Category Archives: Automation

Schlumberger and NOV have announced a collaboration to accelerate automated drilling solutions adoption by oil and gas operators and drilling contractors.

The agreement will enable customers to combine Schlumberger surface and downhole drilling automation solutions with NOVs rig automation platform to deliver superior well construction performance. This integrated offering enables the automation of manual workflows, improving safety, decision making, consistency, and efficiency in drilling operations.

We are pleased to collaborate with NOV and to integrate their rig automation interface with our drilling automation solutions to unlock higher performance for operators and drilling contractors. Leveraging downhole and surface automation applications, we can deliver enhancements in operations safety and efficiency, and deliver top-quartile wells for our customers consistently, commented Olivier Le Peuch, CEO, Schlumberger. This partnership will help accelerate customers adoption of drilling automation technologies, enabling superior well construction performance.

Through this collaboration, NOV demonstrates its commitment to deliver an open digital automation platform that enables drilling contractors to achieve higher consistency, safety, and efficiency with improved wellbore quality, said Clay Williams, Chairman, President and CEO, NOV. We continue to invest?in digital solutions that provide value for our customers. Drilling automation allows rig crews to focus on the big picture to drive performance and less on manual, repetitive tasks.

The combined solution leverages advanced AI from the Schlumberger DrillOps on-target well delivery solution, while NOVs NOVOS process-automation platform controls all NOV rig equipment within the operational envelope.

The family of DrillOps solutions includes open and modular technologies that leverage Schlumbergers deep drilling domain knowledge and advanced machine learning applications to execute the digital drilling plan consistently and to automate drilling tasks, attaining higher levels of efficiency.

NOVOS is a state-of-the-art open platform, automating repetitive drilling activities, benefiting contractors by allowing drillers to focus on consistent process execution and safety, and benefiting operators by optimising drilling programmes.

Read the latest issue of Oilfield Technology in full for free: Issue 1 2021

Oilfield Technologys first issue of 2021 begins with a look at US tight oils prospects this year. The issue then moves on to cover completions technology, production forecasting, electric fracturing, sand recovery and more.

Exclusive contributions come from Rystad Energy, Archer, Weatherford, Halliburton, CGG, NOV, TETRA Technologies, Clariant and more.

Read the article online at: https://www.oilfieldtechnology.com/digital-oilfield/11052021/schlumberger-and-nov-to-collaborate-on-automated-drilling-solutions/

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Schlumberger and NOV to collaborate on automated drilling solutions - Oilfield Technology

Initially, IoT systems were difficult to deploy and the costs were pricey. Yet the efficiencies provided by IoT made it nearly essential for plants and facilities. The ability to detect that equipment was nearing failure and to catch the issue before that failure was nearly priceless as IoT delivered increases in uptime and decreases in costly downtime.

These days, those expensive IoT systems cost less and are easier to deploy. Consequently, were seeing IoT getting deployed in a wide range of industries, from medical care to agriculture. We caught up with Robbie Paul, director, IoT business development at Digi-Key Electronics, to get his take on the continuing expansion of IoT.

Related: COVID's Impact on AI, IoT, Edge Computing, and Analytics

Design News: What industries are deploying IoT systems?

Robbie Paul: Products are becoming smarter and more connected at a rapid pace.We are seeing growth across many IoT verticals.This is being driven by simpler platforms -- both cloud-based and on-premises and software that is easier to implement.

Related: IoT the Extraterrestrial Holds Promise for 5G and More

As the costs of implementing IoT solutions decrease, more applications and use cases are enabled.At Digi-Key, we continue to see the agricultural and industrial segments holding a great deal of promise over the coming years.

IoT solutions are also taking automation to the next level with the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning. Autonomous tractors and general-use robots are becoming more common and have a real impact on improving productivity and cost savings.

DN: What are the needs that are getting addressed? Predictive maintenance? Asset tracking?

Robbie Paul: Any opportunity where performance and productivity can be improved, or where costs can be reduced, are ripe for IoT adoption. Here are a few examples:

And the list goes on!The opportunities around IoT are nearly endless.

DN: What types of sensors are involved? Vision? Temperature? Vibration? Asset tracking?

Robbie Paul: Environmental monitoring sensors (such as temperature, humidity, pressure, etc.) are still among the top-performing products at Digi-Key.

Cameras are also taking off in popularity as machine learning software improves at a seemingly exponential pace. Image processing and recognition are rapidly being adopted in factories and warehouses.

DN: What technical people are usually involved in IoT? Systems management? Electrical engineers? Mechanical engineers?

Robbie Paul: IoT product development requires people from multiple disciplines, including electrical and mechanical engineering, as well as those with firmware and software expertise. Successful IoT product development requires a team of technical experts.

The team also needs to possess specific knowledge of application areas or use cases.For example, if youre developing a solution to improve productivity on a farm, you need to know and understand the pain points a farmer faces.

DN: What is Digi-Keys role in IoT? Offering new equipment? Field engineering. On-phone/online experts?

Robbie Paul: Digi-Keys foundation has always been with electronic components, usually at the board level. With the IoT business, we have taken a different approach by focusing on systems and solutions.

