I read something the other day: today is the future’s past.
And I thought about that for a bit and decided to turn it around to machine builders. Today you deliver machines to end users that utilize your machines to make things. Tomorrow that end user will want more from that machine. How will you deliver it? Because if you don’t, you will really be in the past.
Part of the answer lies in Secure Remote Access. Part of it lies in trust between you and the end user (who by the way is your customer, if you haven’t figured that out).
So here we are. Last week was Automation Fair. What did you learn?
Oh, you didn’t go? Well, that is your loss, truly. A free show in Chicago where you could have learned about all sorts of new products and insights from Rockwell Automation and their network of partners, of which Cisco is a proud Alliance Partner. And you would have gotten free breakfast and lunch too!
Ok, in multiple booths we showed how one machine can integrate into another, and form a production line. Funny how that happens. We at Cisco are a part of ODVA, a trade association of many partners that subscribe to open standard networks.
In my video, I highlight the Innovation and Collaboration that the convergence of plant and enterprise networks enables, which we will be showcasing in our Cisco booth on the AF show floor, including:
As you know there are many changes in manufacturing operations today. These certainly relate to Operations Excellence, Continuous Innovation, Energy Management, even the Supply Chain and Customer Service world. There are technology changes and personnel changes. There are Global impacts as manufacturing companies compete in new regions and those same new regions sprout new manufacturers. And at the end of the day (or maybe the beginning?) there is a need for someone to build a specialized machine.
We have already seen the power of a converged (technologically) network. Ethernet/IP helps the controls world provide information to the IT world. We see this every day, where older proprietary networks are replaced by standard Ethernet. Here are some thoughts as they relate to specialized machine builders:
So, we have this technology that can unify us, Ethernet. Who knew that years ago I sold against Ethernet? But that was a different version. Today is new, with managed switches, managed services, and tomorrow is your new today.
There are a few of us at Cisco that write here regularly. We care about what is going on in Manufacturing in general, but more specifically, in terms of integrating the manufacturing networks into the Enterprise and speeding adoption of open standards to enable more efficient production.
I will later this month be launching a series on how Machine Builders can more readily enable productivity by integrating more closely with their end users (call that “convergence”) or by helping their end users be more productive by enabling secure remote access. But that is later this month.
Today I want to talk about how we all communicate. It isn’t just by wires. It isn’t just by mouth. We have a plethora of communication means available to us. I’m talking about us people to other people in the industry. It is by building contacts with people in industry and spreading the word. That is what we at Cisco are doing.
We don’t have every answer. We think we’ve got a number of good ones. We’re enhancing some of the areas. But this is not a commercial for Cisco. This is a commercial for open dialogue between those that care about Manufacturing.
There are a few good spokespeople for this effort, and I want to call them out. And I admit right upfront this is not a complete list. But please bear with me. Read More »
