By Lisa Richter
In no order, a few sundries:
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Get on my good side: If you are a current CSIA member and you haven’t set up your new account, you will be locked out of content behind the paywall, your account and members-only events, like the upcoming ITR Economics virtual keynote, and, most importantly, you will be on my naughty list. Here’s how to get on my good side. [Members only]
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The real deal: This is the best time of year to join CSIA. Why? Because your Membership dues and CSIA Exchange upgrades and packages kick in immediately, which means you get the rest of 2022 and ALL of 2023 included. Contact Lisa Richter to find out how you can get in on this extra value.
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Happy budget season for those who celebrate: Jill and I are meeting with partner members to lock in sponsorships, sponsored content, display ads and other marketing opportunities with CSIA for the upcoming year. Don’t miss out! Get on our schedule.
Questions? Send me an email, I’m here for it.
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How AWS Helps Manufacturing Customers Accelerate Digital Transformation |
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By Madhu Pai, Ph.D.
With evolving customer needs that demand quicker response times, lower costs, and higher quality products; amidst supply chain hurdles, stringent regulations, and a constant push to lead in the market, manufacturers are looking toward cloud computing to accelerate innovation, stay agile, increase profitability, and embark on their digital transformation journey.
AWS and Manufacturing
For more than 25 years, Amazon has designed and manufactured smart products and distributed billions of products through its globally connected distribution network using automation, machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI), and robotics -- with the AWS Cloud at its core. AWS helps leading customers transform their manufacturing operations with a comprehensive and advanced set of cloud solutions, while providing the highest level of security.
This content is sponsored by AWS.
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By Jose Rivera
We are now officially in the Fall season (for the Northern hemisphere). Kids are back to school and many of us are back to conferences, trade shows, preparing yearend closings and next year planning. This is our annual “mad dash” until Thanksgiving when events tend to slow down a bit. While this is quite demanding, in some ways it brings us back to our “pre-pandemic normal.”
ITR Economics Virtual Keynote
First, I want to personally invite you and your entire team to attend the ITR Economics Virtual Keynote (sponsored by Schneider Electric and Siemens). This event is reserved for members only.
Lauren Seidel-Baker is the economist and speaker. Her presentation has the very appropriate title: “Preparing for Change.”
Topics that remain on the top of everybody’s minds and that will be addressed in the presentation:
- Talent/labor shortage
- Supply chain
- Inflation
- Ukraine-Russia war
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Getting Fit for the Future with a Retrofit |
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By Siegfried Muller
Is your customer asking you to retrofit their legacy equipment to connect with their system? This can be accomplished while making it safe to access, connect, and visualize their data.
What Is Retrofit?
In a retrofit an existing equipment or systems that have been in use for a long time are improved to include connectivity to a network.
This “modernization” of equipment is often a more cost-effective way of increasing efficiency, improving production quality, extending service life, and meeting current legal requirements than purchasing new equipment.
In addition, in many manufacturing operations, certain machines cannot be replaced but must be integrated into digitization measures, for example. In this case, a retrofit is the solution.
With a retrofit, it’s possible to integrate legacy equipment into networked systems sooner rather than later. It is likely that your customer’s goal of achieving a “smart factory” can be achieved since it is not necessary to replace the old equipment just because it lacks connectivity, which would be very costly.
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The past few months have been active on the M&A front for the industrial automation industry with the following transactions:
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Telit, a CSIA member, and Thales jointly announce intended transaction whereby Telit incorporates Thales’ cellular IoT products business and goes forward under Telit leadership. Get the details here.
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ABB signed an agreement to purchase Siemens’ low voltage NEMA motor business. Read about the deal with CSIA member Siemens in the release.
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Eastern Controls, Inc. announced the acquisition of Andrews Industrial Controls, hereby expanding its products, solutions, and services throughout Western Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio. This comes shortly after Eastern Controls expanded into Western Pennsylvania and West Virginia with partners Baker Hughes Masoneilan and REXA, Inc. More information is available here.
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French industrial group Schneider Electric, a CSIA member, said it would proceed with a full takeover of British software company Aveva Plc, also a CSIA member. See the rest of the story here.
