Life is Short, Death is Certain

This article appears in the IMTS Insider for September 19th, 2012

When I was at Sun Microsystems, I gave numerous talks to colleges and universities. Typically, the talks were held in the engineering department or the computer science department. Usually, the audience was mostly students with a few professors attending. I would end my talk with a slide that had three points on it:

• Life is short.
• Death is certain.
• If you don’t make your own decisions now, time will make them for you.

It was the last point that I would emphasize. When you are at least two to three times older than your audience, you can give advice with the logic I used. While I am pretty sure I am not two to three times older than your average exhibitor or attendee at IMTS, the last point might still be worth considering now that IMTS 2012 is a great and fresh memory.

For those of you who attended the Emerging Technology Center (ETC), you had a chance to see both MTConnect and MTInsight.

In the MTConnect area, there were applications being shown in the areas:

• Efficiency – Understanding Hidden Cost
• Utilization – Discovering Untapped capacity
• Sustainability - Minimizing Negative Environmental Impacts
• Managing Your Plant Anywhere, Anytime (mobile devices)

What are your specific plans with the open and royalty free standard called MTConnect? Are you going to sit on the sidelines while others improve their productivity? If you are a Gardner Top Shop, are you going to embrace MTConnect to move up even higher in the list? If you are a manufacturing equipment provider, are you going to finally join the MTConnect Institute to provide connectivity choice for your customers? If you are a software provider, is the fall of 2012 the time you are going to embrace MTConnect to provide choice to your customers? If you are a distributor, MTConnect is the key to be the trusted advisor to your customers. As a distributor, your customers look to you for guidance, and if you are not staying up to date with the latest technologies, are you really doing the best service for your customers?

The MTConnect Institute has lots of information at MTConnect.org and there is a new forum at MTConnectForum.com where conversations on how to improve productivity with the MTConnect standard is happening everyday. Feel free to contact me at DEdstrom@MTConnect.org. As the President and Chairman of the Board of the MTConnect Institute, there is nothing I would rather do than talk to those in manufacturing about the benefits of MTConnect.

If you read my columns in the IMTS Insider, you know what a big believer in MTInsight I am and specifically the IMTS 2012 application. The IMTS 2012 application's best bang for the buck in the manufacturing arena is AMT – The Association For Manufacturing Technology’s MTInsightplatform. While IMTS 2012 is over, if you do not now own the IMTS 2012 application, there is still time. Don’t be left out in the cold and not get the sales that you and your company deserve from IMTS. Is there a better or more qualified list of individuals to market to than those who just attended IMTS 2012? Even if you had a 10 by 10 booth, how much is an additional one or two sales worth to you and your company?

If you are an exhibitor at IMTS 2012, there are top answers to that question on why someone would purchase the MTInsight IMTS 2012 application that Mark Kennedy and Kim Brown, of the MTInsight sales team, created and share with prospects.

• Unlimited access to sell and market to IMTS 2012 registrants.
• See what days your key customers are coming to IMTS 2012 – updated nightly.
• Filter prospects by geography, industry, product interest, buying role, job function and plant size to find your key customers.
• Compare your booth performance to other exhibitors in your pavilion, quadrant, building and the whole show.
• Identify new opportunities – everyone who missed your booth in 2010 and post-show 2012.
• Pinpoint visitor traffic trends to amplify your booth's productivity.
• Visualize never before seen data using state-of-the-art interactive tools.

Exhibitors should not settle for a good IMTS, but aim for a GREAT IMTS by buying the MTInsightIMTS 2012 application. Visit www.mtinsight.org to learn more and subscribe. For questions, pricing, or to schedule a live demonstration, contact Mark Kennedy (mkennedy@amtonline.org or 703-827-5220) or Kim Brown (kbrown@amtonline.org or 703-827-5223) right now.

Make your own decisions now, join the MTConnect revolution and if you are an exhibitor, make sure you are an MTInsight subscriber. If you don’t make those decisions now, time will make them for you.