Thanks Pastor Qualley 29 Years at Lord of Life Church

This past Sunday was Pastor Ron Qualley's last service at Lord of Life Church in Fairfax, VA.  Pastor Qualley took over for Pastor Ron Christian 29 years ago.  Pastor Christian married Julie and me in 1983. Taking over for Pastor Christian who founded the church in Fairfax was a real challenge with some big shoes to fill.

Pastor Qualley took the church to new levels by building a new church in Fairfax as well as building another church in Clifton. More importantly than that was he was always there for the many members of our church and specifically the Edstrom family. He was always there when a relative died, someone had surgery or any of the typical life challenges that happen.

Pastor Qualley did the funeral services for Julie's father, mother and grandmother at Lord of Life.  None of them were members of the church but Pastor Qualley did not hesitate when I asked him if he would do the services.

Pastor Qualley baptized and confirmed our sons John, Michael and Tim. He will be there to marry our oldest son John and his fiancee Janet in May of this year.

I can't thank Pastor Qualley enough for everything that he has done for our family.

Below is a photo of Pastor Qualley at his last Christmas service and below that is a photo of Pastor Qualley with his wife Sandi at the last service this past Sunday.

The 3 M's of Manufacturing - Manufacturing, MTConnect and Massive Data at McMaster University

I was privileged to be invited by Dr. Allan Spence of the Mechanical Engineering Department at McMaster University to give a presentation last week.  It is always fun for me to speak to students and faculty.  I first met Dr. Spence when I spoke at CAD '12 in Niagara Falls Canada in the summer of 2013.

I was given a tour of the Mechanical Engineering Department and I was very impressed!

Here was the description of my 45 minute presentation: The talk will discuss the history of MTConnect and its importance in global manufacturing with specific emphasis on analyzing massive amounts of data. The world of manufacturing has never been as dynamic and exciting with a plethora of hot technologies and concepts from 3D printers, M2M, Industry 4.0 to IoT with companies like Cisco stating that their number one business segment is manufacturing. Why all the excitement and where are the opportunities for students at universities such McMaster University going to be in the near future?

Below is my title slide.

Below is Dr. Spence and I standing together in front of Memex Automation's office in Burlington, Ontario.  Note that Astrix Networks is the parent company to Memex. Dr. Spence gave me a very nice McMaster desk clock and I gave Dr. Spence a signed copy of my book.  He stopped by the office after the talk which I thought was extremely nice.

I gave away free copies of my book, MTConnect: To Measure Is To Know, to the attendees and I hope they enjoy it.

When I landed in Toronto it was -2 Fahrenheit and with the 30mph wind it was 29 below.  Below is a view from the plane when I landed and the Jeep I rented.

Goodbye Ashburn Tokyo Sushi - GREAT Sushi Restaurant

We found out yesterday morning that our all-time favorite Sushi restaurant, Tokyo Sushi in Ashburn was closing that night.  We found out from our middle son Michael who frequents there quite a bit with his friends. Our oldest John was a regular there when he lived in the Ashburn area and our youngest son Tim was just starting to appreciate really good sushi. We went there to thank them for many years of good food and we had a $50 gift certificate we did not want to see go to waste. It was the most crowded Julie and I had ever seen Tokyo Sushi.  We took some photos and looked up at the photo they took of Julie and me on one of my birthdays.  It was a sad night and proves just how hard it is to make money in the restaurant business.

 Above is a photo from the outside of Tokyo Sushi and below is the sign above the door.

Above is a photo I took the morning after they closed and before the restaurant was changed.

 Above is the main sushi chef and owner.  Below next to Julie is the wife of the chef and the other owner, next to me is the main waitress who came back for the last night of Tokyo Sushi.

Thanks for the memories and the great food!

On the way out we ran into Michael and a bunch of his friends.  Michael ate there for lunch with some of his buddies and came back last night with about 10 of his friends for the final meal at Tokyo Sushi.  Michael and his friends were the last ones to leave Tokyo Sushi at 11:30pm that night.  The owners gave them food and drinks for being such loyal customers over the many years.

The Imitation Game - the Alan Turing story - FANTASTIC Movie

I took my wife to see The Imitation Game this past week.  I did not tell Julie it was likely to be a geek movie that she would hate. I wanted to see if she liked it as a movie and not be influenced, in either direction, because the late and great Alan Turing is on the Mount Rushmore of computer legends.


On the left is Alan Turing and the right is the "bombe" or the electromechanical machine Turing created to decipher the Enigma.

Whether or not you know anything about computers or have read multiple books on Alan Turing like I have, it is a GREAT movie.  I was blown away how well they handled the technical details and were able to tell a great story without blowing it on the technical side.

 
 Germany's Enigma machine

The movie is about one of the most important individuals in World War II that most people have never heard of - Alan Turing.  Turing's work saved 14 million lives and cut two years off the war according to most historians.  The story is the race to figure out the German's Enigma machine which was a state of the art encryption device the Germans used to communicate to their military.  The Germans changed the settings (master key if you will) daily.  The number of possibilities of this master key on the Enigma has 158,962,555,217,826,360,000 or 15 quintillion. In other words, you could not throw enough humans at this problem.  The only way to solve this was with a machine so Turing created a electromechanical machine that he called Christopher after his childhood friend who died.  It was called externally the bombe.

It is a brilliant movie of an incredible true story and I hope it wins the Oscar for the best movie.

NOTE: The three images come wikipedia and can be used via the GFDL.

President Obama's Brilliant Idea of Two Years of Free Community College

This past Friday President Obama stated he would like a plan to pay for two years of tuition at community college.

