MTInsight Announced TODAY!

We just announced MTInsight!

Manufacturing Business Intelligence

This is a very exciting day at AMT – The Association For Manufacturing as we release MTInsight to the world.  What is MTInsight?  MTInsight is a state of the art manufacturing business intelligence platform that hosts applications for AMT’s members as well as non-members.   Before we get into a more detailed description of MTInsight, it is important to make sure we are all on the same page with some definitions. 

The overall purpose of  business intelligence is to synthesize business information from a variety of sources into a format enables better decision making.   Business intelligence (BI) software is typically made up of three major parts:

1. Lots of adapters to a variety of information resources. 
1. Examples of these are adapters to databases such as MySQL, accounting systems, inventory systems, sales systems, Customer Resource Management (CRM) systems, Enterprising Resource Management Planning systems (ERP),  spreadsheets, web services, old IBM mainframes, CSV files, text files, XML files, and basically anything else that you can think of.  The more adapters you have, the better.    Many times, all of this data ends up in a large data warehouse.  Today, these data warehouses are usually housed in the cloud.  MTInsight’s large data warehouse is in the cloud.
2. Software tools to slice and dice the data in any fashion that is needed for the analytics.    Usually, BI software has the ability to call other languages as well to augment the tools the BI vendor also provides.  It is not unusual to see JavaScript and Java as programming languages that can also be used with the BI software.  Structured Query Language (SQL) is also very important for accessing data from databases.
3. Graphics visual tools to a wide variety of output devices is key to any BI software program.   This is the logical last step after a BI developer has connected to a large number of data sources and has done lots of calculations.   This what the business person who wants to see the data in reports, charts, graphs or other types formats wants to receive.   Business people want to receive this information whether or not they are at their desk or on the road or at home and they want to view it on any device that they have in front of them.   Supporting lots of output devices as well as output formats are important.

MTInsight is built upon Actuate’s BIRT onDemand BI in the cloud software.   Actuate created BIRT (Business Intelligence and Reporting Tools) which is an open source project.    BIRT is known as one of the premier BI platforms.   BIRT onDemand is the  Software as a Service (SaaS) platform MTInsight uses to access information from the very large MTInsight data warehouse in the cloud, analyze the data and then display it to a wide variety of devices.   We spent a tremendous amount of time analyzing BI vendors before we made the decision that Actuate was far and away the best choice for MTInsight.


What is manufacturing business intelligence?   This phrase for MTInsight is really a double entendre.   First, it is manufacturing business intelligence or creating business intelligence.  Second, it is manufacturing business intelligence or business intelligence about manufacturing.   How I like to think about MTInsight is that it is your virtual business intelligence department for manufacturing.  If you have a browser, you have a virtual business intelligence department for manufacturing.


We discussed the three parts of BI.  There are also three parts of MTInsight.  Those three parts are:

1.     Pat McGibbon, AMT’s Vice President of Strategic Information and Research (SIR) and his extremely talented SIR department.  These are the manufacturing industry experts who are statisticians, economists, researchers, mathematicians, programmers,  database experts, BI experts and a number of other areas of expertise.   This is what I like to call “MTInsight’s secret sauce.”     These are the folks who manage all the data sources,  write the analytic software programs that create the MTInsight charts and graphs that you see. 

2.     MTInsight data warehouse.  This is the combination of all those data sources that I mentioned previously.   I like to call this database equivalent to Metcalfe’s Law.  Metcalfe’s Law is stated as the value of any network is the number of nodes or devices squared.   In other words, with just one website you don’t really have a lot.  With a million websites, now you have something of real value.  With databases, the more data that you can get into the data warehouse, the more interesting questions you can start asking because you have the data to do the interpolations, extrapolations and generally ask the interesting “what if” questions that all of us are familiar with when you sit down in front of a spreadsheet.  The difference is with MTInsight, you now have access to tons of data that you likely could not afford on your own or simply would not have access to at all.  AMT invests a lot per year in keeping its many data sources all up to date.   These are internal data sources where ATM literally is the keeper of the data as well external data sources that AMT pays for.  

3.     BI software.  This is Actuate’s BIRT onDemand SaaS that I referenced earlier.  BIRT onDemand is what AMT uses to both build these many manufacturing business intelligence applications as well as where they are hosted in the cloud.

