Control Loop Foundation Overview

Slide berikut ini sebenarnya adalah Overview buku yang ditulis oleh Pak Terry Blevins & Mark Nixon, cukup mencakup sebagian besar mengenai Instument, Otomasi, dan Process Control, beberapa juga dituliskan tentang update teknologi terbaru di bidang Industrial Automation & Process Control. Silakan dinikmati..

Automation Creativity Sleeps

Bacaan yang mencerahkan dari Jim Pinto seorang expert di bidang industrial automation. Ini adalah gambaran besar dari apa yang terjadi di industri otomasi, kesan yang lambat inovasi selalu muncul. Teknologi yang selalu lagging di belakang Information Technology. Adopsi teknologi yang penuh kompromi. Kebijakan yang saling menunggu best practise di belahan dunia lain.

courtesy of Jim Pinto http://www.jimpinto.com/writings/creativitysleeps.html

Major automation innovations date back to the 1970s, with nothing significant since then. Large, conservative, rule-bound companies dominate the automation business, where true creativity doesn’t really seem to be possible. And smaller companies don’t have the resources to create new, breakthrough categories. Today, industrial automation is a stagnant backwater where slow growth is simply a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Industrial automation suppliers regularly put out a stream of “new” product announcements – sensors, signal-conditioners, displays, recorders, controllers, valves, actuators and all the “stuff” in between.

But most are mere extensions and refinements of old products – no significant, new creations. Trace the roots of all significant automation business segments and you’ll find innovations dating back to the 1970s, mostly developed and introduced by small, start-up companies. Each represents an inflection point that generated new growth categories.

The programmable logic controller (PLC) was the brainchild of prolific inventor Dick Morley, conceived at Bedford Associates, a small development company associated with Modicon (now part of Schneider). The first PLCs were developed for reprogrammable test installations in automobile manufacturing, replacing hard-wired relay logic, which was hard to modify. Productivity gains were overwhelming, resulting in rapid growth. This resulted in a market segment that has grown to several billions of dollars worldwide. Some 40 years later, the PLC has become a commodity market with minimal growth.

Rosemount, a start-up involved with temperature measurement, developed innovative capacitive differential-pressure sensors for flow measurement, offering major advantages over conventional products offered by Honeywell and Foxboro, then industry leaders. After initial rapid growth, the company was acquired by Emerson, which consolidated through also acquiring other innovative sensor companies as well as flow-controllers (valves) to generate consolidated growth to billions of dollars worldwide. But, except for minor pockets of innovations, no new, significant sensors have been introduced for decades, and the market is relatively flat.

The late ’70s and early ’80s marked the arrival of personal computers (PCs) in industrial automation. Several innovative start-ups grew fairly rapidly with automation-related human-machine interface (HMI) PC software. The two leaders, Wonderware and Intellution, were acquired, while others remained in relatively small niche markets. But further growth in the industrial software arena has remained elusive.

An exception to the start-up-innovation rule was distributed control systems (DCS), developed in the early 1970s by a team of engineers at Honeywell. This rode the coattails of mainframes and mini-computers, which were already being used in large, central control-rooms at process plants. The DCS category achieved $100 million annual revenues within just a couple of years, and the segment has since expanded to several billions of dollars worldwide. Honeywell still remains a major player. But the category stagnates, with growth only in India, China and developing areas.
Wireless growth bust?

Many (including me) thought that recent developments in industrial wireless would catch on to become a burgeoning new category. But industrial wireless products are still bulky and expensive, and none of the leaders has been bold enough to offer breakthrough pricing, which inhibits implementation in large quantities. And so the market languishes, with too much discussion of standards and not much new business on the horizon.

Creativity is the ability to introduce something new, with value that is significantly greater than anything that already exists. Conservative, rule-bound companies dominate the automation business, where true creativity doesn’t really seem to be possible. And smaller companies don’t have the resources to create new, breakthrough categories. In contrast with today’s tech world, which seems bubbling incessantly with ideas and creativity, industrial automation is a stagnant backwater where slow growth is simply a self-fulfilling prophecy.