The Lydia DePillis article on the Washington Post called:

Six things to know about Obama’s plan for free community college

Below is a snippet:

“Universal high school unleashed decades of innovation and talent that fueled growth, both in manufacturing but also in knowledge sectors,” says Josh Wyner, director of the College Excellence program at the Aspen Institute. ”So the notion that we’re extending universal education to the first two years of college is really kind of a moonshot idea. We know high school isn’t enough anymore.”

I think this is a brilliant idea by President Obama!

If the Cicret becomes real - it will be very cool

IF this Cicret bracelet becomes a real product, this will be very cool.  Thanks to my father for sending this to me.

Corvette Heaven Video

This is well done and little sad as well.



"Corvette Heaven" from Philip Volkoff on Vimeo.

Rick Mosca Joins Memex as Chief Operations Officer, USA and Leads Partner Program

I have been meaning to blog about this for awhile.  This is HUGE that Rick Mosca joined the executive leadership team at Memex Automation! I have known Rick for 4+ years and he is an absolute thought leader with a tremendous track record in his distinguished career.  I had the pleasure of working with Rick when I was President and Chairman of the Board for the MTConnect Institute and Rick was with Mind Over Machines.

Rick will also be heading up our Partner Operations which is critical for our global scaling and success.

Welcome Rick!

Below is the press release:

BURLINGTON, ONTARIO, Dec 11, 2014 Astrix Networks Inc., operating as Memex Automation (OEE) ("Memex" or the "Company") has closed a non-brokered private placement totaling $348,000. A total of 2,900,000 Units were issued at a price of $0.12 each ("Units"). Each Unit is comprised of one common share in the capital of the Company (a "Common Share") and one-half of one common share purchase warrant (a "Warrant"). Each whole Warrant entitles the holder to purchase one Common Share at a price of $0.16 at any time prior to 4:00 p.m. (Eastern Time) on December 12, 2016.

In connection with the private placement the Company paid a finder's fee on certain subscriptions of 6% of the proceeds raised via brokers and issued broker warrants (the "Broker Warrants") equal to 6% of the number of Units sold. The total fees paid were $9,744 in cash and 81,201 Broker Warrants. Each Broker Warrant entitles the holder to purchase one Common Share at a price of $0.16 at any time prior to 4:00 p.m. (Eastern time) on December 12, 2016. All securities issued are subject to a hold period, which will expire on April 12, 2015. The closing is subject to receipt of final approval from the TSX Venture Exchange.
As part of this placement the Company's newest Executive, Rick Mosca, now Chief Operations Officer of Astrix Networks America Inc. subscribed for 13% of the placement. Mr. Mosca is an IT executive with special expertise in leading all facets of business including client facing revenue development, sales channel development, applications development and enterprise systems delivery. 

"I first became aware of Memex through my relationship with AMT, as a member of the Technical Advisory Group of MTConnect," explains Rick Mosca. "With a multi-year line of sight of the MTConnect products in development, it became clear to me that MERLIN is the most complete and robust forward and backward compatible solution. Based on my experience and industry knowledge, I am convinced that MERLIN has the potential to become the industry leading MTConnect-based MES solution, and I am thrilled to be joining this team as its American COO."

"It is with great pleasure that I welcome Rick Mosca to the Memex senior management team as the COO of our American subsidiary," reports David McPhail, CEO. "Rick brings with him a wealth of global experience and a proven track record of building effective, profitable and lasting relationships at the CXO level within the Fortune 500."

About Memex Automation

Memex Automation (OEE) is the leader of manufacturing Machine to Machine (M2M) productivity solutions and the measurement of Overall Equipment Effectiveness ("OEE") in real-time. OEE is the measurement of plant-wide capacity utilization. MERLIN (Manufacturing Enterprise Real-time Lean Information Network) generates OEE enterprise-wide, plant by plant, machine by machine. As published in Automation.Com in July 2014, by using MERLIN in its 800,000 square foot Kentucky plant, Mazak, the largest machine tool builder in the world, increased the utilization of its own machines by 42%, and now offers MERLIN on their price list. Okuma America Corporation, a world leader in CNC machine tools, announced in April 2014 that Memex Automation became a Partner in THINC. On April 15, 2014, PEM awarded the Company the 2014 Plant Engineering & Maintenance Award for 'Best Company Under 50 Employees.' Frost & Sullivan awarded MERLIN its 2013 Technology Innovation Leadership Award for Machine Monitoring. Microsoft picked MERLIN to be its mid-market ERP machine connectivity solution. For more information, please visit: www.memex.ca.
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation services provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Contacts:
Sales: Memex Automation Inc.
John Rattray
VP Sales and Marketing
905-635-0590

jrattray@memex.ca

3-D Haptic Shape - Very cool!

Long time friend and expert in many areas, Steve F, sent this article at Phys.org to me to me on 3-D haptic shapes and I thought it was extremely cool.

Below is a snippet from the article.  You need to click on the link above and check out the video as well.

"The research, led by Dr Ben Long and colleagues Professor Sriram Subramanian, Sue Ann Seah and Tom Carter from the University of Bristol's Department of Computer Science, could change the way 3D shapes are used. The new technology could enable surgeons to explore a CT scan by enabling them to feel a disease, such as a tumour, using haptic feedback.

The method uses ultrasound, which is focussed onto hands above the device and that can be felt. By focussing complex patterns of ultrasound, the air disturbances can be seen as floating 3D shapes. Visually, the researchers have demonstrated the ultrasound patterns by directing the device at a thin layer of oil so that the depressions in the surface can be seen as spots when lit by a lamp.

The system generates an invisible 3D shape that can be added to 3D displays to create something that can be seen and felt. The research team have also shown that users can match a picture of a 3D shape to the shape created by the system."

