Gary On Manufacturing - Gary Mintchell

Will 2018 be the year that we see more IT / OT convergence? Look for it to be the year of edge devices, digital transformation, and the digital twin. Here at the podcast where IT meets OT.

A report from Rockwell Automation events in Houston November 13-16. Training veterans, open software, scalable software. Oh, and the elephant NOT in the room--Emerson's unsolicited takeover attempt.

Everybody's talking--about digital transformation, plus Dell's $1 Billion bet on IoT, GE's predix-ament, Rockwell ripe for the picking

A trip to Emerson Global Users Exchange yielded thoughts on capabilities to hone, justifying IoT projects, and investing in training.

Thoughts and analysis from Inductive Automation Community Conference in September in Folsom, CA. The company develops SCADA software, has an active partner ecosystem, and some bright customers. I got to talk with them all.

The Internet of Things is not a "thing" in itself. In fact, asking what it is misses the point. The real question is what is the business case for implementing it.

Gary interviews George Schuster and Lee Lane of Rockwell Automation who discuss the critical importance of risk assessment and mitigation in both safety and security offering some practical advice along the way.

Saadi Kermani, global business development manager / industrial information at Schneider Electric joins to discuss information management beyond the hype of cloud, digital transformation, and Industry 4.0.

Speaking from the United Club at McCarron International Airport in Las Vegas following the Dell EMC World Conference, Gary discusses the Dell / Linux Foundation Internet of Things open source project and some examples of the Dell IoT partner ecosystem in action.

Make no mistake, the Industrial Internet of Things is not a technology, it is actually a business strategy when properly understood. Refers to my blog site.

I discuss the importance of interoperable applications and the role of standards--specifically OPC UA and CCOM, an asset information standard from MIMOSA. I also throw in a description of students I met who compete in FIRST Robotics and a tip for cultivating innovation.

Recent revelations from WikiLeaks with details about how security agencies can hack into encrypted devices and files and then how all that can wind up on the Web should remind us to strengthen our security technology and procedures.

When I left magazine media, I thought about where the industry was heading. It's all about connections, I thought. So, I found a domain name The Manufacturing Connection. Last week I was at the Industry of Things conference in San Diego. Organized from Berlin, Germany, they still attracted an outstanding speaker lineup and attendance at 2-3 times that of typical media conferences in the space. They work hard at it, and they have cultivated lots of connections. This podcast discusses the idea of  connections from that conference. It also explores the idea of "sources go direct" where anyone can take a message to the public these days. You don't need a gatekeeper. Maybe you connect with people like me to reach a broader audience. Individuals and marketers with energy and ability can build their own audiences and avoid getting misquoted by reporters or having a 60-minute interview boiled down to a sentence in an article.

An Italian magazine asked for an American opinion on what the new president means for manufacturing. Here are some preliminary thoughts. Also some thoughts on Open Systems platforms for DCS from the ARC Forum in Orlando.

The Internet of Things is dead; long live the Internet of Things. Review of "Building the Internet of Things" by Maciej Kranz, plus discussion of trends from smart devices to Blockchain.

Yes, there is a business case for the Industrial Internet of Things and Gary shares tips for success. Drawing examples from PTC, Dell Technologies, and Emerson Automation.

What if beyond predictive maintenance we began considering predictive manufacturing? Or is that what Industrie 4.0 is all about? Gary ponders the latest industrial software.

After attending PI North America annual general meeting, Gary discusses future of Profinet, Fieldbuses and Interoperability, and a teaser about a Wonderware announcement.

Gary Mintchell discusses the 2016 Ignition Customer Conference from Inductive Automation--and the pseudo competition between OPC UA and MQTT/Sparkplug. Mostly it's all about getting the right information into your Industrial Software (HMI/SCADA) application.

Following up on his popular podcast on "Why Big Companies Hate OPC UA Embedded", Gary reviews his recent writing on OPC UA, REST, MQTT and Sparkplug relative to needed interoperability. He focuses on watching how companies implement REST and MQTT--whether they are using an open transport to move proprietary data types, or whether they are truly embracing what end users want-true interoperability.