There is a lot more that I could write about MTInsight and look for many more articles in the IMTS insider in the future.   Just like MTConnect, MTInsight will be a game changer for manufacturing!  Check it out now at MTInsight.org

MTInsight Rolls Out Tomorrow

Tomorrow at 2pm eastern, MTInsight will be rolled out...

An Exciting Way To See Switzerland

John sent us these photos when he was "over" and when he "landed" in Switzerland :-)

Two Days Until MTInsight

Just two days until MTInsight will be rolled out.

Thanks Chris Edstrom and my Father - Two Tours of Duty - Memorial Day

My cousin Chris Edstrom has done two tours of duty in Iraq AND two tours of duty in Afghanistan.   My father did two tours of duty in Vietnam and is the world record holder for number of years with Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL). 

Chris and my father are just two of the many heroes we should thank today for their service to our country.

Corvette The Cat (Kitten Right Now)

I open my 16x12 shed that my father and I built a decade ago and I see the cutest little black kitten right in front of me.  I found some baby squirrels in my shed a month ago.  I found a 6' black snake last year.  I am used to finding things in my shed :-)  I immediately closed the shed door and went next door to Peter and Alice's house.  I knocked on the door and said, "this is your area of expertise, come with me".   We got the little kitten out and Alice came over.  Tim, Mike and Julie came out to check out the kitten as well.  I told Alice, "you can have it under one condition, you name him/her "Corvette".  Peter and Alice are experts in taking care of cats and kittens.  They also prefer black kittens/cats.    Corvette joined the other two kittens they have and the three cats.  The other two kittens are called Simba and Carmela.  They have six cats/kittens right now.  They are not sure if Simba and Carmela will stay, but Corvette will.  Initially, Peter and Alice said if Corvette was female, then the name could not remain Corvette.  I explained that the name Corvette came from a British ship and ships are female.  Also, cars are females - aka "she's my little deuce coupe".  Peter agreed :-)   Below is me feeding Corvette just at Peter and Alice's house.

Video - MTConnect Connecting Manufacturing Conference - [MC]2 2011

This is a video that was created to discuss the first ever Video - MTConnect Connecting Manufacturing Conference - [MC]2 2011

Different Devices, Common Connection

The MTConnect^® Institute is pleased to announce the first ever [MC]2 MTConnect: Connecting Manufacturing Conference to be held on November 8-10, 2011, at the Hyatt Regency Cincinnati, Ohio. This conference is aimed at promoting the benefits and implementation of MTConnect^®, as well as showcasing commercially available products utilizing the standard.

MTConnect is an open and royalty free protocol that is standardizing manufacturing connectivity and and allowing for much greater productivity.  More information on MTConnect can be found here. 

Who Should Attend:

MTConnect^® Institute Participants

Users

Equipment Suppliers

Software Developers

Distributors

ISVs

Integrators

Consultants

[MC]² will have both technical and business tracks. Technical tracks will have a heavy emphasis on the “hands-on” side of MTConnect, while the business tracks will emphasize quantifying increased productivity ROI.

CALL FOR ABSTRACTS

Hotel Information:
Hyatt Regency Cincinnati

151 W Fifth St.

Cincinnati, OH 45202

Phone: 513-579-1234

Fax: 513-354-4079

Check in: 4:00pm

Check-out: 12:00pm

Guest Room Rate:

Single/Double $ 149 plus Tax

Triple $174 plus Tax

Reservations:

Hotel Reservations may be made, modified or canceled by individuals on-line at https://resweb.passkey.com/go/kafm. Individuals can also make reservations by calling Central Reservations at phone: 1-888-421-1442 and referring to MTConnect Connecting Manufacturing Conference.
The Hotel "cut-off-date" is 10/17/2011.

Mazak: HUGE Supporters of MTConnect

Mazak states the following on their MTConnect page:

"Mazak supports the MTConnect standard by providing all machines MTConnect prepped from the factory."

It is very impressive that ALL Mazaks are MTConnect prepped from the factory!

The MTConnect page by Mazak is the perfect example of how to layout all the information that a customer needs to know in order to enable MTConnect on a Mazak.


Brian Papke, President of Mazak USA, and Neil Desrosiers, Senior Programming Manager of Mazak USA, have both been a HUGE supporters of MTConnect and we THANK THEM BOTH!