The research, led by Dr Ben Long and colleagues Professor Sriram Subramanian, Sue Ann Seah and Tom Carter from the University of Bristol's Department of Computer Science, could change the way 3D shapes are used. The new technology could enable surgeons to explore a CT scan by enabling them to feel a disease, such as a tumour, using haptic feedback.
The method uses ultrasound, which is focussed onto hands above the device and that can be felt. By focussing complex patterns of ultrasound, the air disturbances can be seen as floating 3D shapes. Visually, the researchers have demonstrated the ultrasound patterns by directing the device at a thin layer of oil so that the depressions in the surface can be seen as spots when lit by a lamp.
The system generates an invisible 3D shape that can be added to 3D displays to create something that can be seen and felt. The research team have also shown that users can match a picture of a 3D shape to the shape created by the system.


Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2014-12-team-invisible-d-haptic-video.html#jCp

The research, led by Dr Ben Long and colleagues Professor Sriram Subramanian, Sue Ann Seah and Tom Carter from the University of Bristol's Department of Computer Science, could change the way 3D shapes are used. The new technology could enable surgeons to explore a CT scan by enabling them to feel a disease, such as a tumour, using haptic feedback.
The method uses ultrasound, which is focussed onto hands above the device and that can be felt. By focussing complex patterns of ultrasound, the air disturbances can be seen as floating 3D shapes. Visually, the researchers have demonstrated the ultrasound patterns by directing the device at a thin layer of oil so that the depressions in the surface can be seen as spots when lit by a lamp.
The system generates an invisible 3D shape that can be added to 3D displays to create something that can be seen and felt. The research team have also shown that users can match a picture of a 3D shape to the shape created by the system.


Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2014-12-team-invisible-d-haptic-video.html#jCp

The research, led by Dr Ben Long and colleagues Professor Sriram Subramanian, Sue Ann Seah and Tom Carter from the University of Bristol's Department of Computer Science, could change the way 3D shapes are used. The new technology could enable surgeons to explore a CT scan by enabling them to feel a disease, such as a tumour, using haptic feedback.
The method uses ultrasound, which is focussed onto hands above the device and that can be felt. By focussing complex patterns of ultrasound, the air disturbances can be seen as floating 3D shapes. Visually, the researchers have demonstrated the ultrasound patterns by directing the device at a thin layer of oil so that the depressions in the surface can be seen as spots when lit by a lamp.
The system generates an invisible 3D shape that can be added to 3D displays to create something that can be seen and felt. The research team have also shown that users can match a picture of a 3D shape to the shape created by the system.


Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2014-12-team-invisible-d-haptic-video.html#jCp

The research, led by Dr Ben Long and colleagues Professor Sriram Subramanian, Sue Ann Seah and Tom Carter from the University of Bristol's Department of Computer Science, could change the way 3D shapes are used. The new technology could enable surgeons to explore a CT scan by enabling them to feel a disease, such as a tumour, using haptic feedback.
The method uses ultrasound, which is focussed onto hands above the device and that can be felt. By focussing complex patterns of ultrasound, the air disturbances can be seen as floating 3D shapes. Visually, the researchers have demonstrated the ultrasound patterns by directing the device at a thin layer of oil so that the depressions in the surface can be seen as spots when lit by a lamp.
The system generates an invisible 3D shape that can be added to 3D displays to create something that can be seen and felt. The research team have also shown that users can match a picture of a 3D shape to the shape created by the system.


Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2014-12-team-invisible-d-haptic-video.html#jCp

God Bless Stuart Scott - ESPN Sports-Center

Stuart Scott passed away this morning after a multiple year fight against recurring cancer. He was the type of anchor that brought knowledge and excitement to everything that he did. He coined numerous phrases, but more importantly he defined class all the way through his fight with cancer and especially during the Jimmy V Perseverance Award he received this summer.

Very, very sad...

HBO Documentary on bin Laden called Manhunt

I watched this documentary on HBO called Manhunt over the break and thought it was excellent in terms of just how difficult the job was and is for those employees in the CIA.  It shows the real people who had this incredibly difficult job and is heart breaking to see how much pressure these individuals felt before and after 9/11.  While I agree with President Obama and Senator John McCain when it comes to water-boarding and getting real intelligence, you can certainly appreciate the pressure these CIA employees felt a that time to keep America safe.

The Edstrom's Deer of 2014

Below is the deer that I pulled out of Rick Allen's trash ten years ago and made it into the award winning Christmas deer that it is today.  Award winning meaning if I do not get the deer out earlier enough in the year then I am getting calls from the neighbors asking when the deer will be out because they are having a Christmas party and they told their guests to look for the big deer :-)

I added to the beating heart this year.  Maybe someday I will get an Arduino and program it to be even more lifelike, but that will not likely happen until I am retired.

Congratulations to AMT for Pentaho Excellence Award for Improved Customer Experience!

When I heard that AMT was awarded the Pentaho Excellence Award for Improved Customer Experience I thought it was well deserved and very cool!

I worked with the fantastic folks at AMT on MTInsight for 4 1/2 years and they are great team and it was my honor to be part of the development team. Here is the case study for AMT.

Congratulations to the entire MTInsight team!

Below is text at Pentaho's Excellen Awards site honoring AMT. 

