Dome field advantage for Siemens
July 24, 2008

1. Be it ever so humble, there’s no place like dome: The arrival of Siemens' exiderdome in Chicago this week for its year-long U.S. tour was greeted with equal parts wonder and confusion. The wonder was found in the large crowds who attended the Siemens’ Automation Summit at Chicago’s Navy Pier and got to see the floating automation exhibit sitting on a barge in Lake Michigan. The confusion came from city officials trying to certify the dome for occupancy. Once that was cleared up, though, exiderdome brought with it great weather and a new concept in bringing product innovation to end users.

2. Summit highlights: In his opening remarks at Wednesday’s Automation Summit, Siemens automation and motors division vice president Raj Batra noted that the concern over energy issues snuck up on a few folks. “Motors account for 70% of the power consumption in some process industries,” he said, but plants didn’t pay much attention because the cost of energy was only 2% of their total costs.” Batra said those days are gone, and new tools that help measure energy efficiency are now in vogue. “Software that analyzes motor efficiency is an important tool in any plant.”

3. And more from Raj: The emphasis on plant floor performance and plant floor data collection at the enterprise level is increasing. “The plant floor is flooding the IT infrastructure with information,” Batra said. Siemens has a strong commitment to PROFIBUS and PROFINET, and Batra noted there are 23 million nodes currently in use in the field, more than any other technology. “PROFIBUS is coming like a freight train to U.S. manufacturing,” he said. “The issue is, how do we get the word out?”

4. Concerns on the horizon: Two reports issued this week show the confidence of American manufacturers continues to be challenged. The Group Outlook Survey from Prime Advantage, shows that raw material and energy costs are weighing heavily on the minds of leaders. The increased cost of raw materials is cited by 93% of manufacturers as a key issue, while 67% view energy as the key issue. Inflationary pressure is cited as third, although inflation is a prime driver for concern in the first two cases. “Pricing pressure for raw materials and commodities will likely continue to be an obstacle for success,” said Prime Advantage president Louise O’Sullivan.

The National Association of Manufacturers put out its survey in which just 38% of manufacturers had a positive outlook for their company. “This marks the lowest confidence level in the history of the survey going back to the fourth quarter of 1997,” said NAM chief economist David Huether.

5. Building toward November: In what shapes us as a seminal presidential election in America, the issues surrounding manufacturing are pretty clear. Just don’t get fooled by the spin doctors and would-be pundits floating around the airwaves over the next couple of months. Lou Dobbs doesn’t get it, and won’t. Put him on ignore. NAM wants to solve manufacturing’s problems by giving the corporate more financial freedom in the form of lower corporate taxes. That hasn’t exactly gone very well recently. The Alliance for American Manufacturing says the main concern of people in states with job loss are “China’s currency manipulation, industrial subsidies, labor abuse, and disregard of environmental regulation – all of which are greatly impacting U.S. workers, and are of great concern in battleground states.” As we've noted repeatedly, the problem with U.S. manufacturing could be solved by U.S. manufacturers if they committed to solving issues of waste, training, product development and energy intelligence. So AAM doesn't get it either.

The best thing we can do as voters in the next 90 days is to turn off the TV and do our own research. To that end, here’s two Websites that may help: One for Sen. McCain, and one for Sen. Obama. This election is too important to leave lobbyists and Lou Dobbs in charge of providing us with information.

Posted by Wolseley on July 24, 2008 | Comments (0)