Productivity Perspectives

Processing magazine was at the AWWA ACE13 annual conference & exposition in Denver, Colo., where energy- and water-related issues have real immediacy, with several-year’s drought going, forest fires burning in the Black Forest and elsewhere and natural-gas fracking being an issue.

Three current trends in industrial robotics, says Dale Arndt, an engineering manager with Fanuc Robotics Canada, are a) smaller robots, b) larger robots and c) robots that work in close collaboration with humans.

The Dow Chemical Co. is an early adopter of a “manufacturing intelligence” solution just introduced for general availability by Portland, Ore.-based Northwest Analytics. The system, already used in 14 Dow Chemical plants, makes it easier to accomplish data-source integration and real-time process analytics and visibility.

“I love all of it, to tell you the truth. Stainless just catches the eye,” said Craig Bell Jr., a representative with Alloy Products Corp. of Waukesha, Wis. That’s the kind of feeling for the utility and beauty of the materials sciences that was on location at Interphex, held in New York City’s Jacob Javits Center.

In the last 12 years, says a recently published survey,“water rates have at least doubled in more than a quarter of the locations and even tripled in a few.” Continuing rate increases are expected of 5% to 15% every few years.

SCADA systems are today the most common means for establishing computer-based production monitoring and control. While the SCADA security challenge is widely recognized, just how bad it is can be hard to say, since, for most companies, little is to be gained by talking publicly about the problem.It took only 18 hours to find the first signs of attack on one of the honeypots.

Have you seen some of the things they do with industrial-plant software models today? As always, it’s the meshing of user roles that makes an integrated system sing.

A $28 billion offer for H.J. Heinz Co. may be the largest takeover of a pure food producer ever. Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway partnered with private-equity firm 3G Capital on the announced deal, which is already taking some interesting twists.

The question is not what the process industries are trying to accomplish by means of industrial automation. But rather, “As you drive performance by opening up data and collaboration, how do you ensure cyber-security?” said Patricia T. Sperrell of Exxon Mobil, speaking at ARC Advisory Group’s World Industry Forum, held this week in Orlando.

In February, Processing will launch two new industry-focused electronic newsletters, Processing’s Food Industry Update and Chemical Industry Update. We're working hard to make sure you enjoy reading them.