Improved Customer Experience - AMT

When you see a tag that reads, “Made in America,” AMT – The Association For Manufacturing Technology probably had something to do with its creation. AMT is a trade association that represents and promotes U.S.-based manufacturing technology and its members – those who design, build, sell and service the continuously evolving technology at the heart of manufacturing. These 606 member companies have two main objectives in running their business: increasing sales and decreasing costs. One of the key ways AMT helps members accomplish this is through a business intelligence platform called MTInsight, which provides industry intelligence to help members position their business for success and make informed decisions. Prior to implementing Pentaho, members ran reports but had no mechanism to save their selections, and lost significant time spent on tedious efforts. Through the ingenuity of Pentaho’s Custom Visualization Team, AMT overcame these obstacles and improved user experience, with new visually appealing and easy to use dashboards. Moreover, Pentaho significantly reduced their BI tool costs. As a result of the decreased expenses related to the software running MTInsight, AMT can now offer free subscriptions to their data portal, rather than forcing the purchase of subscriptions to take advantage of benefits available within MTInsight.

Edstrom Family in Suite at Wizards-Celtics Win

I sold the two season tickets that I had for last night's game and purchased 5 seats for a lower level suite.  We had Suite 108 and below are some photos from last night's Wizards win versus the Celtics.  A great time was had by all.

Above is all five of us at the beginning of the game.

Below is Tim in the front of the suite where we had our own refrigerator, sink, stove and bathroom.

Above is (closest) Michael, John and Tim.

Above is the view from the Suite with John Wall with the ball.

Below is a happy group after a Wizards win and great time at a very nice suite.

Memex Automation Leadership Team Weekend

On Friday 19th we had a great Christmas Party for Memex Automation employees and on Saturday the 20th we spend a fantastic day in Toronto.  Huge thanks to Pauline and David McPhail for hosting all of us in Toronto for a absolutely great day!

Below are some photos from that very memorable day.

A few of us enjoyed some drinks at the Mill Street Brew Pub and then we all had lunch (above) in The Distillery District in Toronto at a very nice restaurant called Archeo. 

In the photo above are, clockwise from left, is Rick Mosca, Chief Operating Officer who also runs our Partner Program, Dr. Mary Saunders (John's wife), Julie Edstrom, Pauline McPhail, Linda Mosca, John Rattray, VP for Sales and Marketing, David McPhail President and CEO and me the Chief Technology Officer.  The four of us are the senior leadership team members for Memex Automation.

Above is the view from our seats at The Second City in Toronto.  This is the sister venue to the The Second City in Chicago and both are known for their impressive history of comics that started at Second City.

Above is one of the photos of some of the early players at Second City in Toronto. Some of the easy to recognize comics are Dan Akroyd at the bottom, John Candy at the upper left and Eugene Levy at the upper right.

Above is a photo looking through the glass floor at the top of the CN Tower in Toronto.

Below a few of us enjoyed a drink at the bar at the top of the CN tower after a great day.

Very Creative Snowblower Impeller Modification to Decrease Jammed 2nd Stages and Increase the Throw

I thought this was a very creative modification to any snowblower to radically cut down on heavy snow getting stuck in the impeller of the second stage. I use a Snow and Ice Teflon repellant spray by DuPont that keeps the snow from freezing to the side, but this is a better long term fix that SixtyFiveFord has come up with.

Thanks James Li - Outstanding Software Developer - Memex Automation's First Co-OP

This past Friday we were able to thank and recognize our very first software developer co-op student at Memex Automation, James Li, from the University of Waterloo. James is very bright and a gifted software developer.  Not only did he complete every task he was given ahead of schedule, these assignments were extremely well designed and written, but he did so with such enthusiasm that it was an absolute joy to have him on our team. 

James started for us this past fall in a full time co-op position as a software developer.  In the months that James was with the Memex Software Development Team, he managed to work on number of critical projects for us. James setup a new world-class continuous testing environment, created a configuration and capacity testing tool for MERLIN that allows us to properly gauge unlimited workloads as well as wrote numerous pieces of software for our future MERLIN 3.0 Manufacturing Executive System (MES) platform such as security modules, software metric widgets and many other impressive pieces of software.  




Above is the crystal globe that we had made for James and below is a closeup of text on the crystal base;





James Li is a talented young man and we very proud to say he was our first co-op at Memex Automation!

We started a new tradition - all co-ops have to go to Montana's restaurant and wear the horns after lunch :-)

From left to right below is Anusha, Terry, Brian, James, me, Ryan, Tim and Jeremy who are all part of the extremely talented software and hardware development team at Memex.

We also recognized James at our homepage at Memex Automation.

We wish him James all the best!  (And sincerely hope that he comes back full time!)

Your Data: Use It or Lose It -- Canadian Industrial Machinery

Joe Thompson wrote a very nice article in Canadian Industrial Machinery titled Your Data: Use It or Lose It

The beginning of the article lays out the real challenge:

"In many shops, machinists track machine usage using a paper form. At the end of each job, or at the end of the day, they write down how long the machine was running and how much time was spent on setup. This enables management to bill the correct amount of hours for a certain job. 

While this can produce the information necessary to create an invoice, the results – when compared to the actual, measured data – can vary tremendously. 

“I think shops would be very surprised by how much variance there is between their recorded uptime, for example, and the actual data,” explained David McPhail, president and CEO of Memex Automation, Burlington, Ont. 

Memex Automation has developed technology that collects real-time OEE information no matter the make, model, or vintage of the machine tool and creates reports, also in real time, that companies can use to optimize manufacturing processes."

David McPhail, President and CEO of Memex does a great job explaining OEE:

"So what exactly is OEE? 

“Through data collection and analysis, OEE can tell us how efficiently a machine is running. This type of data collection isn’t new, but what we are doing now is taking the guesswork out of the equation, collecting the data automatically, and exporting the results in easy-to-understand ways,” said McPhail. 

McPhail described OEE as a formula with three components: 

1. Availability (run time divided by total time, which includes downtime). 

2. Quality (good parts produced divided by total parts)  

3. Performance (desired part-to-part time versus actual part-to-part time).

Essentially, OEE = Availability x Performance x Quality. 

