If it walks like a duck and honks like a duck, it’s probably a goose… I was born and raised in northern Cincinnati and like many Midwest cities, we suffer from an extreme increase in the Canadian Goose population. These geese love to flit about in man-made water retention ponds, a result of new commercial
Sound counter-intuitive? I agree. Typically, when organizations are really busy, product and application training falls to a lower priority because our belief is that we just don’t have time; everyone is booked. I think this connects with all of us at some level. After all, if our teams are booked on projects and pressed to
“Where you stand depends on where you sit”, commonly known as Miles’ Law was coined by Rufus E. Miles, Jr. He was an assistant secretary under Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson. It was originally used when describing bureaucratic politics. From a more current perspective it just might offer some insights into organizational change, engagement, and
Here in the sunny state of Florida, hurricane season is never far from our minds. It signals an extended period of tropical storms, fully-fledged hurricanes and just generally more unstable weather patterns. For our larger water & waste water municipalities, having an alarm management system to triage their critical alarms vs nuisance alarms is absolutely
A client organization recently completed an OEE deployment. I asked the plant manager and production manager to share some of their thoughts on how it went and some of their learnings. The plant manager stated “We really didn’t understand OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness) or the impacts of the program until we were down the road
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve heard about IIoT (Industrial Internet of Things). IIoT has been picking up a lot of headlines over the past few years in the industrial automation space and there is good reason. McKinsey estimates that IoT (Internet of Things) will have an economic impact of up to $6.2
Do you know the number one application in manufacturing for maintenance and safety inspection rounds? Do your thoughts go immediately to a technology provider? It’s a common first thought but it’s incorrect. The number one solution used manufacturing today is…good old fashioned pen & paper, often used in conjunction with the second most used solution, Excel® spreadsheets! Surprised? You
In my role as Manufacturing Solutions Architect I have the opportunity of visiting many different manufacturers representing a variety of industries and manufacturing processes. These range from consumer goods to mining to petrochemicals and beyond. These businesses couldn’t be more different except for the general acceptance of deploying OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness) to drive improvements.
The allure of the Industrial Internet of Things is the promise of making systems work better based on connected data through the internet. Data can come from a sensor, a web server, a web service, another device, such as a mobile phone. Really any electronic device which can receive/send data through the internet is a
This blog will discuss how utilizing electronic Industrial Forms reduces paperwork and improves access to actionable intelligence within any manufacturing or industrial facility. Those who work in industry are likely aware of the paperwork that is generated daily from those working in the plant. Paperwork comes in many forms and from many departments: Material handling
Maintenance teams are foundational members of the up-time cadence in industrial facilities. We depend on them to have the knowledge and skills to quickly assess an issue and resolve it in minimal time to minimize downtime. While engineering a modern industrial automation system is critical, learning how to keep one going is a different skill
Operators and Maintenance Technicians regularly conduct rounds to identify potential safety and compliance issues, identify impending maintenance interventions and keep plants running efficiently. This historically accepted way of doing business is being challenged in many industries. As the existing experienced workforce retires taking their tribal knowledge and experience, the value of rounds is being challenged