Managing Automation - March 2009 - (Page 13)

“In order to meet those demands car companies will have to restructure and speed up development of new models, [requiring] new automation technology throughout the value chain. Robotics will surely benefit from such investments.” And as in prior years, robot manufacturers are banking on demand from industries outside of automotive. Non-automotive orders were up 9% in 2008. The largest gains were gleaned from semiconductor, electronics, and photonics companies, which ordered 63% more units than in 2007. Meanwhile, orders from plastics and rubber companies rose 39%, and demand from food and consumer goods manufacturers was up 3%. In fact, RIA found, non-automotive surpassed automotive orders, in terms of dollars, for the first time since the trade group began keeping track 25 years ago. Units ordered from automotive and non-automotive companies were nearly equal, with 51% of demand coming from automotive companies and 49% from others. “This is very important for our industry as we continue to make progress in reaching new customers,” Burnstein said. — Diane Himes INTEGRATORS TO PLAY A BIGGER ROLE AT ILS TECHNOLOGY LS Technology, which has made a name for itself in the factory by facilitating communication channels between automation devices and enterprise systems, recently announced a formal partner program that the company hopes will bring it more traction in the industrial marketplace. Following up on his vow to pursue “more technology partnerships and more [product] commercialization,” ILS CEO Fred Yentz, who took over the corner office in Fred Yentz July 2008, announced a global program under which ILS will certify systems integrators to use and resell ILS’ deviseWISE offerings. The company will seek to formalize existing relationships and solicit participation from systems integrators it has yet to work with. I Under the new partner program, ILS will upend what has traditionally been a pull model for product delivery. Yentz said the new program was inspired by the company’s decision to “start doing some push marketing and some push demand generation.” One early entrant is AutoEver Systems, a systems integrator with a strong presence in Korea, courtesy of its tight relationship with Hyundai Corp. Yentz expects that the partner channel will feature a mix of small-geography, vertically specialized SIs and multinational IT consultancies. ILS will give its partners pricing schedules for reselling ILS’ products and services and train them to use the deviseWISE technology. Yentz said that effort will dovetail with ILS’ new VSInet product, which the company announced concurrently with the partner program. The new hosted version of ILS’ VSI (Virtual Service Infrastructure) offering is built on technology it acquired from ComBrio last fall. Systems integrators and other channel partners can use VSInet to offer manufacturing clients a cost-sensitive way to manage factory assets, Yentz said. A manufacturer using VSInet signs an annual contract and pays a monthly subscription fee based on the number of devices it connects to the service. Through VSInet, a plant in Oklahoma City, OK, that runs a production system designed by an automation expert in India, for instance, can give that India-based consultant direct remote access to a malfunctioning PLC. The concept, which Yentz describes as “just-intime experts,” saves the manufacturer the expense of paying travel costs and allows the expert to quickly assess and fix production issues, thus reducing downtime. With its own direct sales and the newly minted partner program, ILS is looking to complement another strong source of revenue: OEM partnerships. The most prominent of these is the company’s pact with Mitsubishi, which has incorporated deviseWISE into its programmable automation controllers and its MX MES Interface. Yentz thinks the OEM channel will remain strong, but said, “We see the systems integrator channel and the direct relationships as ever increasing, because not everything is a homogeneous solution; not everything is turnkey, single [OEM] vendor. And systems integrators are often in place even when there is an OEM partner involved.” — Chris Chiappinelli 13 March 2009 http://www.managingautomation.com/summit

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Managing Automation - March 2009

Managing Automation - March 2009 Contents Take 1 Sober Outlook, Cost-Cutting Techniques Dominate at Automation Conference Sale Canceled, i2 Searches for Its Focus Accenture Unveils a Service for the Factory Floor Solar Is Bright Spot for MES Player Eyelit Other Industries Outspent Auto on Robots in 2008 Integrators to Play a Bigger Role at ILS Technology Notes Deep Dive Supply Chains Reader Poll Technology Directions Expert Q&A User Resources Special Report Transformation Product Scan Advertiser Index Next

Managing Automation - March 2009

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