“A world-class OEE is 85 percent,” explained McPhail. “By comparing this optimal level with your current level, you can clearly see where your room for improvement lies. By using OEE software to collect and track data over time, you can also gauge how successful any changes are.” 

By tracking this data, shops can compare the actual effectiveness of equipment with the desired effectiveness. 

“Managers can find out pretty quickly if the machines are being utilized effectively,” said McPhail. “In some cases they can even find capacity that they didn’t know they had. It’s very simple: Machines are expensive so they should be used as much as possible to get the best possible return on investment.”

New York City to Offer Free Gigabit Wi-Fi in 2015

This is phenomenal.

As the article by  Arik Hesseldahl at states:

"New York City today unveiled an ambitious plan to roll out a free city-wide municipal Wi-Fi network that officials say will be the fastest and most wide-reaching network of its kind in the world. 

At a press conference at City Hall, the city unveiled LinkNYC, which will rely on thousands of kiosks that will be deployed at locations currently occupied by pay phones. The kiosks will be installed in as many as 10,000 locations throughout the five boroughs and will offer Wi-Fi service of one gigabit per second within a radius of 150 feet. They’ll also offer free domestic voice calls to all 50 states. The first of the kiosks is expected to begin service in late 2015."

Wired Article: Cryptography Breakthrough Could Make Software Unhackable

This is an excellent article by Erica Klarreich of Quanta Magazine and appears at Wired.

Below is a snippet.  This could be huge for software.

"Secure program obfuscation would be useful for many applications, such as protecting software patches, obscuring the workings of the chips that read encrypted DVDs, or encrypting the software controlling military drones. More futuristically, it would allow people to create autonomous virtual agents that they could send out into the computing “cloud” to act on their behalf. If, for example, you were heading to a remote cabin in the woods for a vacation, you could create and then obfuscate a computer program that would inform your boss about emails you received from an important client, or alert your sister if your bank balance dropped too low. Your passwords and other secrets inside the program would be safe."

Edstrom's Ten Laws of Software Development

I was writing an email to my HW and SW Development Team at Memex Automation when I started listing what I feel is important in terms of Software Development.  When I got done, I written Edstrom's Ten Laws of Software Development.

1. If you do not get the architecture right, then go home because you are wasting your time and the company's money.
2. Can Dave Edstrom's mother install, upgrade or use this?
3. Test, test, test, test and then test some more
   
4. It is not a question of "is it important", it is a question of "what is it MORE important than?"
5. If we put in this feature, how much revenue are you willing to commit to and who are the customers?
6. Remember Mike O'Dell's Two Laws:
   • Scaling is always the problem
   • If you are not afraid, then you simply do not understand.
7. Remember Neil Groundwater's Two Laws:
   • How do the little electrons know?
   • Everything you know is wrong.
     
8. Remember Brooke's Law:
   • Adding more software developers to a late software project only makes it later.
   • As Professors Brooks also stated this law, "Making 9 woman pregnant today does not help you get a baby in one month."
9. Do you KNOW what the REAL problem is?
10. If you do not make your own decisions now, time will make them for you.

240Z versus a 370Z

I owned an orange 1972 240Z from 1978 to 1986.  At the bottom of this blog post is a Road and Track comparison of a 240Z like I used to have (except for the slightly wider tires on the 240Z) to a new Nissan 370Z.

It is a fun video and reminds me of the good ole days - except I prefer my two Corvettes that I have today.  I have looked at buying a 240Z over the years, but I have a hard time paying $13,000 for a car that went for $3,500 brand new.  The 240Z and specifically the orange 240Z like I had, is considered an all time classic.  The 240Z was rated the second best sports car of the 1970s between a Ferrari Daytona and a Lamborghini Countach - not too shabby!

Funny story on buying the 240Z.  I sold my 1970 Firebird Formula 400 that I bought in 1976 that was loaded with every option known to god.  It came stock with 363hp, had a Holley 4 barrel carb, Isky cam, Hedman headers, traction bars, air suspension on the rear, Hurst shifter, 8-track player, chrome wheels and was the perfect shade of blue.  Great car except it got 7mpg and burned a quart of oil every 200 miles.  That was my bad for not being honest with my father when he asked if I saw any smoke coming out of the exhaust and I saw some smoke but I wanted that damn car so much that I skirted the truth in terms of what I saw.  That cost me a lot of money and a life long lesson on not letting your emotions get in front of a decision.  It also took me 37 years before I told my father I saw some smoke coming out of the exhaust of that Formula 400.

As the caption states, on the right is my 1970 Firebird Formula 400 and to the left was Perry Thompson's 1967 Firebird convertible.

Below is a rear view of my Formula 400.

Back to the paint story.  I sell the 1970 Formula and looking for a fun replacement.  My friend had a 280Z that was an absolute blast to drive so I started looking for a 240Z.  My father found one nearby and we looked at it and it was great, except it was orange and I did not like orange.  I told the guy that.  My father looked at the guy and said, "let me talk to my son privately please."  He pulled me aside and said, "listen dumb a$$, you can paint a f*#king car, this guy has changed the oil and filter EVERY 2,000 miles and has paperwork on EVERYTHING.  Buy the damn car and paint it if you end up hating the color."  I then looked walked over to the guy and said, "will you take $2,100 in cash?" He said yes and I pulled out my wallet gave him 21 $100 bills. It was a GREAT car until the frame rails rusted all the way through.  I sold that 240Z 8 years later for $1,100 when I listed it in the paper and said it was not drivable because of the rusted out frame rails.  A guy bought who came with a trailer and ended racing it at Summit Point in West VA.  He had a friend who was a welder, so fixing the frame rails was not the $1,000 per frame rail expense that I was looking at.  Rust killed most of the Zs because of the distance between welds and back then the frames could not deal with all the salt they were putting on the roads.