John Edstrom Traveling Through Europe Summer of 2011

Joel Neidig Head of Technology at ITAMCO OSI/R Interview

The second guest on the OSI/Roundtable is Joel Neidig, Systems Engineer and Head of Technology for ITAMCO.


Joel is a real thought leader in manufacturing and the first person to write and MTConnect app for the iPhone and Android.  Joel also open sourced his work.  Joel Neidig is the type of person that gives me great hope for manufacturing because he is a young guy with deep expertise, vision and passion which means he has decades to keep innovating - which will be fun to watch.  This half hour interview covers:

• Why ITAMCO became involved with MTConnect
• How ITAMCO takes advantage of MTConnect to improve productivity by being able to monitor ITAMCO's machine tools anywhere, anytime on either an iPhone or an Android
• Why Joel wrote the iPhone and Android apps for MTConnect
• The steps involved in writing an MTConnect app for the iPhone and Android 
• The difference between DOM and SAX in writing an app
• What Joel will be teaching at the MTConnect: Connecting Manufacturing Conference November 8-10, 2011 in Cincinnati, Ohio
• The importance of open source and how others can help build upon Joel's great work!
• What the future holds for ITAMCO and MTConnect
• GO GET THE MTCONNECT APP TODAY! 

  

August 1955 at MIT - Numerical Control of Machine Tools

This is historic ashtray is in a glass case just outside the Executive Board Room at AMT - The Association For Manufacturing Technology.  This was created by Charles F. Carter, Jr., who was at MIT at the time and was also AMT's VP of Technology from 1990 to 2003.

Very cool! 

MTConnect in 2011 (on IMTSTV)

This video was recorded at the Manufacturing For Growth (MFG) Conference held in Phoenix of this year.   Penny DiCarlo of AMT does a GREAT job as an interviewer with IMTSTV and Diyana Hrzic does a GREAT job running the camera and doing all the editing.

This video has me discussing what is happening with MTConnect in 2011 as well as Brian Papke, President of Mazak, discussing the importance of MTConnect to Mazak.  Brian and Mazak have been HUGE supporters of MTConnect and are viewed as true thought leaders in manufacturing.

Jon Stewart Obliterates Bill O'Reilly

Jon Stewart went on Fox's Bill O'Reilly Show last night and completely obliterated the lack-O-logic of Fixed Noise's Bill O'Reilly who was complaining about the rapper Common going to the White House.  Fun to watch :-)  

A good friend of mine, Jim C. likes to say, "don't bring a knife to a gun fight."   When Bill O'Reilly tries to go after Jon Stewart in a debate, he needs to remember that phrase....

MTConnect at Mori-Seiki Innovation Days With Task Force Tips

Stewart McMillan, president of Task Force Tips, and I presented at Mori-Seiki Innovation Days in Hoffman Estates on May 4th.  It was  BIG success thanks to the great job Stewart did (I did ok too :-)  as well as Stewart's real life experiences in manufacturing and with MTConnect.  Below is a picture of Stewart and I in front of the MTConnect area.  Stewart recommended that EVERYONE should be investigating MTConnect and he is telling vendors he wants to have MTConnect on the manufacturing equipment he is purchasing going forward.  Stewart and I share many things in common include one of the first users of Xenix back in the very early 1980s.

One of Task Force Tips claim to fame is that it was their nozzle that was THE benchmark for AutoCAD back in the day.  I remember running AutoCAD benchmarks on Sun's 386i comparing SunOS versus Windoze.  Below is from Stewart's presentation.

Below is a snippet from an article in Today's Machining World:

DMG / Mori Seiki USA Announces Innovation Days 2011 at Chicago Headquarters & Technical Center on May 3‐5

By Vincent on March 21, 2011

Chicago, Illinois, March 17, 2011 – DMG / Mori Seiki USA has announced the annual Innovation Days event will takeplace at the company’s Headquarters and Chicago Technical Center on May 3 – 5, 2011 where progressive machine technology will collide with the latest tooling, automation, software, training and application strategies. Manufacturers will have the opportunity to experience everything needed to stay at the forefront of manufacturing ‐ all in one place. This once‐yearly event gives machine tool users access to over thirty live cutting demonstrations and dozens of engineers specializing in advanced machining solutions.  Technical seminars at the three‐day event will be presented byindustry experts and span several productivity‐boosting topics including: Expanding Production, Shop Floor Networking & Communication, Machine Tools for the Future, Practical Strategies for Reducing Set Up Times and Laser and Ultrasonic Use In New Markets.

