MTInsight Goodbye - Thanks AMT!

Below is MTInsight Group that I had the privilege of working with at AMT - The Association For Manufacturing the past 4 1/2 years.   Everyone was able to be there for the photo except for Steve Fanning, President and CEO of Path To Progress.  Yesterday was my last day at AMT and I received this photo, with everyone's signatures, in a very expensive frame.

The back row of AMT men, starting from the left, are Mark Kennedy, Asim Mukhtar, Daniel Tees, Kalesh Mahendrakar, Peter Eelman, me, Doug Woods, Ian Stringer, Steve Lesnewich and Pat McGibbon.  The front row of AMT women, starting from the left, are Diyana Hrzic, Alka Parandekar, Lois Uthman, Julie Peppers and Kim Brown.

It was a fantastic group of very smart, extremely dedicated and passionate individuals that created the best customized manufacturing business intelligence platform on planet earth - MTInsight!

Thanks AMT!

My Last IMTS Insider - Thanks!

I wrote this for the June 25, 2014 IMTS Insider.


For the last four years, I have had the privilege of writing articles for the IMTS Insider. It has been something that I always looked forward to each month and greatly enjoyed. As IMTS Insider readers know, articles come out once per month except as we get close to IMTS, then IMTS Insider is sent twice per month. What made my life exponentially easier was working with the great folks at AMT – The Association For Manufacturing Technology’s Communication Department. I would like to sincerely thank Bonnie Gurney for all of your tremendous support and great suggestions over the years. Very special thanks to Penny Brown, Mary Uhrina and Whitney Brown for their great editing of my articles and their priceless suggestions. Sincere thanks to Diyana Hrzic for all her very creative ideas, suggestions and support over the years as well.

I thought it would be interesting to list the 45 articles I wrote for the Insider to show the topics that were discussed.

1. Cyber Security And Manufacturing
2. Net Neutrality In a Nutshell
3. Introducing OSI-Roundtable
4. Why Lord Kelvin Would Love MTConnect
5. Education Heaven Is A Playground
6. History Of MTConnect
7. IOT Internet Of Things
8. If You're Not The Lead Dog
9. Joel Neidig Manufacturing Thought Leader
10. Just The Facts Ma’am
11. Life Is Short Death Is Certain
12. Life Long Learning
13. Lighting Up Your Booth And Sales With IMTS-Lite
14. Lightning Strikes Twice MTInsight IMTS-2014
15. MC2-2013 Big Success In Cincinnati
16. MTConnect Is Not An Application Or Middleware
17. MTInsight IMTS-2012 The Killer App
18. MTInsight IMTS 2014 App: The MUST Have App
19. MTInsight Testing Award Winning Software
20. Manufacturing Augmented Reality
21. Manufacturing Authentication Authorization
22. Manufacturing Business Intelligence
23. Manufacturing Encryption
24. Manufacturing Passwords
25. Manufacturing’s Intranet Of Sensors
26. Manufacturing Wealth – Net Neutrality
27. Multitasking Paging And Swapping
28. Open Systems For Open Minds
29. Smartphones Will Be Looking At You
30. Technology Tips For Grandparents
31. Technology Tips For Your College Student
32. The Beatles, Florence Italy and [MC]²
33. The Myth Of Lean Manufacturing
34. The Mythical Man Month
35. The Network Is The Computer
36. The One Thing To Do Before IMTS 2012
37. The Smart Grid And MTConnect
38. The Three Open Pillars Of MTConnect
39. The Virtuous Software Circle
40. Turners Five Laws Of Manufacturing
41. Who Watches The Watchmen
42. Winning The Application Platform
43. Write Once Run Anywhere
44. Winning the Application Platform
45. Your Manufacturing Check Engine Light Is On

If I could offer only one last piece of advice for any exhibitor at IMTS 2014, it would be to become an MTInsight subscriber and then go buy the IMTS 2014 app. In my personal opinion, it will be the best investment that you will spend this year for any trade show that you attend! The great news is that you do not have to be an exhibitor to benefit from MTInsight; AMT members can also benefit from the many apps that are available beyond just the IMTS 2014 app. Also remember, these apps run entirely in your browser, so you never have to worry about local updates as they take care of that for you behind the scenes – just go to MTInsight.org, login and go! I had the great privilege of working with the MTInsight team the past four years and I am going to greatly miss all the fantastic people who make up the team. We created a fantastic platform, with great apps and we had fun while doing it. You can’t ask for more than that in life.

I also must thank Peter Eelman and Doug Woods. I would not be at AMT if not for Peter and Doug. Peter mentioned to Doug that I was leaving Sun Microsystems to take a year off. I met with Doug for lunch in early 2010 and he convinced me to push off my sabbatical and to come consult at AMT. That was one of the best decisions that I have ever made.

I came on board after creating my own company, Virtual Photons Electrons, to help AMT out with what would later become MTInsight, MTConnect and future technologies. I was President and Chairman of the Board of the MTConnect Institute from May 2010 to the end of 2013, created the [MC]² MTConnect: Connecting Manufacturing Conference, wrote a book, MTConnect: To Measure Is To Know, that I gave away to [MC]² 2013 attendees and worked with a lot of great companies and individuals over the years to evangelize and grow the MTConnect community. As you can see from my list of articles, I wrote a number of articles on MTConnect over the years.

Peter and Bonnie gave me this opportunity to be able to write for the IMTS Insider and I am forever grateful. I have known Peter since 1997. We were next-door neighbors for over fifteen years and became great friends. Peter, thank you for all of your support and friendship over the many years!
I would like to thank all the great folks at AMT. AMT is the best association on planet earth and second place is a very distant second.

Finally, I would like to offer my deep and sincere thanks to the readers of the IMTS Insider and especially those who dropped me notes over the years either thanking me or requesting articles on a given topic. Thank you!
 
For those who want to stay in touch, I can be found at my blog, PhotonsAndElectrons.org, or at my own company, VirtualPhotonsElectrons.com

Take care,

--Dave