Enjoy this video.

David McPhail Inteviewed at FabTech on Manufacturing Talk Radio - Discusses MTConnect and Memex Automation

David McPhail did a great interview at FabTech last week on Wednesday the 12th on Manufacturing Talk Radio! 

David does a fantastic job educating the hosts on MTConnect as well as Memex Automation's ability to talk to ANYTHING on the shop floor. David puts everything in the language that everyone inside or outside of manufacturing can easily understand and appreciate.  David talks about MTConnect at the beginning and really gets into specifics at the end of the interview.

I thought the interviewers did an outstanding job in the types of questions asked as well as the follow up questions.


David starts speaking at the 129 minute mark on Wednesday.  David's segment is about 25 minutes in length.

David brings out a very important metric.  If you ask a shop or plant what their utilization is, invariably they will state something in the area of 65%.  When you actually come in and measure it, the number is more like 27% to 32%  That is a HUGE difference! As David states, "if you cannot measure it, you cannot manage it."

David McPhail and Dave Edstrom on IMTS TV

This interview at IMTS 2014 was done by Whitney Brown of AMT with David McPhail and me.  Whitney always does a great job in her interviews and her writing.

MES Increases Machine Availability for Mazak in American Machinist

This is a great article  by David McPhail, President and CEO of Memex Automation, in American Machinist titled, "MES Increases Machine Availability for Mazak" and I especially like Brian Papke's quote below:

http://americanmachinist.com/enterprise-software/mes-increases-machine-availability-mazak?page=1

"Mazak’s IT department started the efficiency drive by implementing the MTConnect protocol to determine machine availability with maximum accuracy, using Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) as a standard measurement. “This total embrace of MTConnect is intended to make a statement,” stated Mazak president Brian Papke, who personally drove the project. “We want to be a leader in both promoting and implementing MTConnect. We want our example to show the importance of moving toward data-driven manufacturing.  MTConnect is an essential part of what makes data-driven manufacturing possible.”

At the end of the article, Brian Papke has an incredible quote on the importance of MTConnect:

"In remarks at IMTS 2014, Brian Papke once again emphasized the importance of data availability to the success of the enterprise: "The implementation of MTConnect is one of the simplest and fastest ways to improve productivity and increase machine utilization,” he said. “Mazak's MTConnect implementation provided the highest ROI for any capital investment because of the significant increase in utilization of equipment for a very moderate expenditure.”
 

 Mr. McPhail brings out the long history that I have had with the great folks at Mazak. It has been a real honor and privilege to work with Mazak.

"Memex Automation’s Dave Edstrom, who was instrumental in creating the MTConnect vision in 2006, as well as was being the president and chairman of the MTConnect Institute for three-and-a-half years, joined Memex in January 2014 as its first chief technology officer and has worked with Mazak for years on MTConnect."

The numbers are extremely impressive:

With MERLIN, the machine tool builder’s manufacturing complex quickly and cost-effectively isolates productivity issues, maximizing efficiency

• +42% OEE
• -100 hours overtime
• +400 hrs/month more throughput

Memex Automation's MERLIN Being Demonstrated by Mazak Optonics as a Value-Added MTConnect-Based Solution

November 11, 2014 09:00 ET Press Release

NOTE: Below is the press release on Memex working with Mazak Optonics.  This event was a HUGE success!

Memex Automation's MERLIN Being 

Demonstrated by Mazak Optonics as a 

Value-Added MTConnect-Based Solution

ATLANTA, GA and BURLINGTON, ON--(Marketwired - Nov 11, 2014) -  FABTECH 2014  -- "The implementation of MTConnect is one of the simplest and fastest ways to improve productivity and increase machine utilization. Mazak's MTConnect implementation provided the highest ROI for any capital investment because of the significant increase in utilization of equipment for a very moderate expenditure," said Mazak President Brian Papke.

Papke personally drove the project to implement the MTConnect protocol to determine machine availability with maximum accuracy at his company's Kentucky-based North American headquarters -- an 800,000 sq. ft. complex that produces a variety of multi-axis turning and milling machines at a rate of 200 units per month. An article recently published in a manufacturing productivity magazine reported that Mazak achieved a 42% increase in equipment utilization in its Kentucky plant.
Astrix Networks Inc., operating as Memex Automation (TSX VENTURE: OEE) ("Memex" or the "Company"), is the global leader of manufacturing M2M productivity solutions. Memex was invited by Mazak Optonics to jointly demonstrate MERLIN (Manufacturing Enterprise Real-time Lean Information Network) with Mazak's laser cutting systems at FABTECH 2014, Booth 3525. The joint demonstration will showcase MERLIN's ability to connect all manufacturing machines to management, report plant-wide capacity utilization, and increase production and income from operations in real-time.

Mazak Optonics is the laser-cutting systems division of Yamazaki Mazak Corporation and the third division to demonstrate MERLIN as a value-add MTConnect-based solution. MERLIN was demonstrated by Mazak at IMTS in Sept. of this year, and at Germany's EMO Hannover metalworking technology tradeshow in Sept. 2013.

"The availability of key data is crucial to managing operational performance. The combination of MTConnect and MERLIN will deliver performance details including dashboards that open up tremendous real-time visibility for both individual machines and the entire shop floor," stresses Marc Lobit, General Manager Sales Support of Mazak Optonics.

