| Article Index |
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| TOP 5 IN 2010: Automation technologies to watch for |
| Jim Pinto |
| Eric Byres |
| Marc Ostertag |
| Anders Lif |
| Sal Spada |
| All Pages |
Page 5 of 6
Anders Lif
- Anders Lif is the global director of product and industry marketing with IFS, which offers a range of ERP and manufacturing software solutions.
1. Usability enhancements.
Designing business applications for improved efficiency lets IT support departments and manufacturing staffs handle greater responsibility with the same or fewer staff. Human-computer interaction has become an important science when designing IT systems for optimum usability and for driving employee efficiency as an important part of the system design. We have seen usage of systems increase after usability enhancements as well, with more than 100 percent following the redesign of an OEE (overall equipment effectiveness) software module, which allows a manufacturer to get more value from their investment.
2. The integration of the “top floor and shop floor.”
This has been discussed and developed for at least the past decade, but there are more and more examples of integrations between automation equipment and business applications that really make sense. The classic example is predictive or condition-based maintenance, but you will also start to see examples where you are able to automate administrative work processes based on data exchange between PLCs and business applications.
3. Convergence of IT and SCADA.
IT systems are getting more and more “real time.” Even if we never talk about micro seconds update in business applications, we have access to information in a much more transparent way than before — and this also drives a redesign of the user interface to deal with more information in the same screen. IT systems are looking more and more like SCADA systems as speedometers, trends and different graphical representations are used to illustrate more complex data patterns.
4. Mash-ups.
These integrations of business software and web functionality will become more and more frequent. An example is the mash-up combination of existing Internet maps, like Google Earth and Microsoft Bing, with work order systems in an EAM/CMMS application. Suddenly, users are able to see work orders plotted geographically across a map, enabling much more efficient planning for field service technicians performing after-sales service at customer sites. Mash-ups are often a cheap way of creating new functionality by combining already-existing technologies and solutions in new ways and can be expected to be more common in the coming years.
5. Shrinking workforce tech.
In Western economies, the baby boomers are about to retire, leaving a smaller generation to replace them. This leaves many companies in an interesting situation, but IT and automation can help them handle the same (or more) work with fewer people. Manufacturers will also need to capture the “tacit knowledge” of their retirees through social networks or Web 2.0; tools like forums, wiki articles, blogs and other devices are all great at involving and engaging people in debates where their tacit knowledge is released and stored for future reference. These are also becoming an interesting part of the business-applications design in upcoming years as they prove to be an efficient way to interact and collaborate within companies and over borders.
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