turning that data into intelligence. We think that time is now.”
Sylvester said the company has been spending, but “spending wisely. We believe in technology, and we think it’s paying off. This enterprise has a true global footprint. We’ve partnered in over 100 countries. We’ve changed, and the world has changed. We’re now beyond CNC, automation and embedded systems. We bring a whole solution to an industry that’s changing everyday. So we had to change our name to reflect this.”
The company’s newly focused mission is to enable businesses and products to be better everyday. They hope to do this “by delivering high-performance technology through the passion and expertise of our people,” she said. “We are truly transforming manufacturing and operations around the world. The products need to center around core values, solving tough problems, delivering value, and protecting your investments. They should either deliver you better cost, quality, or compliance ability.”
One way to make sure this happens is delivering solutions to vertical industries. “We believe in focusing on horizontal technologies, but we also know we need to go deep into industries where we can add value,” she said. This includes automotive, healthcare, consumer, power, oil and gas, and water. “We need to get deeper and deeper in our expertise.”
One success story includes Gumlink, a gum manufacturer in Denmark who used GE Fanuc’s Proficy for their plant applications. Results included a 10% increase in packaging efficiency, ROI achieved in less than three months, and $900,000 savings annually. Another example is Nissan North America, Inc., where GE helped them meet daily manufacturing goals and fluid production; and ensured uptime and system quality; improved data on warranties, recalls, defects and hold management.
Sylvester ended the session with promises of new product launches. “We’ll be launching Proficy Platform; it will allow integration between people and resources in a common nameplate to interact together just like in this Internet world of being able to do searches and instant message in your automation systems,” she said. It will allow you to do rapid application development in your environment; it’s the Googlization of automation. Other promises included advanced concepts in SCADA to provide more realization in viewing, the plant in a more natural environment, “to see it as it truly is on your plant floor,” as well as faster navigation “to allow you to look at things as they really exist.” Advances in software and control systems, will lead the company to realize “what is possible in process: high performance, flexible, scalable, and open.”
‑ Ellen Fussell Policastro

A company’s best asset: People

Yes, companies have to produce products to succeed. Yes, success comes from pushing as much product out the door as possible because that can potentially increase profitability.
To achieve all of that success and profitability all manufacturers have to rely on their greatest asset. No, it is not the latest technology, but rather the people that push that technology to the edge.
“So much information is locked up in your systems. What we have to do is unlock that information so you can make real time decisions,” said Peter Martin, vice president at Invensys and keynote speaker at WonderWorld 2007 Global Conference Series in Las Vegas.
‘Today, people talk about islands of automation and islands of information,” Martin said. “But I am here to tell you they should not exist. Technology is not the problem. What is? We are the problem. We have islands of people that don’t really like to talk to each other.”
Martin talked about breaking down the traditional barriers companies throw up that ultimately prevent greater success.
He said in many cases, companies see a problem and they throw technology at it to solve the issue. Of course, he said, that doesn’t work. He said with the advent of specialization, different organizations are so focused on what they do, they don’t understand what other areas are doing.
“The value of your organization is tied up in your people,” he said. “The quality of talent has gone up, but we continue to hold them down. While we are doing that, we have had an automation and an information revolution, but we continue to hold people down. We have to change our mindset.”
Most decisions that either help or hurt a company are made from the front line operators, so, Martin said, the technology should empower them to make decisions that will help the company achieve greater profitability and success.
“We have to convert our front line people to become automation craftsmen and then business craftsmen,” he said. “We can’t continue working the way we did 20 years ago. The speed of business changes daily. We need to get a real time operational, strategic and business metrics.”
Rashesh Mody, vice president of HMI/SCADA at Wonderware agreed.
“There is lots of information hitting an operator’s screen. They don’t need stale data. Screen space is valuable real estate. Our goal is to give operators actionable information on the screen.”

One answer, one solution

Companies want to offer the total complete solution. That phrase is all you hear around the vast halls of the Las Vegas Convention Center at Pack Expo.
Just listen to Mark Matthews, vice president of packaging at xpedx.
“We are one of the few companies that can look across the entire industry continuum from packaging idea to implementation,” Matthews said. “We start with the big picture in mind, and when working with companies, we try to begin as far upstream as possible in the design process.”
Troy Vanderhoof, director of business strategy at Siemens’ newly acquired UGS, talks about shepherding product from one single source.
“We want to watch the product from the concept stage all the way through to completion,” he said.
Jarrett Campbell, segment manager for production machinery OEMs at Schneider Electric, talks about how he works toward reaching the right solution for end users.
“Manufacturers have very few specialists; no experts on staff,” he said.
“We want to work with partners to build a successful solution.”
Talk to me.

Packaging means automation

It is very easy to get caught up into your own world when it comes to automation.
Take a look at ISA. Traditionally, the organization dealt with the process side of automation and batch, then it added in factory automation. That is all good because all areas deal with automation.
But when you step outside of what looks like the traditional areas, you truly see what automation is all about. Welcome to Pack Expo in Las Vegas. A busy, bustling show that covers the packaging industry.
Often times the language is different, but the issues are the same. Lean, standardization, product lifecycle management, and increased productivity, it is all there, but maybe a bit disguised with slightly different verbiage.
One area under discussion was the Packaging Execution System (PES).
Traditional MES systems are fine and they provide a supervisory function, but not a vision system, said Charles Turner, director of business development at Systech.
“The packaging industry requires its own system that enhances its overall system,” Turner said. “PES complements the MES.”
The PES offers vision inspection; product line management and serialization, he said. “It also allows information to go up and down through the ERP. With PES (the enterprise) can see through to the packaging arm of manufacturing.”
The system “gives you data that becomes useful, which gives you knowledge and the ability to find solutions to problems in manufacturing,” Turner said.
One more growth area is in the product lifecycle management area.
“People are just now seeing the value in watching the product from beginning to the end,” said Troy Vanderhoof, director of business strategy at Siemens’ newly acquired UGS.
Vanderhoof agreed the growth curve in PLM is just starting as companies recognizing the potential benefits in increased productivity.
Talk to me.