connected factory

When the largest Coca-Cola bottler in the United States recently increased their number of production centers from 5 to 13 (through acquisition) they knew that getting them to work together would be a challenge. With issues around proprietary infrastructure, an explosion of data, and the age old iss…

We live in a wireless world. We almost never plug our computers into a network. Our mobile phones and tablets provide constant connectivity. Some of us wear health tracking devices like Apple Watches, Fitbits, and Garmins. These devices count our steps, measure our heart rates, and log the number of…

Cisco Live just wrapped this week, and we had a lot of great conversations with customers who are looking to evolve their manufacturing operations and achieve an “ultimate state.” Many of these conversations revolved around how to improve their factory network and reduce downtime, taking…

When it comes to scary movies, the most terrifying ones are often about the unknown. It’s easy to grasp a frightening ghost, monster, or some lunatic chasing after a group of folks whose van broke down in the wrong town. However, the unknown allows for another level of paranoia because you never kno…

Next week Cisco will be exhibiting at the 2017 GE Minds + Machines conference in San Francisco (October 25 and 26). Cisco is a platinum sponsor, and if you’ve never attended this conference, it’s one of the premier Industrial IoT (IIoT) events. Topics of discussion will include: IIoT architecture I…

Earlier this month, I was involved in a webinar in partnership with CSIA and Panduit that focused on system integrators and expanding their business. The system integrator role is evolving from being project-centric into a long-term solutions partner who can help manufacturing clients in critical ar…

This month marks the 50th anniversary of Burt Munro setting the land speed record on a motorcycle. Munro used a 1920, 1,000 CC Indian motorcycle at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah to set a record of 184.087 mph—a record that stands unbroken for its class to this very day. He was 68 years old when…

I recently took part in a plant tour with a manufacturer in the early days of modernizing its plant floor. Two decades old, this factory had always relied on manual data collection. The team hand-carried operational data back to the office to be correlated and analyzed. Then they would make improvem…

We wrapped up the Hannover Messe event at the end of April in Hannover, Germany, and I can say one thing – Wow!  The official numbers are still not in, but there were an estimated 225,000+ attendees, 6500 vendors, 2,500 journalists from all over the world , and 5 full days of exhibits.  This is the…