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Controls trends to look for in 2013

As in 2011 and 2012, director of business development John Kowal of B&R brings us a look at trends in packaging machinery control and automation. This time around, he also recommends a few action items.

PackML will begin to deliver on its promise

There was a landmark meeting of the minds this past December aimed at clarifying and simplifying OMAC PackML. Engineering leaders from PepsiCo, P&G, and Nestle all agreed that it should be easier and faster to implement PackML and see an ROI from this universal approach to machine states and tag-naming conventions. As momentum builds—Eaton Corp., Invensys Operations Management, Miller Coors, Pack Tech, Patti Engineering (a systems integrator), and SMC Corp. have all become OMAC corporate members since Pack Expo 2012—PackML will demonstrate it is ready for prime time.

Welcome to PackSpec

Everybody wants this—an up-to-date, simplified, functional User Requirements Specification (URS) for packaging machinery. Based on OMAC Packaging Guidelines, the goal is to get you 80% of the way there and let you instantly know what to expect if someone describes a machine as “PackSpec.” I don’t know anyone who doesn’t think this is huge. A machine builder recently told me that the average specification they receive costs them $2,000 in engineering time to review—nothing else, just review.

URS documents have a general reputation for being outdated, limiting, arbitrary, and far too detailed. They tend to be brand-specific rather than functional and standards-based because their authors want to limit competition. Once in place, it seems nobody has the time to rewrite them.

PackSpec is another great reason to join OMAC and get your input into the specification. Or join OMAC just to get access to the finished document—think how much it would cost to have your engineering staff or an outside consultant put this document together for you.

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