IEN: How are manufacturers using existing technologies in new ways?

Roberts: Manufacturers are now using client/server technology for distributed HMI applications. A centralized server is used to deploy, maintain, and upgrade HMI application data to operator interfaces (clients) distributed across the plant floor. And since the HMI application is maintained in one location (server), updates and changes are easier to manage and execute.

IEN:What are the major concerns facing this sector in the next few years?

Roberts:

• Integration of information and control in one platform


• Smaller footprint (panel size) -- more functionality in less space


• Ease of use

IEN: What innovations are in store for users?

Roberts: Portable HMI products, such as Rockwell Automation's upcoming MobileView( operator interface, will provide increased work productivity by putting the information and control of a machine wherever it is needed. They'll reduce machine setup, downtime for maintenance, and troubleshooting. Just as laptop computers have extended the usefulness of desktop computing, mobile HMI will extend the usefulness of fixed-mount operator interfaces.

IEN: How are software and equipment being integrated in today's HMI/MMI world?

Roberts: Open and embedded HMI platforms are using a common HMI application development environment to speed up development time and implementation for the user. Customers can leverage this common design-time environment between open and embedded solutions and/or between machine-level and supervisory-level solutions, covering the entire operator interface continuum from portable and simple graphic display products through distributed computing environments.

IEN: Are we entering a new era of E-manufacturing?

Roberts:Yes. In the manufacturing industry, the tight coupling between the plant, its suppliers, and its customers is known as E-manufacturing. E-manufacturing empowers manufacturers to use operational data to continuously improve productivity, speed, and flexibility -- and to share information strategically with their suppliers. The real productivity benefit of E-manufacturing will be in eliminating waste and inefficiencies, and in increasing the speed and the ability to respond across the entire supply chain. As we become more "E"-dependent, information technology will link and network all manufacturing smart devices, and seamlessly connect the plant floor with the business system. It will monitor plant floor assets and leverage the Internet to schedule maintenance and order supplies quickly and easily. It will provide the front office with a transparent view of the health and flow of plant-floor assets, and help to streamline supply and subsequent costs. E-manufacturing has the potential to radically reshape the way we do business. Simply put, E-manufacturing will more tightly integrate the shop floor with the top floor, and ultimately with the complete supply chain. In the end, E-manufacturing will create a highly integrated, highly flexible system that provides a complete view of the entire enterprise -- up, down, and across the global supply chain.

IEN: How will the drive toward lean manufacturing impact this sector?

Roberts: Customers want just the right amount of functionality in their HMI. "Don't give me more than what I need." This requires modular hardware platforms and scalable software architectures so that the customer can design a system that fits his application.