Futuristix Advanced Control Systems, the SA representative for the Wonderware range of industrial automation solutions, will be hosting its 8th annual User Group Conference at Sun City from 26 to 29 March 2000. The event marks an important milestone in Wonderware's Bottoms Up revolution launched on 2 November last year.
"The conference has been specially structured to be highly informative and to bring together our industrial automation customers and system integrators as well as Protean and Avantis customers," says Mike le Plastrier, Futuristix MD.
Wonderware's acquisition of Marcam Solutions in July last year is part of the company's Bottoms Up strategy for manufacturers. This includes closing the gap between operational and business systems by tightly and seamlessly integrating factory floor data to planning and business information to provide a realtime, plant-centric environment.
"While FactorySuite continues to be the industrial automation solution of choice worldwide, its integration with Protean's process industry production solutions and Avantis' asset management solutions gives manufacturers and their customers the depth of control and information they need to run their businesses more successfully," says Ian Huntly, Futuristix Business Development Manager.
Wonderware's vision of providing a reality-based information pipeline that starts and ends with a company's wealth-creating processes (eg manufacturing) means that the people responsible for generating that wealth, the operators, will be empowered to make informed, realtime decisions based on customer, production and scheduling needs.
"ERP (enterprise resource planning) systems help companies manage and count their wealth, they rarely help create it," says Wonderware CEO, Roy Slavin. "What is needed is to realise that wealth is created in production areas and to focus on those processes and information that support this rather than creating some academic information base that is powerless to directly contribute to the bottom line."
The User Group Conference is structured into five broad information streams:
Stream 1
Technical and general information that will address Wonderware's 'sensor to boardroom' concept by introducing technical engineers to process ERP and IT professionals to the integration of plant-level information.
Stream 2
Mining and metals refining, iron, steel and base minerals, power generation and distribution.
Stream 3
Food and beverage processing as well as chemical, pharmaceutical and petrochemical processing.
Stream 4
Building management, warehousing and material handling.
Stream 5
Agriculture and utilities (water and waste).
International and local users and system integrators will present papers based on actual installations while delegates will have ample opportunity to visit the exhibition stands to see solutions in action. "We have some of the leading users and implementers of Wonderware's FactorySuite right here in South Africa," says Mike le Plastrier. "They are responsible for some of the most innovative and sophisticated applications of our range of solutions anywhere in the world."
Futuristix Advanced Control Systems
(011) 622 8181
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