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At 09:47 PM 3/22/2001 -0600, Curt Wuollet wrote: >You in the automation industry have rushed and strived to participate >in the "dumbing down" of your profession. And from everything I've >read and the dialogs I've had on this list, you'll fight tooth and >nail to keep it that way. Nothing more challanging allowed. Any >divergent ideas are to be scorned. "We _need_ to use what the rest >of the company uses, period." >Congratulations! You've achieved your goal of standardizing on the >lowest common denominators. IS is climbing out of that slowly and >moving forward again. Doing new things with new tools that don't >come in the Windows box. Maybe management is right. Right on, Curt. I wonder what the solution is... One obvious idea is to use advanced automation and hire or train qualified (read higher priced) technicians to maintain it. This must not be cost effective for many manufacturing companies. A widget maker needs to justify all of this extra cost somehow. At the same time they are under extreme pressure to reduce costs. We could also design advanced systems with built in diagnostics so that an operator or maintenance employee with knowledge of the process could diagnose the machine. This idea may appeal to production management and also create more work for controls engineers. It would also raise the cost of each automation project, which may make this option look unattractive to the accounting department. I like this option. Control engineers can help themselves by using better technology in their projects, even if it effects the companies ability to maintain the equipment in the near term. If the benefits of advanced automation are really there, companies will figure out how to keep it running. If you afraid of spending a few long evenings to support some new ideas, then you must not want it too much. I have introduced new ideas many times, it is not easy. You must work long days to make it work, at first. It does get better. Eventually the new ideas will become accepted and more widely supported. But do not complain about low paying industrial technology jobs if you are not willing to put in some effort to improve your situation. Pioneering is difficult, but sometimes it should be done and hopefully the payback will be there in the future. Maybe we must work some unpaid hours to add diagnostics to some new type of control so that it can be maintained. Short term we will make less dollars/hour, but in the long run we will hopefully see increased demand for these advanced controls systems. Only then will the supply and demand curve tilt in our favor. Bill Sturm