NMW 2001 earns an ‘E’

National Manufacturing Week is once again upon us, and once again, a wealth of information about the show can be found at the National Manufacturing Week web site, www.manufacturingweek.com. This year, greater emphasis will be placed on e-manufacturing, with an entire conference track devoted to it, plus other conference sessions and special events.

By Laura Zurawski, web editor February 1, 2001

National Manufacturing Week is once again upon us, and once again, a wealth of information about the show can be found at the National Manufacturing Week web site, www.manufacturingweek.com. This year, greater emphasis will be placed on e-manufacturing, with an entire conference track devoted to it, plus other conference sessions and special events.

E-tooling manufacturing

New for 2001 is the “E-Tooling Manufacturing” conference track, which offers help to manufacturers who wish to establish or strengthen their presences in the e-business economy. Conference track sessions include:

E-Commerce Transformation: Is Your Organization Where It Should Be? Monday, March 5 at 10:45 a.m.

Marketplace/Portals: What’s the Right Solution? Monday, March 5 at 1:30 p.m.

e-Marketing: Tools to Succeed in a Digital Economy, Tuesday, March 6 at 9:15 a.m.

Regulatory Compliance over the Internet: Faster-Better-Cheaper, Tuesday, March 6 at 10:45 a.m.

Training Tools to Construct an Agile Workplace, Tuesday, March 6 at 3 a.m.

E-business for manufacturers

Another conference track, “E-Business for Manufacturers,” is an in-depth, two-day program featuring industry leaders who will focus on e-commerce and the e-marketplace. Conference sessions include:

How B2B Solutions Can Improve Manufacturing, Monday, March 5 at 10:45 a.m.

Evolution Not Revolution: Bring Your Business Online, Tuesday, March 6 at 9:15 a.m.

It’s Time for Manufacturers to Get in the eCommerce Game, Tuesday, March 6 at 10:45 a.m.

e-Business Supply Chain Agility, Tuesday, March 6 at 12 p.m.

The Bricks to Clicks Phenomena, Tuesday, March 6 at 3 p.m.

Other sessions

Other conference sessions of note include:

Incorporating “Open Source” Technology in Product Development, Monday, March 5 at 9:15 a.m.

Leveraging PC-based Control in e-Manufacturing, Monday, March 5 at 1:30 p.m.

The Use of Standards in Control System Implementation, Monday, March 5 at 3 p.m.

The Seven Secrets of Successful Systems Integration, Tuesday, March 6 at 1:30 p.m

How PC-based Control Fits in the Manufacturing Information Infrastructure, Tuesday, March 6 at 3 p.m.

Zero Maintenance Downtime: How to Get There. Monday, March 5 at 3 p.m.

The Integration of Six Sigma and Lean Manufacturing, Tuesday, March 6 at 9:15 a.m.

What else to visit

Be sure to stop by Control Engineering and Control Engineering Online ‘s booth while you’re at the show. Also see Manufacturing.Net’s Cyber Cafe at booth #1622 for a cup of joe and a cruise around the manufacturing Internet.

For more exciting ideas for planning your trip to NMW 2001, visit www.manufacturingweek.com for a complete list of events, conference schedules, and new products being presented at the show.

Author Information

Laura Zurawski, web editor, lzurawski@cahners.com

XML in e-manufacturing

On March 5, Microsoft (Redmond, Wa.) will present two conference sessions detailing its .Net strategy and how it relates to process control and discrete manufacturing.

“Plant Operation—Web Enabling Process Manufacturing” at 12 p.m, and “Automation & Control—Web Enabling Discrete Manufacturing” at 4:15 p.m will both be presented by Ron Sielinski, technical evangelist for manufacturing. Both sessions will emphasize a new approach based on open standards, particularly extensible markup language (XML).

According to Mr. Sielinski, XML has “given rise to the reality of a programmable web.” It is a standardized language providing data exchange for automated consumption. It enables computers to send and receive data in a predictable style, enabling programmability beyond closed and/or controlled systems. The Microsoft .Net platform provides tools and technologies to make it easy to build secure, reliable, scalable web services. Examples of the XML-enabled products include the Windows 2000 operating systems, SQL Server 2000, Host Integration Server 2000, BizTalk Server 2000, Commerce Server 2000, and Exchange Server 2000.

Microsoft .Net becomes useful to manufacturers when it is combined with standards specific to manufacturing and enterprise, such as OPC-XML, Universal Plug and Play (UPnP), BizTalk, and Universal Description, Discovery and Integration (UDDI). Microsoft .Net for Manufacturing implements these technologies, allowing manufacturers to integrate the plant floor, the enterprise, and broader e-manufacturing solutions.

For more information on Microsoft’s .Net strategy, visit .