Above and below is inside Mori-Seiki's incredible demonstration hall.

Above is the MTConnect roll out poster that Paul Warndorf said, "Dave, if you lose this, do not come back from Chicago!" :-)

Above is a great example of the size of some of the items being created at the show.  The water bottle gives it perspective.  Below is a gear that you do not want to screw up when making it :-)

Below is Athulan from System Insights discussing their MTConnect product, Vimana, with a prospect. Athulan said it was a great show for their company.

Above is a short video of a machine tool making a part.  This shows the size of this particular DMG machine tool.

The piece you see being made here is about five in diameter.

Bryce Harper at Hagerstown Suns Game

At 5 minutes before 5 last Thursday, I told Julie and Tim to jump in the van because we were going up to see the Nat's hitting sensation Bryce Harper, who is all of 18 years old, play that night for the Hagerstown Suns.  I ordered the 2nd row VIP seats behind third base for $11 EACH.  It was "Thirsty Thursday Night" so beers were $1 each.  I bought some beers for the other folks in our row when I went out and was fairly popular guy after that :-)   It was perfect weather and seeing Bryce Harper up and close will be something that Tim will likely be telling his kids about some day.   Three tickets in the 2nd row, brats, sodas, beer, and popcorn all for below $60 is awfully hard to beat....

The True ROI of the [MC]2 Conference

The True ROI of the [MC]2 Conference

MTConnect®: Connecting Manufacturing Conference

May 11, 2011

I Wrote This Article For The May 2011 IMTS Insider

Last month, I announced the [MC]2 MTConnect®: Connecting Manufacturing Conference with a call for papers. These papers are what we will use to determine the technical and business sessions. [MC]2 will be held on Nov. 8-10 in Cincinnati, Ohio, at the Hyatt Regency.

[MC]2 will have technical and business tracks, as well as general sessions to discuss all things MTConnect. The technical tracks will have subject matter experts leading hands-on labs for software developers to learn about MTConnect at both the machine side, as well as the application level. The business tracks will feature discussions from manufacturing business leaders that will benefit everyone from plant floor employees to C-level executives in better understanding how MTConnect improves productivity throughout the plant. The general sessions will feature discussions about what the future will hold for increasing manufacturing in an open world where data is king.

I have attended countless IT conferences and a few manufacturing conferences over the last three decades. A question that everyone asks before they decide to invest both their time and money in either speaking at or attending a conference is to determine the ROI for them from two perspectives:

From a company perspective, does this make sense for my company to invest their money and my time to attend this conference? In other words: What new skills will I learn to help me in my job?  From a personal perspective: How will this help my resume? That includes getting to the next level at the prospective attendee's current company, or perhaps getting a new job at a different company.

I would argue that these two perspectives are missing the true ROI for both the company as well as the individual attending a conference such as [MC]2. The true ROI is not just what happens during the business, technical or general sessions, but what happens before, between and after those sessions in the hallways, the breaks, the restaurants and the bars. It is those impromptu conversations and meetings where you meet folks who are doing the same thing you are trying to do but have a different approach. It is these discussions that cause you to think differently and ask questions that you would have never thought of prior to the conference. Those individuals who you meet and then continue to have ongoing conversations with beyond the event are absolutely priceless. It is meeting customers in a setting where you are both searching for creative solutions that can be the petri dish for future collaborations. It is grabbing the speaker of a session and going out for lunch together to discuss some of the finer points of the session. It is the suggestion from another attendee to check out some open source software that your company could use to save tens of thousands of dollars. It is adding lots of new contacts that will save you time and your company money when you run into future challenges.

The next time you are considering attending a conference such as [MC]2, remember that the true ROI is not just the sessions, it is who you meet, what you learn, the relationships you create during impromptu conversations and meetings.

Whether you are technical or on the business side of manufacturing, [MC]2 is a MUST-ATTEND event in 2011! Check out http://MTConnect.org/MC2 for more information!

Dave Edstrom
Director, The Office of Strategic Innovation
AMT - The Association For Manufacturing Technology

Spike and Photon Wresting

Spike is going to be 13 in a few months, so when he decided to wrestle with Photon who is 7, I thought I better capture this on my iPhone.