The insatiable worldwide demand for continuous productivity improvements must inevitably be satisfied with creative methods, products and systems. When industrial automation growth finally emerges after decades of relative sluggishness, the markets will not need to be pushed – they will pull with unquenchable thirst for productivity gains. Creative new products won’t just find acceptance – production demand will drive expansion. A new surge of industry growth will result, once again making automation the pulsing heart of productivity.

Truisms

ABUSE OF POWER COMES AS NO SURPRISE
ALIENATION PRODUCES ECCENTRICS OR REVOLUTIONARIES
AN ELITE IS INEVITABLE
ANGER OR HATE CAN BE A USEFUL MOTIVATING FORCE
ANY SURPLUS IS IMMORAL
DISGUST IS THE APPROPRIATE RESPONSE TO MOST SITUATIONS
EVERYONE’S WORK IS EQUALLY IMPORTANT
EXCEPTIONAL PEOPLE DESERVE SPECIAL CONCESSIONS
FREEDOM IS A LUXURY NOT A NECESSITY
GOVERNMENT IS A BURDEN ON THE PEOPLE
HUMANISM IS OBSOLETE
HUMOR IS A RELEASE
INHERITANCE MUST BE ABOLISHED
KILLING IS UNAVOIDABLE BUT NOT SOMETHING TO BE PROUD OF
LABOR IS A LIFE DESTROYING ACTIVITY
MONEY CREATES TASTE
MORALS ARE FOR LITTLE PEOPLE
MOST PEOPLE ARE NOT FIT TO RULE THEMSELVES
MOSTLY YOU SHOULD MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS
MUCH WAS DECIDED BEFORE YOU WERE BORN
MURDER HAS ITS SEXUAL SIDE
PAIN CAN BE A VERY POSITIVE THING
PEOPLE ARE NUTS IF THEY THINK THEY HAVE CONTROL OVER THEIR LIVES
PEOPLE WHO DON’T WORK WITH THEIR HANDS ARE PARASITES
PEOPLE WON’T BEHAVE IF THEY HAVE NOTHING TO LOSE
PRIVATE PROPERTY CREATED CRIME
ROMANTIC LOVE WAS INVENTED TO MANIPULATE WOMEN
SELFISHNESS IS THE MOST BASIC MOTIVATION
SEX DIFFERENCES ARE HERE TO STAY
STARVATION IS NATURE’S WAY
STUPID PEOPLE SHOULDN’T BREED
TECHNOLOGY WILL MAKE OR BREAK US
THE FAMILY IS LIVING ON BORROWED TIME
THE LAND BELONGS TO NO ONE
TIMIDITY IS LAUGHABLE
TORTURE IS BARBARIC
YOU ARE GUILTLESS IN YOUR DREAMS
YOU MUST REMEMBER YOU HAVE FREEDOM OF CHOICE

Jenny Holzer – “Truisms” 1977

Mencoba tampilan Yahoo!Mail yang baru

Abis liat pengumuman Yahoo yang merilis tampilan barunya untuk dicoba. Rasanya tampilan Yahoomail yang lama loadnya memang lemot, di yang baru terasa lebih powerfull dan cepat..

Beberapa fitur baru yang dijanjikan antara lain :

- Loading yang lebih cepat >> ya ini kerasa banget

- Anti spam yg lebih bertenaga >> lom nge test sih

- Kapasitas tak terbatas >> ini nih yang mantab..fitur lama juga udah gini nih

- Keterhubungan dengan post Facebook >> dimana2 pada konek FB nih

- Chat YM >> sama ma fitur lama

- Dukungan buat perangkat mobile yang lebih yahud..

Kira2 gini tampilan barunya

Dibanding Yahoomail yang lama :

Kesimpulan saya tampilan Yahoo!Mail yang baru setidaknya lebih segar, jika didukung link internet yang cepat tentunya lebih kelihatan ya perbedaan kecepatannya. Suasana dan user interface yang di bangun lebih menyenangkan dan terlihat lebih mudah digunakan. Bagaimana, sudah mencoba Yahoo!Mail yang baru..