IT, automation closer than you think

There is no doubt about it, the IT world and the plant floor is getting closer and closer.
“The convergence is moving in from the office, but we must industrialize the equipment,” said Roland Bent, executive vice president of marketing and development and a member of the board at Phoenix Contact during Monday night’s gathering commemorating the company’s one year anniversary of the opening of its Houston Technology Center.
“The idea is to make Ethernet easier for customers; to use Ethernet and make it as easy as fieldbus,” he said. The technology is out there, Bent said, but it is a matter of bringing it together and adopting it for the manufacturing environment.
One case is wireless.
“There will not be one wireless standard,” Bent said. “There will be many different standards to fit various applications.”
“No single wireless technology solution meets all requirements of all applications,” said Harry Forbes, an analyst at Dedham, Mass.-based ARC Advisory Group and a guest speaker at the event.
He added the wireless market for process control was at $300 million in 2007 and will jump to $1.1 billion by 2012.
Wireless, Forbes said, is a perfect example of multidisciplinary areas working together for the greater good. With wireless local area networks (WLAN), IT and manufacturing have to work together, along with automation experts and the enterprise.