Thanks Gary Williams - 22 Years as Basketball Coach of UMD

University of Maryland basketball has been my favorite college basketball team since I first saw Brad Davis as a point guard back for the Terps in the early 1970s do a look-away, fake behind the back pass, turn into a shovel pass on a fastbreak.

It was cemented when Albert King went to Maryland.  This was after I read my favorite sports book of all time:  Heaven Is A Playground

Mike Wise of the Washington Post wrote a great article on Gary Williams.  Below is the story that everyone in basketball knows about Gary Williams as told by Mike Wise:

When I asked Gary a year ago whether Greivis Vasquez and the grit and resilience of his 2008-09 team helped saved his job by improbably getting to the NCAA tournament after being all but counted out in early February, he laughed and said, “The guy who first saved my job was Walt Williams. He didn’t have to stay at Maryland after everything that happened before I got there. But he did. And I’ll never be able to thank him enough.”

Recounted often is how Gary Williams took his alma mater, reeling from tragedy and NCAA probation, to the national title in 2002. What people forget is, he left a very good job at Ohio State to do it, gambling on his future in what many perceived as not a lateral move but an actual step down the coaching ladder.

Lefty Driesell’s storied program of John Lucas, Buck Williams, Tom McMillen, Len Elmore and Adrian Branch was reduced to rubble after Len Bias, one of the greatest players in the history of college basketball, died in a cocaine overdose on campus less than two days after he was drafted into the NBA. Maryland was floundering after Lefty resigned, and Bob Wade tried to cheat his way back.

 No basketball coach was more intense than Gary Williams.   Gary was intense, but a good guy.  He was not an intense a$$hole like some coaches.   He never cheated and he inherited a mess from the previous coach Bob Wade.  The highlight was UMD winning the NCAA Championship in 2002.

Fear The Turtle! :-)

Thanks Gary

To Kill A Mockingturd

No one does it better than Jon Stewart on The Daily Show.   This episode on the killing of Osama bin Laden is classic.

Athulan and Woz

I ran into Dr. Athulan Vijayaraghavan, CTO of System Insights, at DMG Mori-Seiki Innovation Days here in Hoffman Estates just outside of Chicago.  Athulan was pretty excited on who he met on the flight in - Steve Wozniak.   Athulan said Steve Wosniak could not have been more gracious or nice.   That is what everyone says who has ever dealt with Woz.  Go ahead and try to figure out his phone number as he challenged Athulan to do :-)

Congrats Michael and John Edstrom - Arrested Development Trivia

Congratulations to John and Michael Edstrom who won the trivia contest at Hokie House for Arrested Development Trivia Night on Saturday April 30th.

At least the 35 grand I am dropping per year for both of my oldest two sons at Virginia Tech is going to good use :-)

Tragedy at Virginia Tech

Today is the anniversary of the tragedy at Virginia Tech.

My thoughts and prayers go out to all the families, relatives and friends of those who lost their lives on April 16th, 2007 in this senseless tragedy.....

The picture below was on the Collegiate Times in 2007 at VT:

There is a permanent memorial at VT. The Collegiate Times has a nice article describing the memorial.

My memories of April 16th, 2007 started with a phone call from my wife. Julie called and said, "just wanted to let you know that John is fine." At the time I was on my SunRay reading email while on a con call when she called my cellphone. She never calls me during theday since she is a school teacher. "Why would John not be be fine?" I asked. She asked me if I was watching TV or listening to the news. Of course I was not watching TV or listening to the news. She explained what was going on. I immediately interrupted the Sun folks on the con call and quickly said, "I had to get off the call, there was a shooting at my son's school."

It was then that I turned on the TV and was shocked to see the peaceful and beautiful VT campus on the news. I started getting emails, phone calls from literally around the world checking on John. You sometimes forget in casual conversation that you mentioned something about your kids that your friends and colleagues remember. Every time a call came, I paused the DVR. I was getting the current updates from friend, colleagues\s and family all around the world via email and non stop phone calls. As the numbers kept rising, it became more and more surreal.

 My son John was working for the Collegiate Times during his freshman year.  He put together a very nice week long history of events starting on April 16th through April 23rd that shows what happened each day.