MTConnect is an open, royalty-free machine communications standard intended to foster greater interoperability between manufacturing devices and software applications. Introduced at IMTS 2008, Mazak executives recognized its potential to facilitate plant-wide integration and enhance automation.

Memex Automation's Chief Technology Officer Dave Edstrom was instrumental in creating the MTConnect vision in 2006, and was the President and Chairman of the MTConnect Institute for three-and-a-half years prior to joining Memex in Jan. 2014.

"We are very pleased to continue our collaboration with Mazak through our joint demonstration with Mazak Optonics at FABTECH," said David McPhail, CEO of Memex Automation. "MERLIN is an MTConnect-based solution that universally connects all machines to management and shows manufacturers how to make more production, generating IRRs of up to 400%."

About Mazak Optonics
Mazak Optonics Corporation is a major supplier of laser-cutting systems, offering 50 laser models and leading the industry in the implementation of emerging laser technologies. The company's 50,000 sq. ft. North American Headquarters are located in Elgin, Illinois, and feature a 30,000 sq. ft. laser technology center housing up to 18 machines for demonstrations and training. Mazak Optonics is part of Yamazaki Mazak Corporation (Oguchi, Japan), the global leader for the manufacture of machine tools and systems for the precision machining of metal parts, including CNC turning centers, horizontal and vertical machining centers, Multi-Tasking machining centers, turnkey cells and software solutions. The North American Headquarters for Yamazaki Mazak are located in Florence, Kentucky. For more information on Mazak Optonics' products and solutions, visit www.mazakoptonics.com, emailsales@mazaklaser.com or call 847-252-4500.

About Memex Automation Inc.
Memex Automation (TSX VENTURE: OEE) is the leader of manufacturing Machine to Machine (M2M) productivity solutions and the measurement of Overall Equipment Effectiveness ("OEE") in real-time. OEE is the measurement of plant-wide capacity utilization. MERLIN (Manufacturing Enterprise Real-time Lean Information Network) generates OEE enterprise-wide, machine by machine. On April 15, 2014, PEM awarded the Company the 2013 Plant Engineering & Maintenance Award for Best Company Under 50 Employees. Frost & Sullivan awarded MERLIN its 2013 Technology Innovation Leadership Award for Machine Monitoring. Microsoft picked MERLIN to be its mid-market ERP machine connectivity solution. Okuma America Corporation, a world leader in CNC machine tools, announced in April 2014 that Memex Automation became a Partner in THINC. For more information, please visit: www.memex.ca.
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation services provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Contact Information

• 
  For more information, please contact:Sales:
  Memex Automation Inc.
  John Rattray
  VP Sales and Marketing
  Phone: 905-635-0590
  Email: Email Contact
  
  Press:
  market2world communications inc.Paul Brent
  Senior Communications Strategist
  Phone: 613-256-3939
  Email: Email Contact
  

Colbert Calls Out the Science Denying Republicans

The Republicans are now hiding behind the "I am not a scientist" when the are asked about the biggest threat to our planet, which is global climate change.  Thank god for Stephen Colbert calling out these idiot science deniers.  Below is a snippet that appeared at HuffPo:

"You don't have to worry about global warming anymore, because the Senate sure won't," Stephen Colbert quipped on Thursday's "The Colbert Report."

Colbert slammed many Republicans' position on climate change after they gained a majority in the U.S. Senate in Tuesday's election. Environmental groups are fearful that progress on climate change and other environmental issues will suffer under the new Senate.  

As Colbert pointed out, Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), who literally wrote the book on climate change denial, is poised to take control of the Environment and Public Works Committee. Colbert described Inhofe's 2012 book, The Greatest Hoax, as being "like Harry Potter for people who thought Harry Potter had too much science in it." 

Like many others in the media, Colbert called out Republicans for using the "I'm not a scientist" defense when asked about humans' contribution to global warming.

If this quote by Inhofe does not scare the hell out of you, I don't know what possibly can:

Eliason: Senator, we’re going to talk about your book for a minute, you state in your book which by the way is called The Greatest Hoax, you state in your book that one of your favorite Bible verses, Genesis 8:22, ‘while the earth remaineth seed time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease,’ what is the significance of these verses to this issue? 

Inhofe: Well actually the Genesis 8:22 that I use in there is that ‘as long as the earth remains there will be seed time and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, day and night,’ my point is, God’s still up there. The arrogance of people to think that we, human beings, would be able to change what He is doing in the climate is to me outrageous. - See more at: http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/james-inhofe-says-bible-refutes-climate-change#sthash.LyDy2Zu9.dpuf 

Most Powerful Quote on MTConnect ROI - Brian Papke of Mazak

This is the most powerful quote on MTConnect ROI I have ever heard.  The quote is from Brian Papke, President of Mazak USA, and it came on Monday September 8th, 2014 at an IMTS press conference.

"The implementation of MTConnect is one of the simplest and fastest ways to improve productivity and increase machine utilization.  Mazak's MTConnect implementation provided the highest ROI for any capital investment because of the significant increase in utilization of equipment for a very moderate expenditure.”

No one has been more important nor better supporter for MTConnect than Brian Papke and Mazak.

It should also be noted that Mazak uses our (Memex Automation) MERLIN product for monitoring their plant in Florence, Kentucky.

Elon Musk at MIT on the Importance of Manufacturing

I, as most of planet earth, am fascinated by Elon Musk.  When I read that he was being interviewed at MIT, I had to watch. 

He is asked a question on manufacturing and I thought he gave a fascinating answer.

Here is the link to the interview and if you just want to hear the question and Elon's answer on manufacturing, you can go 45 minutes and 11 seconds into the interview to hear both.


The questioner mentions the large push that President Obama has done with manufacturing in the United States and asks what other companies can do to keep manufacturing in the United States.

