This morning ARC provided a WebForum overview of Plant Asset Management (PAM). It is a good, short introduction to the subject. You should find it archived on this page later.
PAM is frequently a feeder of information to EAM and MES systems (Enterprise Asset Management and Manufacturing Execution Systems). The MES part reminded me of some unanswered questions from the Industrial Ethernet Symposium last week. One of the points from all the Industrial Ethernet purveyors was that Ethernet is growing in industry in part because it is the ubiquitous incumbent in the enterprise. The clear implication being that this should simplify connecting plant and office. But virtually no one talked about their connection from their Industrial Ethernet to the enterprise! Would it surprise you to learn that PROFINET is the exception? PROFINET has a well-defined path for such connectivity. (For more information, see my previous post on PROFINET and MES here.) Having an open standard to define this communication is definitely a plus. On the other side of the coin: A recent magazine had a pull-out section on Rockwell’s Factory Talk. It looks to me like Rockwell is going the proprietary communication route between plant and office as opposed to using open standards like PROFINET.