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Bob Vavra, Editor, Plant Engineering

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Motors & Drives April 22, 2009

The Hannover buzzwords: ‘Pleasantly surprised’

Attendance is up and spirits are high at 2009 Hannover Fair.

By Bob Vavra, Editor, Plant Engineering
Safety Standards April 21, 2009

Looking for an attendance bump at Hannover Fair

The first day of this conference saw lower attendance; day two could be key to boosting numbers.

By Bob Vavra, Editor, Plant Engineering
Workforce Development March 9, 2007

Blog! Five Fast Things for March 9, 2007

1. Asset performance and reliability: Oh, sure — it’s a great topic to TALK about. But how do you actually get to measuring and acting on asset performance? The latest white paper now available on PlantEngineering.com will point the way.

By Bob Vavra, Editor, Plant Engineering
Cybersecurity March 2, 2007

Blog! Five Fast Things for March 2, 2007

1. Manufacturing is cool! I know that. You know that.

By Bob Vavra, Editor, Plant Engineering
IIoT, Industrie 4.0 March 1, 2007

The Blog is Back! Five Fast Things for March 1, 2007

1. Back and better than ever — with your help! We’re in the process of creating a new PlantEngineering.com Website, which will debut in about 45 days. March 1 seemed to be a good day to get back into the swing of Five Fast Things.

By Bob Vavra, Editor, Plant Engineering
Material Handling January 10, 2007

Blog! Five Fast Things For January 10, 2007

1. Successful warehouse management: A presentation by the Aberdeen Group at the ProMat Show in Chicago Tuesday highlighted the results of their new study that focused on best practices in warehousing. The study’s findings were discussed at a Webcast conducted by our sister publication, Modern Materials Handling, and that Webcast will be available at their Website, www.mmh.com .

By Bob Vavra, Editor, Plant Engineering
Material Handling January 9, 2007

Blog! Five Fast Things for January 8, 2007

1. Welcome back to 2007! The opening show of 2007 is this week’s ProMat Show in Chicago’s McCormick Place. For those of you who spend your year on the road at trade events, you know it’s the start of another busy year on the road.

By Bob Vavra, Editor, Plant Engineering
IIoT, Industrie 4.0 December 22, 2006

Blog! Five Fast Things for December 22, 2006

1. Tools for Tomorrow: We’ve talked a lot about educational challenges into the next two decades, both for America as a whole and manufacturing in particular. Grainger has developed its Tools for Tomorrow program to help students interested in technical careers get the education they need and deserve.

By Bob Vavra, Editor, Plant Engineering
Hydraulics December 19, 2006

Blog! Five Fast Things for December 19, 2006

1. Big Bang Theory for jobs: If you remember the TV series Northern Exposure, a Manhattan doctor had his education paid for on the condition that he spent five years in residency in Alaska. Wisconsin, which is not nearly as desolate as Alaska, is proposing a similar plan that’s not part of a sitcom.

By Bob Vavra, Editor, Plant Engineering
Safety Standards December 15, 2006

Blog! Five Fast Things for December 15, 2006

1. Top Plant winners: Congratulations to this year’s Top Plant recipients — Toyota , BMW and Square D . The Plant Engineering staff hustled around the country to visit these facilities and get an on-the-ground view of excellence. Our senior editor, Kevin Campbell, got a view of excellence at 140 mph behind the wheel of a BMW.

By Bob Vavra, Editor, Plant Engineering
Power Quality December 13, 2006

Blog! Five Fast Things for December 12, 2006

1. The fallout from immigration raids: Six Swift meatpacking plants around the country were raided Monday in a concentrated federal effort to find workers with stolen or fraudulent documentations. The immigrants rounded up in the raids are believed to have bought or stolen their documentation. There are two issues here.

By Bob Vavra, Editor, Plant Engineering
Safety Standards December 8, 2006

Blog! Five Fast Things for December 8, 2006

1. Air conditioning in January? Chicago awoke today to find temperatures in the single digits, wind chills below zero and frost everywhere. (If you are south of Nashville, stop snickering.

By Bob Vavra, Editor, Plant Engineering
Power Quality December 7, 2006

Blog! Five Fast Things for December 7, 2006

1. Worker shortage gets more press: It’s nice to know that our humble little communications machine here can spot trends and let you know about them, just in time for the big guys to jump all over them. What is important about USA Today’s story Monday on the worker shortage in manufacturing is that they devoted more than eight inches of copy to it (it was a significant cover story in their Money section).

By Bob Vavra, Editor, Plant Engineering
IIoT, Industrie 4.0 December 5, 2006

Blog! Five Fast Things for December 5, 2006

Five Fast Things for December 5, 2006: 1. Invensys in Dallas: The annual Invensys user group meeting has kicked off in the LoneStarState. It’s been a dynamic year for Invensys with the full launch of its InFusion enterprise control system, and the company is announcements of both system enhancements (condition management) and its installations ( South Carolina electrical distribution systems ) at the show. One of Monday’s more interesting presentations was from Invensys wireless guru Hesh Kagan and Apprion marketing manager Ian McPherson on the future of wireless.

By Bob Vavra, Editor, Plant Engineering
Workforce Development December 1, 2006

Blog! Five Fast Things for December 1, 2006

By Bob Vavra Editor Plant Engineering

By Bob Vavra, Editor, Plant Engineering
Lighting November 27, 2006

New Blog! Plant Manufacturing Now!

An introduction: In 32 years in the publishing business, I’ve been a columnist, a commentator, a reporter, a puppet, a pauper, a pirate, a poet, a pawn and a king. (Sorry. Lapsed into Frank Sinatra’s ‘That’s Life' there for a second).

By Bob Vavra, Editor, Plant Engineering