Top automation tech for 2007 - Pinto's Picks

After several years of stagnation, the industrial automation market is growing again. During the coming year, several new products and technologies will begin to emerge. Here are my top picks for automation technologies that will make a difference in 2007.

Industrial Wireless

• The spread of new wireless technology in the industrial environment will bring changed work processes and new skill sets that may not simply extend from current habit-patterns. The future values of wireless in the factory and process plants are yet to be imagined.

Embedded Intelligence & M2M

• Increasingly this coming year, equipment will contain embedded intelligence and communications. Machine-to-machine (M2M) communications will start to generate increasing efficiencies and productivity. "Smart services" represents the biggest organic growth opportunity for industrial automation suppliers.

Web services & applications integration

• Production and business systems will increasingly be working together. Integrated applications will enable access to production and business information, and applications across disparate manufacturing enterprises in a consistent manner.

Real-time information to boost productivity

• Real-time enterprise applications are cutting through several layers of previous inefficiency, allowing all segments of a business to interact in ways that were previously unthinkable. This is customer-driven marketing, on-line process automation, just-in-time and tactical business all rolled into one.

Robots are coming

• Robotic technology is converging with a wide variety of complementary technologies - machine vision, force sensing (touch), speech recognition and advanced mechanics. These provide exciting new levels of functionality for jobs that were never before considered practical for robots.

Much more than in recent years, new products and technology will come to the forefront in industrial automation businesses. The companies that succeed in this new age will be those that understand how to combine new technology and new thinking to gain sustained competitive advantage in global environments.