I can not imagine the horror the students and faculty must have felt. There was an article in the post today by Nick Miroff, titled, "A Year Later, Virginia Tech Is Still Healing" is a well written article worth reading. As Miroff points out:

"Virginia Tech students have learned to talk about it in shorthand, if they talk about it at all. This Story

• A Year Later, Va. Tech Is Still Healing
•  Special Report: Va. Tech Shootings 
•  Essay: In Blacksburg, An ER Physician Still Tries to Heal
•  Blog: Va. Tech Students Remember  
•  VT: One Year Later - Living With Chow

• 
  
  

  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  

  
  
  
  
  

They do not use the words massacre, or shootings, or rampage. They call it "April 16th," and sometimes not even that. To say "four-sixteen" is enough. Everyone knows." 

I have been back to VT many times since April 16th, 2007 both as a parent and working for Sun Microsystems where I have given talks and brought down Sun's thought leaders to speak at VT's ACM where my son John is President.  Each time, the first thing I do is visit the memorial

          Governor Kaine has did a good job demanding there was the VT Task Force.  Governor Kaine stated:

"On April 16, 2007, Virginia Tech University suffered a terrible tragedy. Today, my thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families and the entire Virginia Tech community.

"In the year that has passed since that horrible day, we have grieved for those we lost and prayed for the comfort of their loved ones. We have rejoiced in the recovery of those who were injured. We have been inspired by the unfaltering hope and Hokie spirit of Virginia Tech. And we have renewed our commitment to do even more to learn lessons from that day and to make our campuses and communities safer.

"As I think about the victims' families, I am at a loss for words to express what is in my heart. The courage and strength they have shown in the face of such tremendous, tragic loss is awe-inspiring. We have been inspired by the resilient Hokie spirit of Virginia Tech, both in Blacksburg and around the world. Since that tragic day last April, the unshakeable sense of unity and hope demonstrated by the Hokies has touched the lives of people around the world. Their focus on pulling together to support their school and each other in the days after the shooting, and their commitment to public service through the VT Engage program in the months that followed has moved us all.

"We still have work to do. A continued commitment to improvement is the best tribute we can pay to those who lost so much. And as we move forward, we will continue to be inspired by those in the Hokie Nation."

VT seems to have made the right changes. The VT Task Force seemed to not pull any punches when it came to how the University should have dealt with the events on the morning of April 16th, 2007. As the AP reported and I FULLY AGREE with Governor Kaine about purchasing firearms at gun shows. Virginia needs to get its act together.  This loophole is INSANE!  

"Gov. Timothy M. Kaine proposed mandated background checks yesterday for everyone who attempts to purchase firearms at gun shows - legislation that he called critical to helping prevent future tragedies like the shootings at Virginia Tech. Many families of those killed or injured in the April shootings have called on legislators to close Virginia’s so-called gun show loophole, which allows people to purchase firearms from unlicensed sellers at gun shows without having to submit to background checks. Under current Virginia law, only licensed dealers are required to run background checks on customers.

“If by doing this, we can keep one family from having to go through what these families have suffered, it will be the best thing that the legislature will do this year,” Kaine said at Virginia State Police headquarters, surrounded by several of the victims’ families."

UPDATE:  VA continues to be a backward state and allows the gun show loophole.   I also called into the Kojo Nnamdi Show when he had an anniversary show on the VT shooting.   If you go to the 11:52 mark, you can hear my statements and question that goes until the 13:14 mark.

Hopefully the healing will continue for those directly affected...

The History of MTConnect

   Please note I wrote this for the IMTS-Insider   

 

                                 The History of MTConnect®

                                                                 April 13, 2011

                                     

As President and Chairman of the Board for the MTConnect® Institute, I get asked all the time: "How did MTConnect come about?" It is a story that I love telling and it clearly demonstrates why AMT is such an exceptional association.

In March 2006, AMT asked me to come up with a speaker from Sun Microsystems who also had knowledge of manufacturing to speak at AMT's Annual Meeting in Lake Las Vegas. I went through three such speakers over a six-month period as each one either left Sun on their own or had their position eliminated. After the third speaker left the company, I was out of candidates. I felt embarrassed for both Sun and myself that I let AMT down. When I apologized to John Byrd, AMT's President at that time, for not being able to deliver a Sun speaker, John suggested that I do the keynote. I was more than happy to do this, but I knew little about machine tools. John came up with a great suggestion: I could spend two days at IMTS 2006 with AMT's CTO and VP of Technology, Paul Warndorf, in preparation for the keynote. It was a brilliant idea and I jumped at it. Paul took me around to countless exhibitors to learn about the different technologies and ask questions about them.

