"Solid engineering expertise may reside in the corporate office," says Paul Kuchay of Clear Automation. "But in two recent projects I've been involved in, when the end user was trying to rely on a corporate resource to start up a new packaging line in a plant, it did not go particularly well. The corporate guy isn't adequately dedicated to that specific project compared to an engineer who resides at that plant."
As plant-level engineering talent continues to grow increasingly scarce, it's the outside integrators who fill the void.
"When the machines hit the plant floor," says Kuchay, "they have to be able to send and receive data. Someone has to ensure that the host PC can run the right software so that the right data is made available, the data the end user needs to know how efficiently the line is running, where the bottlenecks are, and which trends need to be tracked and addressed."
Interestingly enough, Kuchay also sees accumulation space remaining essential in the packaging lines being installed now and in the near future. There was a sense a few years ago that controls technology would grow so advanced that packaging machinery would be smart, reliable, and efficient enough to eliminate any need for something so quaint as accumulation. Apparently, that day hasn't come yet.
"If there's a hiccup in a line, the packaging machines in that line don't like to be turned off, says Kuchay. "Accumulation space recognizes that simple fact. It's something we've been working on a lot in the past couple of years."
