Posted to News on 20th Sep 2012, 17:41
CC-Link sponsors major European manufacturing summit
With continuing economic uncertainty across Europe, the issue of competitiveness is weighing even more heavily on the minds of senior management than usual. To address this, the CC-Link Partner Association (CLPA) is a Platinum Sponsor of this year's European Manufacturing Strategies (EMS) Summit. CLPA intends to use the summit to demonstrate the opportunities for enhanced competitiveness that the CC-Link open network technologies can offer.
Held in Dsseldorf from 29-31 October, the EMS Summit is in its eighth successive year and has become a highlight of the calendar for senior management across a wide range of manufacturing industries. Focusing on improving productivity and cost effectiveness to future-proof manufacturing strategies, its stated aim is to redefine global competitiveness. While some may dismiss this as empty "buzzwords', the attendees clearly do not, as the event typically attracts large numbers of top-level management who have many other demands on their time.
John Browett, General Manager of the CLPA, says: "The key measure of the importance of this event is the titles of the attendees. Positions are typically vice-presidents, directors, department heads and other roles of significant responsibility. Further evidence is provided by their companies usually being world-class organisations with turnovers in the billions of Euros. These are exactly the kind of people who need to understand the key benefits the CLPA and its partners can deliver to their manufacturing operations. This was one of the key motivations behind our decision to sponsor the event."
One of the highlights of the summit is a gala awards dinner (manufacturing-awards.com) where leading companies are nominated for awards in a variety of categories and have their achievements recognised in front of their peers. The CLPA has sponsored the awarding of the "Factory of the Futur" honour, intended to recognise companies that have implemented advanced manufacturing practices to secure competitiveness for the future.
John Browett comments: "CC-Link has been globally recognised for its world-leading gigabit Ethernet performance, unmatched by any other technology. This offers exactly the kind of productivity benefits that the EMS Summit is looking to promote to its attendees. Hence it was clear that any factory of the future could benefit from technologies like CC-Link IE (Industrial Ethernet), and so our decision to sponsor this award came naturally."
Workshops and seminars
The final critical part of the summit is an extensive programme of workshops and seminars that run throughout the three days. These allow a wide variety of approaches to be explored by the attendees in a flexible manner. CLPA is also contributing to this process by hosting a workshop on the theme of energy management. John Browett notes: "While CC-Link has made its name on its productivity features, we also want the attendees to learn about some of the other benefits the technology can bring to an organisation. Energy management is a key concern to most companies, and CC-Link provides a range of options for addressing this."
Browett concludes: "With a global installed base of approximately 9,000,000 nodes, more than 1,200 products from over 250 manufacturers and in excess of 1,700 partner companies, CC-Link is a leading choice for open networks across the world. We intend this community of leading manufacturing management to understand just what CC-Link can deliver for them by the time they return home."
To find out more about CC-Link open network technologies, visit www.the-non-stop-open-network.com/.
