Welcome to the 133rd edition of PROFINEWS! Having just wrapped up our 21st General Assembly Meeting here in Scottsdale, AZ, I can say with confidence that our organization is stronger than ever. After 21 years it’s exciting to see so much new development happening, and we’re still pushing the envelope to remain innovative in this space.
Assessing the marketplace for PROFIBUS and PROFINET here in North America, compared to that first GAM in 1995, is always an interesting exercise. Now, more than ever, a dialogue is evolving between end-users, OEMs, and automation vendors. People are talking about automation as it relates to other, wider manufacturing processes. Cutting edge end-users are employing PROFINET to handle the management of energy consumption on their lines. They’re not just looking at PROFIBUS and PROFINET as automation protocols, but going a step further employing them as data access protocols. They’re being used for things like functional safety, and even asset management.
And now with the hype growing around the Industrial Internet of Things, other sectors of the economy are beginning to implement some of the things we’ve been doing in automation for a long time. That’s why we feel PROFINET is well suited to be a foundational pillar to any IIoT strategy for a manufacturer. There has been plenty of time to prepare for this evolution, which is a long time coming.
I sincerely hope you enjoy this issue of PROFINEWS, where you’ll read more about the “PROFINET of Things”, our General Assembly Meeting, and other events around the world.