Disclaimer: M&A Corner is not intended to be a source for breaking news but a place to get caught up on recent deals.
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A Smart MQTT Broker Enhances Sparkplug B |
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By Xavier Mesrobian
MQTT is a popular data communications protocol that was originally developed for the oil and gas sector. It is efficient, quick, and secure, ideal for connecting field devices to a central SCADA system and passing data between them.
With the advent of Industrial IoT and Industrie 4.0, many system integrators have turned to MQTT as a useful protocol for connecting devices to the cloud.
But MQTT does not have a standardized data format to define how data is sent and received, which causes interoperability issues. Thus, Sparkplug B was born.
Sparkplug B provides a topic namespace, state management, and payload definition for MQTT. It classifies MQTT clients as either edge of network (EoN) devices that produce data or as applications that consume data.
Each Sparkplug B device produces messages of various kinds, like a BIRTH message to show it has come online, DATA messages for sending data, and a DEATH message when it goes offline.
Any Sparkplug B application that is online receives these messages, and in this way stays up to date on what data is coming from which device.
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GE Digital’s New AWS Native Cloud Historian: Customer Benefits of a Cloud Native Historian |
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Curious about the new AWS Native Cloud Historian, the world’s first operational historian architected to take advantage of native cloud infrastructure? Then this presentation is for you.
In just 45 minutes, you will:
- Learn about the business challenges GE Digital is solving with this new product.
- Hear about examples of customer use cases that focus on cloud deployment, aggregation across the enterprise and heterogeneous OT data at scale.
If you want to learn more about a new product, customer advantages and uncovering new business opportunities, then watch now.
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Greetings CSIA Members,
My name is Alexandre Yurchak. I am the CEO of the Association of Industrial Automation of Ukraine (APPAU), which includes a group of Ukrainian system integrators.
Two of our members, Anton Krotyuk and Andrey Kalantarenko from TeraWatt Group, had the pleasure of joining you at the CSIA conference in Denver in June.
It was wonderful for them to meet so many of you, share our story, and receive encouragement and support from our CSIA brothers and sisters – thank you for making them feel so welcome!
I also want to give special thanks to CSIA CEO Jose Rivera and Luigi De Bernardini from Autoware S.r.l. for the generosity they have shown us with the complimentary CSIA membership and the development of the 1H4U program.
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Update on Efforts to Support Ukraine |
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A few months after the launch of the 1H4U initiative, it has had a good start. To date, CSIA members, including Vertech, Autoware and Software Toolbox, have donated over $22,000.
The money helped the Association for Industrial Automation in Ukraine to stay active and support the local SIs, creating opportunities to promote their services and “survive” during these hard times.
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While this is certainly a good start, there is so much more CSIA members can do to help our Ukrainian brethren.
In addition to raising funds, there is so much opportunity to create partnerships and collaborations with Ukrainian SIs.
So many US Sis are struggling to find talent, while the Ukrainians have the talent pool ready and waiting.
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Editor Seeks SIs for Interviews |
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Automation World is developing a series of articles for 2023 on sensors for IoT applications, safety devices (e.g., light curtains, e-stops, safety floor mats, etc.), and robots/cobots.
The articles in this series will be based on system integrator recommendations/tips around the selection and implementation of these technologies.
If you are interested in being interviewed for any or all of the articles in this series — which will be posted online and published in print (as well as promoted via social media and newsletters) — send David Greenfield (dgreenfield@automationworld.com), Automation World’s editor-in-chief, your contact information and note which article topic(s) you’d like to participate in.
Automation World’s writers will work with you to arrange an interview time that is convenient for you as they develop content for these articles.
Deadline for response is October 31, 2022.
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What Is Social Inflation and Why Should You Care? |
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By Jeff Forbes
It probably seems like insurance rates in recent years have only ever trended upwards, with rate decreases occurring rarely if ever. This is particularly true in the areas of auto liability and excess liability for business owners. The root causes of these rate increases are many, but one of the major underlying causes is what experts term “social inflation.”
What is Social Inflation?
