Over 250 SA manufacturing and industrial automation professionals and overseas speakers attended Futuristix's 9th user conference. With its user-driven focus on the issues that end-users and system integrators want to see addressed, X-Change 2001 was the most successful yet. No fewer than 40 presentations addressed a host of successful end-user and system integrator implementations of Wonderware solutions as well as new technology developments, approaches and applications.
This year, the conference was co-hosted by Microsoft SA and one of the keynote speakers was Gary Hodgson, Director of the Strategic Technology Group who explained Microsoft's strategy to achieve its new objective for the delivery of information 'anytime, anyplace and on any device.'
Joe Cowan, CEO of Wonderware, showed how Invensys' new structure supported Wonderware's 'bottoms-up' vision but on a larger scale by seamlessly integrating ERP, maintenance and the shop floor. "While many industry players continue to ignore the shop floor as the key source of supply chain information, we aim to significantly improve our market share in this sector through an aggressive series of new product releases during 2002 and beyond. Through our approach and product strategy, we intend to become the Microsoft of the factory floor and enablers of the supply chain by providing solutions that will continue to empower the operators and managers of industrial enterprises to achieve operational excellence and efficiency. The current release of SuiteVoyager is a good example of this."
John Sharood, the Vice President of New Ventures, Invensys Software Systems commented on the excellence of the implementations at the conference. "... some of the most leading edge applications that I have seen anywhere in the world." Sharood focused on the rapidly changing global business environment and how Invensys was committed to providing the flexible infrastructure necessary to enable e-business and business control at all levels of an enterprise. "Many businesses today have had to shut their doors because they didn't have the complex infrastructure necessary to back their glitzy e-commerce façade. The web is the easy bit. The difficult bit is manufacturing on demand and the complex logistics this entails. We intend to do something about that."
As always, Sun City provided a perfect venue for this important and memorable international event. From the first day's golf tournament sponsored by ICE and the opening night's spectacular fireworks display to the sumptuous gala dinner, professionalism was the order of the day where every delegate had VIP status.
The top performing system integrators over the last 12 months were:
* Interact 4.
* CS System Solutions.
* Streamworks.
The coveted X-CHANGE Open Award winners in the various categories were:
* Best overall implementation of the Invensys Bottoms-up vision - Streamworks for its implementation of the FactorySuite range of solutions and Protean at Cape-based international fresh fruit supplier Kromco.
* Best FactorySuite implementation - CS System Solutions for its implementation of an MIS and InTrack-based tracking system at a leading malt production plant.
* Best InSQL implementation - Keops Isis for the largest roll-out of InSQL in southern Africa at Mozal Aluminium.
* Best Level 3 and InSQL implementation - Iscor Flat Steel Products in Vanderbijlpark.
* Best HMI implementation - Buhler for its installation at Tiger Milling.
"Every year, the entries seem to get more and more sophisticated," says Mike le Plastrier, MD of Futuristix-Wonderware. "What was noticeable this year was the speed of implementation of even complex projects with its resulting cost savings - welcome news for the stretched budgets of production managers and financial managers alike."
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