After we finished the two days, I met with John and Paul where I made two observations and two suggestions.

My observations:

1. Manufacturing does not have a manufacturing problem. Manufacturing has a computer science problem. The manufacturing industry was like the computer industry back in the mid-1980s. There were too many network protocols and the fight was to own the winning protocol. Back then it was very expensive and you had to place a bet on which network protocol was going to win. It could easily be an additional $700 to enable your PC to be networked in the enterprise. TCP/IP and ethernet eventually won the network battle. When this happened the number of computers networked grew by multitudes, as did the software that would take advantage of the ubiquitous networking. It was the classic story of a rising tide lifting all ships.
2. Until you have an open and royalty-free way for these machine tools to speak to the rest of the world, nothing else really matters and manufacturing will just continue to struggle. The technologies are already out there today with XML, http and TCP/IP. There was no need to reinvent the wheel. A usable solution could be built on the de facto internet platform that already existed. Additionally, it was important to avoid the "country club approach" that had failed in the past in manufacturing and other industries — the kind where you charge for the protocol and you charge for each deployment.

The suggestions:

1. You need an economic wake-up call on why it is important to have an open and royalty-free way for these machine tools to speak to the rest of the world.
2. You need someone who has led a revolution or two, since this is what we are really talking about. They asked me who I suggested. I said the only person I would recommend would be Dr. David Patterson of the University of California at Berkeley (UCB). Dave Patterson is a computer pioneer and a true legend in the computer industry. Dave is one of the most recognizable names in computer science. I knew Dave because he was the advisor at UCB to Bill Joy. Bill was a co-founder at Sun and has been called "the Edison of the internet" by Fortune Magazine. Bill is a legendary programmer and system visionary. I also knew Dave from working with him when I was chairman of a futures conference in 2000.

John Byrd asked if I would reach out to Dave Patterson. Luckily, Dave agreed to work on the project provided I come out and brief him and that we work together on both presentations. I was thrilled to work with someone of Dave Patterson's stature. It was like being a high school basketball player and having Michael Jordan say he wants to work closely with you.

Dave and I worked very hard together to create two hour-long keynote speeches. Dave joked that if he knew how much time he was going to put into it, he might not have said yes to me. But our presentations were a huge success. Rick Kline of Gardner Communications came up to me afterwards and said that our presentations were two of the best that he had ever seen in manufacturing. It was great to see that we'd had such an impact.

Doug Woods was AMT's Chairman of the Board, leading AMT along with John Byrd. John and Doug suggested that AMT seriously consider our proposal for a common way for machine tools to speak using proven internet protocols. I told my wife that night that I felt great about what Dave Patterson and I had accomplished, but I was not convinced a manufacturing association had the courage to execute this plan to revolutionize manufacturing.

John and Doug proved me wrong. In November, just one month after the AMT Annual Meeting, a small group of us went to meet with Dave Patterson at UCB. Dave brought in Dr. Armando Fox from the Computer Science Department to help lead this effort, since Dave simply did not have the time. Paul Warndorf, AMT VP of Technology, brought in Dr. Dave Dornfeld of UCB's Mechanical Engineering Department to join the MTConnect team. Armando later brought in Will Sobel, who was an Assistant Professor at UCB. It was Will who did the real heavy lifting with MTConnect. It was Will who put countless hours leading the efforts to create the actual spec and writing the adapters, agents, demos and so many things for MTConnect. Will continues to do a lot of the heavy lifting today, but his time is also spent running his new company, System Insights. MTConnect would have never happened without Paul Warndorf's expertise, passion and guidance. Paul has been MTConnect's shepherd, conductor and guiding light.

I am very proud of the work I did with Dave Patterson to lay out the roadmap for MTConnect. That was the seed and I am extremely proud to have planted that very important seed. It was AMT that funded MTConnect. We used the working groups made up of industry experts, which was the exact same approach that Sun used to create Java. It worked for Java and it is working for MTConnect. We pulled together a diverse group of very smart people like Paul Warndorf, John Byrd, Doug Woods, Dr. Dave Dornfeld, Will Sobel, and Dr. Armando Fox and many others to create MTConnect working groups.

John Byrd has said that, "MTConnect will be more important in the 21st century for manufacturing than CNC was for manufacturing in the 20th century."  I could not agree more. MTConnect continues to grow at an incredible pace and I know John Byrd will be proven 100% correct.