Social inflation refers to the tendency of jury verdicts to increase in size over time. For example, according to one study, average jury verdicts in civil cases doubled in size between 2014 and 2018. Nuclear verdicts have become a specific problem in this area.
The phrase nuclear verdict is used to describe a jury award that far exceeds the standard or average amount. For example, in the trucking industry, $100 million verdicts used to be unheard of.
There have been several of those in just the last few years, however. There have even been multiple cases of juries handing down billion (yes, with a b) dollar verdicts against companies found responsible for accidents that harmed or killed individuals.
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Data-Driven Decisions: 3 Key Owner Insights |
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What does it take to build a data-driven business? Founders of automation firms often succeed by distinguishing themselves as technical experts and then by creating value for others through that expertise.
For self-reliant leaders who feel they’ve hit a plateau when it comes to scaling a business, adopting a data-driven approach can be a breakthrough success strategy.
Using data in a more focused way helps good engineers become good entrepreneurs. It’s about creating balance, where data helps you become as effective at working “on” your business as you are at working “in” your business.
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By Brian Clifford
Managing cash flow can be one of the most challenging issues facing a control systems integrator.
An ultimately profitable project is not particularly helpful to your business if you are unable to collect receivables when you need them.
Here are a few strategies that can address this concern:
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Down payments/mobilization fees: Getting cash in the door when the purchase order is issued can be a good way to mitigate against long payment cycles you may see during the subsequent performance of the project.
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Milestone payments: Instead of monthly invoicing, structuring your receipt of payments around the achievement of various project milestones can help align receipts to expenditures.
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Here’s your quarterly roundup of recent content you may have missed. |
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Talking Industrial Automation Podcast
If you are a podcast fan, you’ll want to check out CSIA’s Talking Industrial Automation. Some of the latest episodes include:
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Episode 71: Cassy Gardner of Banks Integration, a E-Tech Group company, discusses how SIs are in a unique position to impact billions of lives – which makes it imperative that the industry take DE&I seriously.
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Episode 72: Cody Bann of WIN-911 enthuses over how much he enjoys working on software that is instrumental on cool projects around the world.
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Episode 73: Wendy and Howard Huffman of Huffman Engineering share their insights from running a family business for over 30 years.
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Business and Technical Webinars
CSIA members and industry experts share their expertise in these free virtual event recordings.
Interested in being a podcast guest or guest blogger? Both are available to member organizations that have upgraded to a Gold Profile or higher. Contact Lisa Richter to learn how you can take advantage of these opportunities to share your thought leadership.
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LATAM Update / Noticias de LATAM |
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CSIA Partner Relationships
By Carolina Casas Anzola
Alliance Colombia Event
A few days ago, we had the opportunity to participate with Schneider Electric during its Alliance event in Colombia, where in addition to sharing knowledge and experiences, we also presented the content of the 2022 Executive Conference "The future of the work."
A meeting that consolidates the relationship and serves to plan the activities for 2023 in synergy with the CSIA and Schneider Electric, which will bring many benefits to our members.
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Relaciones CSIA Partners
Por: Carolina Casas Anzola
Evento Alliance Colombia
Hace unos días tuvimos la oportunidad de participar con Schneider Electric durante su evento Alliance en Colombia, donde además de compartir conocimiento y experiencias, también presentamos el contenido de la Conferencia Ejecutiva del 2022 “The future of the work”.
Un encuentro que consolida la relación y sirve para planificar las actividades para el 2023 en sinergia de la. CsiA y Schneider Electric, que traeran muchos beneficios para nuestros miembros.
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Did you know that CSIA can help you get published in the trade press? Get your expertise noticed by potential clients when you take advantage of the media opportunities that come with your CSIA membership.
Browse upcoming opportunities here. [Members only]
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Date: Wednesday, October 12
Time: 10 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. (CT)
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Date: Wednesday, October 26
Time: 10 a.m. - 11 a.m. (CT)
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Date: Thursday, December 8
Time: 10 a.m. - 11 a.m. (CT)
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Thank you to our 2022 Sponsors! |
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Stay in the know on the latest CSIA and industry news. Follow us on social media! |
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