Smart manufacturing and the digital enterprise
It’s happening fast. Everywhere we turn, processes, machines and devices are becoming more connected and intelligent. Production machines, turbines, and even thermostats, all stream data. Refineries, oil platforms, mines, production plants and vehicle fleets are optimising the operating efficiency, effectiveness and performance of their assets.
Broader deployment of operational technology is expanding the use cases into non-traditional industries. Resource shortages are impeding faster progress. Blurring boundaries between IT, OT, and IoT are increasing the need for more integrated, collaborative systems and strategies.
MESA Africa’s 10th Annual Conference will attempt to answer the following:
• How will disruptive technologies change existing products, processes and plants?
• Can cybersecurity threats be overcome?
• How will edge and fog computing change control architectures?
• How will end-users deal with the tsunami of clouds coming along with new production machines?
• Will there eventually be a cloud standard?
• When will machine learning and artificial intelligence transform operations?
• Will open source solutions impact traditional software and automation domains?
• How will a digitally-enhanced workforce stem the loss of tribal knowledge?
• How to deal with batch size = 1 unit for extreme individualisation?
• How do connected products create opportunities in aftermarket services?
• What steps can organisations take to foster innovative thinking?
• Will OPC UA and TSN supercede today’s variety of fieldbuses?
• Why do machine builders develop their own IT platforms?
• Will multi-agent controls replace today’s central PLC-focused controls?
Call for papers
• MESA Africa is pleased to invite interested parties to submit papers for the 2018 conference. To enable the conference committee to select a balanced programme, submit an abstract of 250 words to [email protected].
• All abstracts will be considered by the committee and rated against the theme content and relevance. The review process will aim to develop an industry focused programme which:
• Is of high quality and excites conference attendees.
• Reflects innovation and diversity of industry research, operational practice, professional issues and industry education.
• Reflects a balance between the many areas of global industrial best practices.
• Maintains the MESA ethos of being vendor-agnostic and non-commercial.
The call for papers closes on 31 July.
For more information contact Jane Collett, MESA Africa, +27 (0)82 528 1238, [email protected], www.mesa-africa.org
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