US continues to fall behind in manufacturing technology

Events of the last month point to the United States' continued decline in advanced manufacturing technology relative to other regions. At some point this disturbing trend will become irreversible. We may be approaching that point of no return.

The demise of ISA Expo as discussed by my colleague Gary Mintchell in Feed Forward is one such event. It seems that the US can't support a multi-vendor forum where users and technology providers can get together and openly explore strengths and weaknesses of competing technologies. Instead, we've become entrenched in our own individual views of the world that only get reinforced by attendance at single-supplier conferences. This is unhealthy for our industry.

I would remind readers that we've been down this path before. General Motors executives looked out their office windows to see GM cars in their own parking lots. And those in the old IT world knew that no one ever got fired for buying IBM. IBM put their sales people right in their customers' offices under the guise of providing technical support. IT managers become even more myopic. But one day, both GM's and IBM's bubbles burst and the results weren't pretty for those directly involved.

This situation is even more ironic given the progress being reported by open standards groups such as PLC Open and OMAC Packaging Workgroup. Machines on the PackExpo floor were using both standards and Pat Reynolds has reported on the progress of both groups in Machine Automation Insights. Even as the broker of PackM/L, ISA can't seem to generate interest in a multi-vendor event.

It's left to the vertical industry groups such as PMMI to bring out the competing technology vendors to a single exhibit in the US. Prominent users of PackExpo real estate included the likes of B&R, Beckhoff, Schneider, Bosch, Festo, Siemens and other European controls providers, while you could walk right by the Rockwell booth and not even notice. If users want an across the board view of manufacturing technology, perhaps all that is left is the Hannover Fair in Germany.

As users become more comfortable with industry-standards rather than vendor-standards, the US is going to see its influence continue to wane. Announcements like that last week between B&R and Schneider Electric, adoptive parent of Elau, continue to deepen the strength and capabilities of foreign suppliers. Academic competitions in mechatronics, such as those sponsored or supported by Festo, continue to expand the knowledge gap between US and foreign students. Although there are lots of secondary reasons for the end of ISA Expo and similar events, the underlying reason is the US's loss of leadership in manufacturing technology.

Let's move beyond our one-vendor customer appreciation and account control events and begin to ask real questions about and develop real skills in manufacturing technology.

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Comments Totally agreed and am suffering from some old technology found with US-made packaging machines, that require lots of hand-craft and manual skill in setting up of the user side. This is way behind Korean and Japanese and mightbe Chinese soon. Posted by: Bill Ng on November 1, 2009 Many of the American made machinery has been overpriced for its function and use. It seems that in the U.S. the mark-up is so high, it keeps many companies from purchasing new U.S. made equipment, and turn to machinery made in Asia. You can now get high-quality machinery, that at many times surpasses U.S. made machinery for a fraction of the cost. This is very important to start up and small business with little capital. Posted by: Jeff Tittle on November 4, 2009 Post a comment (If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.) Name: Email Address: URL: Remember personal info? Comments: (you may use HTML tags for style) Type the word 'packaging' (required):