Talking Industrial Automation

Steve Newcomer is the Associate Manager of Strategic Channels at Phoenix Contact, which is headquartered in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania. Steve shares his thoughts on cybersecurity within the industrial automation industry, and he shares a few best practices consumers can take to better protect themselves from external threats. Steve also describes how he became involved with the manufacturing and integration fields. He also shares his journey of how he came to work at Phoenix...

Rick Vanden Boom is the Automated System's Group Director of Applied Manufacturing Technologies (AMT), which is North America’s largest independent automation engineering company headquartered in Orion, Michigan. Rick describes how the robotics industry, specifically collaborative robotics, is reducing the amount of floor space required to complete automation projects. Rick also shares his thoughts on the IIoT, Industry 4.0, and Big Data and how AMT is working to capitalize on these...

At the most popular session at the CSIA Executive Conference, "Lessons from Touching a Hot Stove", system integrators have learned how their peers’ businesses have been burned by accidents, injuries and losses. This is especially true when the threat of a lawsuit, or an actual lawsuit itself, arises – what could have been done to avoid this dispute in the first place? In this episode, I’m releasing a recent webinar titled, "Lessons from Touching a Hot Stove: Legal Edition." This...

Matt Wells is the Senior Product General Manager of GE Digital, a leading software and advisory service company headquartered in San Ramon, California. Matt describes GE Digital’s role as a subsidiary of General Electric (GE), how automation is changing the labor force, and the incentive for companies to increase flexibility in order to meet changing demands. Matt also shares his perspective on the rapidly growing IIoT network and how he believes GE Digital can leverage this emerging...

Tom Burke is the President of the OPC Foundation. Tom shares why it is essential for the industry to consider the interoperability demands of end-users, what the OPC Foundation is doing to solve the software development challenges they face, and how the problems system integrators face today are different than they were before Industry 4.0. Enjoy getting to know Tom Burke from OPC Foundation.

This week my guest is Chris Luecke (Lou—Key), host of Manufacturing Happy Hour; a bi-monthly YouTube series. Manufacturing Happy Hour covers latest in automation trends and technology over a cold one. Chris started the show in 2016 and has done over 30 episodes. Chris is an OEM specialist Account Manager with Rockwell Automation and likes to record his show to help clients get to know him and make automation more approachable. Chris shares some of his favorite subject matter discussed for...

CSIA recently released the Fifth Version of the Best Practices and Benchmarks Manual. The Best Practices are nearly 400 items that CSIA Members have developed over 24 years relating to better run system integration business. In this brief episode, Remco Kappert of EKB and Eric Schaefer of Stone Technologies help you understand what changes were made since version 4! This was an in-person interview at our 2018 Executive Conference in San Francisco. Please bear with a bit of a noisy...

Ashley Dawson is the General Manager of Crossmuller, a full-service system integrator located in Sydney, Australia. Ashley describes how he approaches a project with a customer, and why he thinks their Certification feels different for the customer, and new engineers. He also shares with us three things he looks for in new employees, and how a prospective customer can be a "good customer." Enjoy getting to know Ashley Dawson of Crossmuller.

Arun Sinha of Opto 22 is our guest this week. Arun and I spoke online just before the CSIA Executive Conference in San Francisco. Arun thinks the future looks bright for the industrial internet of things and that there some exciting things happening, beyond collecting sensor data. Arun describes where he sees Opto 22 and its role in the industry, and how it relates to other companies in industrial automation, and we have a great conversation about the impact of the convergence of OT and...

Jeff Knepper is the Executive Director of Business Development at Canary Labs, a historian company near State College, Pennsylvania. Jeff shares why data collection is so important to improving manufacturing and processing and discovering things that may not have been known as a problem. We discover that even Jeff's coffee mug is an IOT device collecting data!

This is Tony with CSIA. This week you get to know Georgia Whalen, president, and owner of Rivergate Marketing, a firm specializing in industrial automation companies. Georgia started her company and reentered the workforce in 2008 after raising her three children. We can all imagine how challenging that must have been given the economic forces at the time. Perseverance and tenacity won out as they often do and now Georgia and her staff perform marketing services for many CSIA system...

Jason Andersen and I spoke about industrial automation computing at the edge, 24/7 reliability, and predictive analytics and maintenance. Jason also discusses how analytics are the "sensory stimuli" for AI (Artifical Intelligence) and machine learning and how he approaches a client's project by simultaneously simplifying the installation and future-proofing it. Jason is the VP of Business Line Management and drives the product development of Stratus' products. Enjoy getting to know...

In my conversation with Tim Matheny of ECS Solutions (a system integrator based in Evansville, IN) I learned about how he helps companies make more bread, (figuratively and literally) how buying a controls system solutions is like buying a vacation, and what made Tim successful in his career over 36+years. Enjoy getting to know Tim Matney of ECS Solutions.

Sam Hoff of Patti Engineering spoke with Tony Veroeven during the Manufacturing in America conference in Detroit in March 2018. Sam discusses how he named his company, on what he spends the first 90 minutes of his day, and what the first couple years was like when he started Patti Engineering. Enjoy getting to know Sam Hoff of Patti Engineering.

Rivergate Marketing's Meghan Pavasaris teaches us content is key in digital marketing, but where do you find content when engineers claim they “don’t write”? We discussed tactics and strategies that work to gather the technical information and create compelling content that customers need and expect. Even though this was a webinar, you can still glean some valuable information from our discussion. If there is something you want to see, all of our tools, tips, and tricks are listed in the...

In this episode of Talking Industrial Automation, I spoke with PC Romano of Avid Solutions. You're going to learn the unique things he's doing to develop skilled engineers for his company; How he approaches a project and the unique things he does to ensure a project goes well; what are some of the things prospective clients can do to ensure a good relationship with their system integrator. Enjoy getting to know PC Romano.

In this episode I spoke with Rick Caldwell, President of SCADAware, a system integrator based in Bloomington, IL. Rick grew up plumbing with his dad but realized 10 years into his career that he had penchant for electricity instead of water. After changing his focus to computer science and electrical engineering, he had a serendipitous moment in meeting Dick Morley, the father of the programmable logic controller, otherwise known as the PLC. Enjoy getting to know Rick Caldwell.

Luigi DeBernardini, CEO of Autoware, a system integrator in Vicenza, Italy. explains how IIOT (the industrial internet of things) can help manufacturers understand what’s happening real-time in their plant, and explains it with a very understandable and practical analogy. Learn what type of help Luigi’s customers ask of him, and that sometimes what a customer asks for is not always the proper solution. Enjoy getting to know Luigi. Visit our podcast page at:...

In this episode, you get to know Jeff Miller, Director of Project Management at Interstates Control Systems, a system integrator based in Sioux Center, Iowa. Jeff is based out of Sioux Falls, South Dakota and is the current Chairman of the Board of the Control System Integrators Association. You'll learn that Jeff always had an affinity for engineering, why hackers are attacking industrial sites, and what traits successful system integrators have. Enjoy getting to know Jeff Miller of...

You’ll learn how Matt was able to grow his business from 4 to over 100 people in just five years, how Hargrove was able to protect its processes and institutional knowledge from being lost by turnover or being owned by just a few linchpins, and what they do to develop new incoming engineering talent. And a fun fact: you’ll learn that Mardi Gras did not originate in New Orleans. Don’t google it, listen to the episode. Enjoy getting to know Matt Burton of Hargrove Controls and Automation.