The OMAC (Open Modular Architecture Controls) working group consists of end users, packaging machinery builders and controls suppliers seeking to increase commonality and simplification among today's complex motion controls in packaging machinery (see packworld.com/go/omac).
The working group consists of a 9-person executive committee led by Keith Campbell, director of automation and integration for Hershey Foods. Also included in the executive committee is Evan L. Hand, Jr., electrical systems manager with Kraft Foods, and Daniel J. Amundson, technology leader, corporate engineering technologies at Procter & Gamble.
Suppliers represented on the committee include Klockner Packaging Machinery, Schneider Packaging Equipment, Rexroth Indramat and Elau, Inc. Suppliers may serve for terms of one year and may not succeed themselves. Subcommittees were set up to attend to each of the four goals (see main story) designated by the working group. Names of subcommittee members are available at the OMAC Web site at www.arcweb.com/omac.
Other end-user firms that attended include Anheuser-Busch, M&M Mars, Nabisco and Ralston-Purina. Representatives from 21 machinery builders and 12 controls suppliers also attended.
