The 7th annual European Manufacturing Strategies (EMS) Summit proved highly successful for Mitsubishi Electric Europe, with the company and its e-F@ctory Alliance partners hosting panel discussions and keynote speeches while demonstrating innovative solutions in areas such as energy, enterprise connectivity, manufacturing processes, networking and SCADA.
Chris Hazlewood, Alliance Manager at Mitsubishi Electric’s Factory Automation European Business Group comments: There was great interest in the e-F@ctory Village at the EMS, where Mitsubishi Electric was joined by e-F@ctory Alliance partner companies including Green Hills, RAIMA, ubigrate, Schad, INEA, Copa Data, Adroit, ILST and CLPA. The e-F@ctory Village provided an ideal environment where delegates to the EMS Summit could see the leading edge concepts being developed by Mitsubishi Electric and its e-F@ctory Alliance partners. The target of these solutions is to help drive up productivity and increase plant visibility for the full spread of industry sectors in order to give those manufacturers an increased competitive edge.
Delegates were also very interested in the strength and depth of Mitsubishi Electric’s SCADA offerings, with solutions from partner companies such as Schad, Invensys/Wonderware, K-H Automation Projects, Adroit and Iconics, in which the last two partners Mitsubishi Electric has recently taken a minority stake. In all cases, Mitsubishi Electric worked with these companies to incorporate their SCADA technologies seamlessly into the e-F@ctory architecture, providing customers with tailored solutions to meet specific industry requirements.
The collaboration with the South African partner Adroit was a key talking point. The jointly developed MAPS life cycle management solution takes SCADA to the next level and delivers an integrated design, engineering and maintenance platform to support a project over its entire productive life.
There were also extensive networking opportunities at the joint summit for delegates wanting to know more about Mitsubishi Electric and its e-F@ctory Alliance program as well as the Partner technologies on show, with delegates especially interested in CLPA’s ‘Gateway to China’ (G2C) initiative. Here, CLPA is using its strength in the Asian market to help European device manufacturers who develop and promote CC-Link enabled products to find far greater market acceptance in China. The G2C program is being supported by more than 10 major CLPA partners who have European operations (3M, Balluff GmbH, Bihl+Wiedemann GmbH, Cognex, Datalogic S.p.A., Hilscher Gesellschaft für Systemautomation mbH, HMS Industrial Networks, IDEC Corporation, Mitsubishi Electric Europe B.V., Pepperl + Fuchs GmbH, Pro-face Europe B.V, WAGO Kontakttechnik GmbH & Co. KG and Weidmüller’s Ethernet infrastructure business unit).
Another highlight of the Summit was the gala dinner with the presentation of the Strategic Manufacturing Awards (SMA), which reward companies who are able to demonstrate excellence across selected disciplines of manufacturing, including lean, innovation, operational excellence and sustainability. Mitsubishi Electric and the e-F@ctory Alliance were proud sponsors of the SMA e-F@ctory Hall of Fame, which makes an award to the best of the entrants in the various SMA categories. Membership into the SMA e-F@ctory Hall of Fame is exclusive and highly prized. This year’s winner was Purafil, Inc.. They were presented with their award by Takeshi Tominaga, Global Program Director for e-F@ctory from Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, Japan.
Now in its seventh year, the annual EMS Summit is designed to help companies further optimize their operational excellence, highlighting technologies and strategies to increase business performance and drive down costs. Mitsubishi Electric and the e-F@ctory Alliance were the principal sponsors of the three-day event held in Düsseldorf, Germany. Alongside the e-F@ctory Village, the e-F@ctory Alliance companies hosted two important panel discussions – one on asset management focusing on energy efficiency and resource optimization, and the other on shop floor cyber security, both important issues across all industry sectors. The panel members were made up of e-F@ctory partner members and independent experts. Beside them Mitsubishi Electric also hosted the keynote speech which examined a wide range of challenges facing todays manufacturers. The discussions and speeches resulted in strong feedback demonstrated by a lot of requests from the delegates for more information and many follow-up discussions.
