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PROJECT MANAGEMENT: How Not to Get Lost in the Weeds: Keeping Your Work on Track

When we find ourselves entrenched in daily tasks and responsibilities, there is a tendency to get hyper-focused, putting our noses to the grindstone, and not taking the time to come up from the trenches to smell the roses.
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PROJECT MANAGEMENT: 7 Helpful Hints for Your First Project as an Engineer

Every engineer starts their career with their first project.  It’s an awesome and exhilarating feeling to manifest all your education and preparation to contribute to the greater good of a project.  In all that excitement it is possible to get caught up in the pressure and skip some key rules to make the most out of the experience and be successful.  Here is the list of “must do’s” that I developed from my experience and based on feedback from a number of other experienced engineers.
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DESIGN PLANNING: A Solid Foundation for Design

Just like when you build a house, before you do anything on an automation effort, no matter how great (or small) the task, you should always start with a solid foundation. In the manufacturing automation and information system world that foundation is design.
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How to Get the Most Out of Your Plant Data

Everyone collects an exuberant amount of industrial data about their products, materials, and processes. And as we have also discussed at-length, manufacturers continue to struggle to completely leverage this data.  Raw data tables and reports tend to be the most common, but they are often tied to the plant floor or use specialized software that is limited in its accessibility so it cannot be beneficial for all of the stakeholders involved.
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DESIGN PLANNING: Don’t Fall Victim to Commissioning Gremlins: The Value of a Controls Expert

During a new commissioning, have you ever found yourself fighting the “gremlins”? As a Controls Engineer, I know this feeling all too well. These gremlins can be anything from a poorly placed sensor to a philosophy process that seems fantastic in theory, but the specific conditions and ramifications cannot be duplicated on the actual production floor in practice.
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