Dome field advantage for Siemens

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.