Gary On Manufacturing - Gary Mintchell

Humans have journeyed from being craftsmen to cogs in an industrial machine to productive with assistance of technology.

178 What Problem Are You Solving It has been said that computers are great at generating questions. They just can’t figure out the right question. Engineers are problem solvers. That is 99% of their education. Thing is—are they solving the right problem. Businesses have adopted the open office architecture for many years. It solves a business cost problem—get more people per square foot. They publicly justify it, though, as solving the people collaboration problem. But they create a people productivity problem. The signal v noise blog from BaseCamp called Library Rules proposes an interesting solution. The open office has existed for centuries. And it works fantastically. It’s called a library. Check out library rules for your open office dilemma. Solving technology problems is a lot of fun for engineers. They look at everything as a technology problem. But then there are problems that are not technology. Such as people problems. Take a look at Facebook’s problems right now. They are not technology; they are

Salesforce has a platform manufacturing companies are beginning to use to link customers, service, dealers, and manufacturing. Youth sports as a metaphor for mentoring. What are you doing to bring young people along? Hewlett Packard Enterprise Discover conference. A melding of enterprise-grade compute at the edge, Internet of Things practice, and deep dive into manufacturing. Example from off-shore, refinery, and other manufacturing. Siemens Mindsphere coming of age at Automation Summit and a visit to the Norwood large motor manufacturing plant.

HPE’s stand at Hannover reflected the company’s focus on manufacturing. My first experience with HPE through Edge computing. IoT has a prominent executive champion. Several executives are devoted to manufacturing solutions. Remote Visual Guidance augmented reality. Blockchain possibilities. Starter kit for HPE Edgeline for manufacturing. Partnerships in the DNA. Vision system for assembly checking.

After my Podcast 149 about big companies not liking OPC UA a couple of years ago (and got more than 1k views on YouTube) and a report and white paper on OPC UA and TSN from 2017 Hannover, the landscape has changed. Big companies are now adopting OPC UA and the OPC UA/TSN talk has gone mainstream.

Despite the many dystopian views of technology, automation, and robots in the future, it is human decision making and leadership that determines what will happen. Gaurav Bhalla's "Awakening a Leader's Soul" teaches a different perspective on leadership.

Discussing trips to San Diego and the Industry of Things World event (Internet of Things, Mindsphere from Siemens, OPC UA) and Siemens Manufacturing in America (university students, simulation, PLM, digitalization, cyber-physical systems, blockchain).

The recent ARC Industry Forum attracted a record attendance affording writers and analysts like me more opportunities for meetings than there was time. Themes included collaboration, new edge devices, open automation, and many cool digital products.

Will 2018 be the year that we see more IT / OT convergence? Look for it to be the year of edge devices, digital transformation, and the digital twin. Here at the podcast where IT meets OT.

A report from Rockwell Automation events in Houston November 13-16. Training veterans, open software, scalable software. Oh, and the elephant NOT in the room--Emerson's unsolicited takeover attempt.

Everybody's talking--about digital transformation, plus Dell's $1 Billion bet on IoT, GE's predix-ament, Rockwell ripe for the picking

A trip to Emerson Global Users Exchange yielded thoughts on capabilities to hone, justifying IoT projects, and investing in training.

Thoughts and analysis from Inductive Automation Community Conference in September in Folsom, CA. The company develops SCADA software, has an active partner ecosystem, and some bright customers. I got to talk with them all.

The Internet of Things is not a "thing" in itself. In fact, asking what it is misses the point. The real question is what is the business case for implementing it.

Gary interviews George Schuster and Lee Lane of Rockwell Automation who discuss the critical importance of risk assessment and mitigation in both safety and security offering some practical advice along the way.

Saadi Kermani, global business development manager / industrial information at Schneider Electric joins to discuss information management beyond the hype of cloud, digital transformation, and Industry 4.0.

Speaking from the United Club at McCarron International Airport in Las Vegas following the Dell EMC World Conference, Gary discusses the Dell / Linux Foundation Internet of Things open source project and some examples of the Dell IoT partner ecosystem in action.

Make no mistake, the Industrial Internet of Things is not a technology, it is actually a business strategy when properly understood. Refers to my blog site.

I discuss the importance of interoperable applications and the role of standards--specifically OPC UA and CCOM, an asset information standard from MIMOSA. I also throw in a description of students I met who compete in FIRST Robotics and a tip for cultivating innovation.

Recent revelations from WikiLeaks with details about how security agencies can hack into encrypted devices and files and then how all that can wind up on the Web should remind us to strengthen our security technology and procedures.