The Industrial Automation Group of Advantech held their 2008 eAutomation World Partner Conference August 25th through August 28th in Monterey, CA. The theme for the event was “Empower eAutomation Growth with Focused Partnerships”. The conference was in conjunction of a significant milestone, the 25th anniversary of Advantech. Ming-Chin Wu, President of the Industrial Automation Group, says "With the focused eAutomation partnership, we will build up an open service platform for our partners to grow the business together. We also share the success and explore the opportunities with partners in the conference and I am confident that we can realize the five year vision discussed through joint commitment".
Advantech partners got to participate in many activities and demonstrations such as:
- Open eAutomation Vision and Trend
- Connect to Star Product Innovations
- Channel Strategy and Sharing
- Vertical Market Solutions
- Logistics
A key takeaway was establishing Advantech’s position amongst their channels as a global provider of solutions that range from Machine Automation, Building Automation, Power and Energy, Environmental Monitoring, Facility Management Systems, and Transportation. This will be accomplished by the expansion of the ADAM PAC line to take on additional roles of the multi-disciplined automation platform, building upon the ARC Advisory Group definition of a PAC, which includes multi-domain systems, all based on open, standards-based, modular, and scalable control architectures.
ARC is a strong advocate of PACs and their ability. In a presentation at the conference, ARC Research Director Craig Resnick, addressed the issues of sustainability, as well as the way PACs help manufacturers, processors, and facilities to meet this challenge. According to Craig “PACs articulates the convergence of multiple disciplines on a common platform, specifies functions under a single environment, promotes the value of the common communications infrastructure, recognizes the value of standards in automation, demonstrates the importance of a single power and control platform. These are essential functionalities for factories, plants, and facilities to be able to execute the steps necessary to achieve their sustainability initiatives.” Advantech’s ADAM-5550KW, for example, utilizes Ethernet TPC/IP, Internet and IT standards such as SQL, OPC, Web Server, FTP Server, and email alarm functions to maximize data integration throughout an enterprise for the exchange of production process information and connects factory floor operations to enterprise-level systems.
As well as having time to meet with executives and participate in product workshops, each evening was filled with fun and team building activities. The event was a great success for all and hope is to have an even more successful 2009 event.