Industrial Automation Blog

Artwork by Caroline Whalen

System integration often happens in the later stages of a project and typically represents a relatively small part of the overall spend. If it’s not done right, it can torpedo the entire venture. You might want to ask yourself a few questions:

• Does your manufacturing operation rely on automation for success? 
• Do you need your systems integrator to be your go-to supplier to perform your automation and configuration activities? 
• Do you feel like your automation system is a black box, and you just hope it works when it is time to run your operation? 
• Do you lose sleep at night worrying that someone will cyber-hack into your automation system and create havoc? 
• Do you hope your systems integrator is there for you day in and day out for the long-haul? 
• Does procurement commoditize system integration? 

If you answered yes to any of these questions, you are not alone. Your next question is most likely: Where to ...

Highly effective and repeatable methods for tuning PID controllers manually do indeed exist.

Tuning PID control loops involves the collection and analysis of test data as well as the modeling of the associated process dynamics.

The bump test is a critical step in any PID controller tuning method.

At one time or another we’ve all heard the old adage: Garbage in, Garbage out. While it’s an old saying, it’s a good one and it’s highly relevant to PID controller tuning and process optimization.

After all these years the Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID) controller remains the workhorse for process manufacturers. Still, after more than 50 years of use in industry many practitioners continue to view the tuning of PID controllers as a “black art”.

Finding yourself with more questions than answers about your automation project? Make or buy? Robots? Conveyors? Tooling? How much will this cost? Do we have the expertise in house to even try to tackle an automation project?

By following these principles of flexible assembly line design, manufacturers can pursue lean manufacturing in their current operation while also building capabilities to maintain or add lean improvements in the future.

As you make your move to mobile human-machine interfaces, ThinManager is a good way to ease the integration and operation of your thin client.

Nearly every manufacturing facility, no matter the industry, has the equipment that’s been there for decades, and the one old-timer who knows how to fix it. Prepare now before he retires and that knowledge walks out the door.

A range of technologies have changed the industrial landscape. Companies that can successfully manage those technologies will also change the way they manage their supply chain.

When considering the important anatomy of an Internet of Things system, don’t neglect your focus on the ‘things’ themselves. Then you can worry about the cloud, analytics and dashboards.

All buzzwords aside, it’s time to start planning for the future if you’re not already doing so. Three important areas that manufacturers need to focus on are security, physical infrastructure and the logical topology.

Supervisory control and data acquisition systems have some evolving to do to keep up with adoption in an IIoT era. But they still have a big market ahead.

Discussing the scope of the problem you’re trying to solve through actual measures will help prepare management for better capital investments.

Redundant designs have become so capable that we often don’t miss a beat when a failure occurs. Without monitoring these assets, issues can fly under the radar until a catastrophic failure occurs.

If machine builders are not incorporating an Industrial Internet of Things solution into their systems, they’re missing out on an opportunity to grow their businesses with additional services for their customers.

Legacy procurement processes aren’t designed to handle the complexities of smart manufacturing. High-tech solutions that fail to rapidly deliver business results are all too common.

A full understanding of your current state can ensure you fix the root cause of the problem rather than just the symptom.

How will we go about filling the control system engineering positions we as an industry need to fill? Here’s a look at the issue and some ideas about overcoming it.