On The Edge with Keith Campbell
Vision and Leadership for Packaging
On The Edge with Keith Campbell

CalendarKeith's Travel Calendar

interpack 2008
April 24 - 30 | Dusseldorf, Germany

Packaging Automation Forum 2008
May 20 | Schaumburg, IL

PMMI Community of Practice on Technical Training

June 4-5 | Reading, PA

College Visits on Mechatronics

June 9 - 17 | Southeastern PA

PA Industry Partnership Symposium

June 23 - 25 | State College, PA

Mid-Atlantic Mechatronics Advisory Council

July 8 | Reading, PA

Purdue - PMMI Workshop on Packaging Education

July 23 - 25 | Hammond, IN

Category: OMAC


OMAC should maintain a simple focus on packaging

February 25, 2008

At the annual OMAC Users Group meeting, held this month in Orlando, a discussion was generated on the topic of putting a more general face on OMAC by dropping its focus on packaging with regard to PackML and PackTags. The argument goes that since the technical product is elegant enough to be applied to other industries, it shouldn't be referred to as PackWhatever, implying that its use is limited to...
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Interchangeable parts - Why not software?

August 19, 2007

The concept of interchangeable parts is one that packaging machinery builders readily understand and depend upon every day. Not only are parts from a single manufacturer interchangable within a machine, but builders source custom parts from multiple manufacturers to control cost and schedule and generic parts are interchangeable across a host of different machines and devices. We have come to enjoy and expect that fasteners, shafts, gears, couplings, motors, valves,...
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OMAC Standards: Marketing ploy or value-adding?

June 25, 2007

With the price and scarcity of manufacturing labor, the future of manufacturing in America depends upon our ability to automate – Really Automate. Our ability to really automate depends upon making it simple to reliably automate and simple to reliably integrate our automation with our supply chains. Making it simple and reliable depends upon our adoption and use of standards like those under development by OMAC and the availability of...
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Getting technology education suited to packging - A how-to guide

May 18, 2007

Technology education in America has been driven by the automotive, metals, aerospace and petro-chemical industries. Certificate programs from organizations like ISA do a good job in preparing technicians for the petro-chemical industry. Programs from NCIST (National Center for Integrated Systems Technology) prepare technicians for employment in the automotive or metals industries. But where does one go for a certificate that prepares technicians for packaging and consumer packaged goods? The available...
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Community activism or tribalism for automation industry?

May 14, 2007

Automation professionals used to behave as a community. End users, technology providers and systems integrators would convene at industry-wide events, much like county fairs, to share ideas, best practices and lessons-learned....
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Are validated lines better lines?

April 30, 2007

How effective are pharmaceutical packaging lines? One would certainly think that the amount of time and money that is spent on validating a pharmaceutical packaing line would result in a line that runs better than a line that has not been subjected to all of this additional engineering, operations and quality control rigor. We hear that the validation costs of a line can exceed 2 to 3 times the cost...
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Small packaging machinery suppliers may be shut out of pharmaceuticals

March 11, 2007

Some packaging machinery manufacturers and systems integrators have shied away from pharmaceutical customers due to the burden of process and machinery validation. The costs of validation may exceed the costs of hardware and software, and going through the process is not for the faint-of-heart. Costs of 1.5 times the total automation cost have been reported for initial validation and changes to a validated process that may take 2 hours in...
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Keith Campbell
About Keith Campbell
Leaders learn from the past while looking to the future - and bring both to bear on the here and now. This is the philosophy that has steered Keith Campbell's 30+ years in manufacturing. It has worked for him in operations, maintenance, engineering, R&D, education, consulting and professional organizations--and now he's putting it to work for you--taking you to the edge of his thoughts on packaging operations.
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