The most interesting comment I felt that Elon Musk made was when he said (note I listened to this and wrote this and this is not a transcript), "Very often people think of manufacturing as a kind of some rote process of making copies which actually it is not, but it is building the machine that makes the machine.  If you think the machine is important, well building the machine that makes the machine is also extremely important.  And, more often than not, what I have found is that the manufacturing is harder than the original product. For example At Tesla we can make one of a car very easily, but to making 1,000 cars with quality and reliability and where the cost is affordable is very hard.  It is maybe ten times harder than making one prototype, maybe more."  He then goes on to say, "I really think a lot more smart people should get into manufacturing. It is kind of fun. It sort of got a bad name for awhile, but it is really interesting."

With the importance of manufacturing, I bet the importance of using MTConnect would also be critical!

Mazak Optonics and Memex Jointly Demonstrate at FabTech

This is a very important announcement because it shows how Memex Automation's MERLIN continues to help Mazak companies.

As the snippet below from the Market Wired article titled:

Mazak Optonics and Memex Jointly Demonstrate at FabTech How to Increase Production and Income From Operations With MTConnect-Based MERLIN

"Yamazaki Mazak is the global leader in the design and manufacture of highly productive machine tools and automation systems. Mazak Optonics is the laser-cutting systems division of Yamazaki Mazak Corporation and the third division to demonstrate MERLIN as a value-add MTConnect-based partner solution. MERLIN was demonstrated by Mazak at IMTS, September 2014, and at EMO, Hannover, Germany, in September 2013.

Mazak USA purchased MERLIN to manage its plant in Florence, KY, published in Automation.com a 42% increase in equipment utilization, and offers MERLIN on its price list.

"We are very pleased to continue our collaboration with Mazak and to demonstrate our combined capabilities to their extensive customer base and distribution channels," said David McPhail, CEO. "MERLIN, as a forward and backward compatible MTConnect-based solution, universally connects all machines to management in real-time, measures plant-wide capacity utilization and shows manufacturers how to make more production, generating IRRs of up to 400%," said McPhail.

"The availability of key data is crucial to managing operational performance. The combination of MTConnect and MERLIN will deliver performance details including dashboards that open up tremendous real-time visibility for both individual machines and the entire shop floor," stresses Marc Lobit, General Manager Sales Support of Mazak Optonics."

United Airlines Red Carpet Free Drink Tickets Should NOT Expire :-)

The CEO of Memex Automation, Dave McPhail, was in town this past week.  He was traveling to Chicago on Wednesday morning.  He mentioned that he would be in the Red Carpet Club.  I had some free drink tickets and gave them to Dave.  He said that there was no way they would take the free drink tickets because they appeared to be so old. I said that they should accept them even though they were at least 15 years old.  I was wrong, Dave McPhail was right and below is the photo of the United Red Carpet Club bartender ripping up my free drink tickets.  Lesson learned for me is that you should use free drink tickets at least every decade :-)

OEE Analytics

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PRODUCT LINKS          SUMMER PROMOTIONS       Machine Monitoring (OEE)     Memex OEE -ROI Calculator      MT-connect Adapters     RFID Asset Managment      CNC Memory Upgrades     DNC Solutions     CNC PCMCIA Cards             High Speed File Server      Tape Reader Replacements (BTR)        Data Shuttles       Memex Blog                                                                                                       Plants Practicing Advanced OEE Analytics are TWICE as Profitable as Non-Practicing Peers   Meet the noted author and practitioner, Robert Hansen, at IMTS 2012, where he will make regular 15 minute presentations about how your business can be more profitable.   "Financial OEE: The Methodology for Increased Profits"   BOOTH E-3368 Everyday at 10:30 am, 12:00 pm, 1:30 pm, and 3:00 pm.     Robert Hansen wrote the book  "Overall Equipment Effectiveness: A Powerful Production/Maintenance Tool for Increased Profits" Published by R.C. Hansen, New York, NY: Industrial Press, 2001.   He will introduce OEE as a tool, OEE Performance Curves, SMART Goal setting techniques, OEE Value Stream Modeling and Analysis.  He will also demonstrate how the resulting Benefits Table provides a road map for Leadership Teams to prioritize use of Improvement Resources for COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE.  A Practice Factory Case Study will be shared.   Why is this important to you?   Studies have indicated that Manufacturing Organizations that have been practicing Analytical Champions are TWICE AS PROFITABLE as their non-practicing peers.  Financial OEE Education provides Advanced OEE understanding to your organization in a few weeks, whereas traditional OEE application can take a few years.   OEE is a visual metric of Total Productive Manufacturing, integral to LEAN.   Please visit Robert Hansen's website at www.OEE-College.com for more information on his Financial OEE narrated training modules.   Learn more about OEE applicability at Memex Automation here.   Find us at IMTS at Booth E-3368.  For an interactive map - click here. Presentations at 10:30 am, 12:00 pm, 1:30 pm, 3:00 pm.     If you would like to book your specific meeting time, please call 1-905-635-1538 and ask for Carolene, or email us .        Sincerely, The Memex Team.       Memex - A Trusted Name in Shop Floor Productivity for 20 Years! Manufacturing Connectivity Solutions   Memex Automation Inc. 200 – 3425 Harvester Rd., Burlington, Ontario, L7N 3N1 Phone: 866-573-3895      Website: http://www.memex.ca This communication is intended to be informative and helpful. If you would prefer it be directed to another individual within your company please feel free to forward directly or advise the sender.   If you do not want further emails from this source, please click on the unsubscribe link below. Follow Us on Facebook and LinkedIn. Unsubscribe here.