The e-F@ctory Alliance covers over 25 partner companies, from areas including communications, electrical power solutions, enclosures and fittings, enterprise connection, data connectivity, manufacturing process, programming, SCADA and vision. Partner companies bring far-reaching expertise in industry sectors such as automotive, food and beverage, energy, IT, process and water.
Quotes from the e-F@ctory Alliance partner which joined the e-F@ctory Village at the EMS:
George Paul, Partner Account Manager, Ing. Punzenberger COPA-DATA GmbH: “COPA-DATA is very pleased with the results of the European Manufacturing Summit, which was an extremely well organized event for manufacturing professionals keen on networking, learning and cooperating in all areas relating to improving our effectiveness in manufacturing: business development, technology and leadership/management. We look forward to attending more such events and to extending our cooperation with Mitsubishi Electric in the future.”
Dave Boulos, ILS Technechnology: “ILS Technology's participation in the Mitsubishi e-F@ctory Village, in conjunction with their other partners offerings, further supports Mitsubishi's commitment to provide customers a suite of solution options that specifically meets their needs for efficient "floor to enterprise" information delivery.“
Wayne Warren,Chief Architect, Raima Inc. “There have been interesting networking opportunities with Summit delegates and the other e-F@ctory partners of Mitsubishi Electric Europe.“
Chris Hazlewood, Alliance Manager at Mitsubishi Electric’s Factory Automation European Business Group comments: “There was great interest in the e-F@ctory Village at the EMS, where Mitsubishi Electric was joined by e-F@ctory Alliance partner companies including Green Hills, RAIMA, ubigrate, Schad, INEA, Copa Data, Adroit, ILST and CLPA. The e-F@ctory Village provided an ideal environment where delegates to the EMS Summit could see the leading edge concepts being developed by Mitsubishi Electric and its e-F@ctory Alliance partners. The target of these solutions is to help drive up productivity and increase plant visibility for the full spread of industry sectors in order to give those manufacturers an increased competitive edge.”
Picture captions
Picture 1: The 7th annual European Manufacturing Strategies (EMS) Summit proved highly successful for Mitsubishi Electric Europe, with the company and its e-F@ctory Alliance partners hosting panel discussions and keynote speeches while demonstrating innovative solutions in areas such as energy, enterprise connectivity, manufacturing processes, networking and Scada.
Picture 2: Alongside the e-F@ctory Village, the e-F@ctory Alliance companies hosted two important panel discussions – one on asset management focusing on energy efficiency and resource optimization, and the other on shop floor cyber security, both important issues across all industry sectors.
Picture 3: Mitsubishi Electric and the e-F@ctory Alliance were the proud sponsors of the SMA e-F@ctory Hall of Fame, which makes an award to the best of the entrants in the various SMA categories.
Picture 4: George Paul, Partner Account Manager, Ing. Punzenberger COPA-DATA GmbH:
Picture 5: Dave Boulos, ILS Technechnology.
Picture 6: Wayne Warren, Chief Architect, Raima Inc.
About Mitsubishi Electric
With 90 years of experience in providing reliable, high-quality products to both corporate clients and general consumers all over the world, Mitsubishi Electric Corporation is a recognized world leader in the manufacture, marketing and sales of electrical and electronic equipment used in information processing and communications, space development and satellite communications, consumer electronics, industrial technology, as well as in products for the energy sector, water and waste water, transportation and building equipment.
With around 114.000 employees the company recorded consolidated group sales of 32,2 billion Euro in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2011.
Our sales offices, research & development centres and manufacturing plants are located in over 30 countries.
Mitsubishi Electric Europe, Factory Automation European Business Group (FA-EBG) has its European headquarters in Ratingen near Dusseldorf, Germany.
It is a part of Mitsubishi Electric Europe B.V., a wholly owned subsidiary of Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, Japan.
The role of FA-EBG is to manage sales, service and support across its network of local branches and distributors throughout the European region.
Further Information:
www.mitsubishi-automation.com
http://global.mitsubishielectric.com
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Company Contact
Mitsubishi Electric Europe B.V. : Amaechi Oduah, Marketing Manager
Tel: +44 (0) 1707 276100 Fax: +44 (0) 1707 278695
Web: http://automationsolutions.mitsubishielectric.co.uk
Email: automation@meuk.mee.com