Our U.K. correspondent, Andrew Bond, says that while following the soap opera of the ISA/WirelessHART standards wars may make for a good read, the real action in wireless is happening much closer to home--literally. In the February issue of Bond's  Industrial Automation Insider, he reports that "home automation system shipments will approach 2.8 million in 2011." Here's Bond's take on what these numbers mean, not just for those of us with disappearing tv remotes, but for, perhaps, the factory floor:

Our U.K. correspondent, Andrew Bond, says that while following the soap opera of the ISA/WirelessHART standards wars may make for a good read, the real action in wireless is happening much closer to home--literally. In the February issue of Bond's  Industrial Automation Insider, he reports that "home automation system shipments will approach 2.8 million in 2011." Here's Bond's take on what these numbers mean, not just for those of us with disappearing tv remotes, but for, perhaps, the factory floor:

Nothing Shakespearean or tragic about this. Just a snip from Andrew Bond's latest INSIDER report on testing of Foundation fieldbus technology in Glasgow. Here's what Andrew reports:

News on the PR Wall of Shame front has been sparse of late. (Good job, people!) But our friend Andrew Bond, who digs up the dirt on process control in the U.K. and the E.U., shared a note with me that deserves some kind of award in this category. He got it from a fellow European editor. Recipients of a particular news release got this note TWO MONTHS AFTER the press conference to which it relates.

Some jokes are funny just because they're funny. Some, you laugh because if you didn't, you might cry. I think this one, from Control contributor Andrew Bond, who says he got it from Jim Pinto, comes in the second category. 

A Japanese company and an American company decided to have a canoe race. Both teams practiced long and hard, but on the big day the Japanese won by a mile.

Got an email from Walt this morning. "Got home at 7:00 last night. Still dead. Going back to bed now. See you in the morning."

So you can expect some good and tasty Walt-isms starting tomorrow. Meanwhile, the best I can do is a sneak preview of the November issue, which will be showing up online by the end of the week.

Our cover story, "Service Plant Soon?" discusses the current EAM landscape. Is there any "there" there? What is EAM really and what are its benefits? We talked to drug maker ImC...

Andrew Bond, our European Contributing Editor, brought my attention to this piece by old friend (our fathers knew each other, for Pete's Sake!) Eoin O'Riain in Readout:Eoin Ó Riain of Readout writes:

Pharmaceutical manufacturing is set to move from a supply chain model to a value chain model, generating a need for a new collaborative manufacturing approach incorporating ma...