These are all good links that I use to measure the quarterly health of the manufacturing economy:
Canada Statistics Monthly
http://www.statcan.gc.ca/start-debut-eng.html
US bureau of labor and statistics
http://www.bls.gov/
Fed reserve reports on industrial production and capacity utilization
http://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/g17/current/default.htm
ISM Manufacturing Report on Business:
http://www.ism.ws/ismreport/mfgrob.cfm
JP Morgan Global PMI
http://www.ism.ws/ISMReport/content.cfm?ItemNumber=13133&navItemNumber=12954
Cambridge Energy Research Associates
http://www.cera.com/aspx/cda/public1/home/home.aspx
Markit Economics Does a Series of Reports on the PMIs of Various Countries
http://www.markit.com/en/products/research-and-reports/pmis/pmi.page
Eurostat does a quarterly panorama of European Business Statistics
http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page/portal/eurostat/home
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Thursday, February 17, 2011
UK HSE Advice on Control Room Design
http://www.hse.gov.uk/comah/sragtech/techmeascontrol.htm
Control room design can have a significant impact on operator performance and increased safety. The UK's Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has a great web site on control room design.
Control room design can have a significant impact on operator performance and increased safety. The UK's Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has a great web site on control room design.
Google SketchUp Delivers Amazing Free 3-D Design
Maybe I am late to the game but I just found out about Google SketchUp, which is a kick-butt 3-D design package that is downloadable for free.
Google SketchUp
Google SketchUp
Operator Workstations and Control Room Furniture Improve Operator Effectiveness
CGM has an alliance with ABB in which they sell their highly sophisticated operator workstations and desks -- really advanced furniture and diplays for control rooms using the latest research in ergonomics. If you think that investing in the control room furniture and displays is just a cost and adds no value, consider the impact on your operators. They recently did a study on tired drivers versus drunk drivers and found out that driving while tired is pretty much the same as driving while drunk. If you apply that logic to your control system operators then you start to get the picture. The right furniture can improve operator effectiveness and increase operator alertness.
Here is a link to the CGM web site
Here is a link to the CGM web site
Friday, February 4, 2011
US Manufacturing Adds 49,000 Jobs In January
According to the most recent data from the BLS, we added 49,000 manufacturing jobs in January! Good news! I have been saying for a long time that "globalization" and the global factory are extremely dependent on cheap fuel prices to ship those goods from where they are made to where they are consumed. We'll see how the latest price spikes combined with rising Middle East tensions will affect my hypothesis.
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm
Another Obstacle to ISA 100 and WirelessHART Convergence
Seems like the convergence of WirelessHART and ISA 100 has hit another snag. This time due to channel hopping issues? You can read Walt Boyes' post from ControlGlobal here: http://bit.ly/hGHzEE.
In my opinion successful convergence is necessary to create a single standard.
In my opinion successful convergence is necessary to create a single standard.
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Good Story in World Oil about Migrating Safety Systems
January 2011 - A practical live migration strategy for upgrading safety systems
This is specific to the oil and gas industry, but addresses many of the issues related to migrating your existing safety system to meet new standards and business requirements.
This is specific to the oil and gas industry, but addresses many of the issues related to migrating your existing safety system to meet new standards and business requirements.
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