Given Digi-Keys diverse customer base, our vision is to offer products that cover all levels of integration.This starts with components and modules (sensors, micro-controllers, and connectivity), and now includes finished devices that are ready to deploy in the field.We are starting to offer more integrated solutions that include software and platforms that enable device management, data visualization, and cloud storage.We are also selling SIM cards and cellular data plans as add-on options.

Digi-Key offers engineers countless resources with the new Digi-Key IoT Resource Center. Using these resources can help innovators navigate the plethora of choices and find the best solutions for their applications or use-cases.

DN: Who is deploying IoT? Inhouse engineers? System integrators?

Robbie Paul: That depends on several factors.The primary consideration is complexity.In-house engineers may not have the expertise to deploy a complete IoT solution that involves hardware, software, and services. Having a systems integrator to help with the installation and commissioning makes sense most of the time.Also, we have noticed that systems integrators are playing bigger roles as more ready-to-deploy finished devices become available on the market.More configurable solutions are also becoming popular as system integrators can customize a platform for the specific application.

DN: How has the pandemic affected IoT?

Robbie Paul: If anything, the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the creation and deployment of IoT solutions.For example, we have recently seen many new solutions around crowd control and social distancing.These solutions were created in record time and used in retail stores, restaurants, and workplaces. Digi-Key itself deployed a Bluetooth and LoRa based contact tracing solution in our warehouse, which allows Digi-Key to quickly determine if any employees have been in contact, or proximity, to a colleague who later tested positive. All of this was done while preserving privacy and security.

DN: Where do you see the future of IoT? Greater connectivity of IoT systems? Data analytics?

Robbie Paul: The fun part of working in the IoT space is the relentless pace of innovation. Better solutions that are easier to deploy and use on an ongoing basis are constantly being developed.On the hardware side, sensors and micro-controllers continue to get smaller and cheaper.

The real innovation, in my opinion, is happening around connectivity.5G low-power wide-area networking (LPWAN) protocols, like Cat-M and NB-IoT, are getting wider coverage and becoming less expensive.

Another LPWAN protocol that is giving 5G a run for the money is LoRaWAN.New business models using blockchain technology are being tested in the real world.Helium is one such company that is successful in rapidly expanding LoRa coverage with over 30,000 hotspots.The blockchain model allows for rapid expansion using a decentralized model and provides the incentives to keep the network running.

Rob Spiegel has covered manufacturing for 19 years, 17 of them for Design News. Other topics he has covered include automation, supply chain technology, alternative energy, and cybersecurity. For 10 years, he was the owner and publisher of the food magazine Chile Pepper.

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Industry Voices: Digi-Key Points to IoT as Key to Effective Automation - DesignNews

Implementing automated security procedures has very quickly become a necessity at companies deploying software at scale to the cloud. Understanding the why, what and how of this might allow organizations to make better decisions on cloud security - and facilitate better, secure applications.

Modern, cloud-first organizations move at a breathtakingly fast pace. Larger organizations might make deployments several thousand times a day, while the number of code changes might come to the hundreds of thousands over the same period.

Adding to this, technology-centric companies might employ hundreds of developers: it becomes extremely difficult in these circumstances to track and understand every project, or follow exactly what theyre doing. This speed and volume of operations has meant that security procedures devised for earlier times, when the security team would inspect and test code prior to deployment, are no longer functional or practical.

Following the successful adoption of DevOps, we have now entered the era of DevSecOps, in which security teams shift focus to empowering developers to build more securely, and where developers assume responsibility for secure code, built on secure foundations, in securely configured cloud environments.

If this sounds like a whole lot of extra work, it is compounded by the fact that only around 20 percent of the code in a typical cloud application is unique to that application, the rest comprising Linux operating system files, open source libraries, their dependencies and other inherited elements. Developers need more help to identify any potential vulnerabilities in applications, their broader codebase and their configurations. A highly sophisticated security toolset needs to be assisted through automation.

This automation can take a number of forms, and the first steps into this arena will depend upon what is practical for an organization, and its key pain points. Probably the first step is to ensure the application and its components are scanned for vulnerabilities automatically at set intervals. As a Senior Security Engineer at an American cloud communications platform-as-a-service company says: Automation is the key to building security at scale, because it eliminates human error. When we automate, we catch more vulnerabilities. Humans need to remember to scan under normal circumstances, and for even the most disciplined teams, that creates a potential point of weakness, plus it is an extra job that doesnt need to exist if automation is already in place.

The team at the aforementioned cloud communications company has taken this species of automation a step further. They have created a GitHub app which leverages the tools API to monitor the main branch of the companys application for changes and pull requests. When a pull request is merged to main, it automatically imports the project for scanning. It also reacts when projects are created, deleted or renamed, triggering the appropriate security actions. It is great that the company has now open-sourced the tool, allowing others to benefit from its innovation.

At a major online travel agency, visibility into the existence of unmitigated vulnerabilities was a particular concern. The organization was experiencing the symptoms of rapid development at scale noted earlier, and needed to create automated assistance. One of its leading software engineers noted: Manually reviewing [code and configurations] would just be a nightmare at the scale were operating at. The company decided to build its own dashboard application to provide developers and managers the visibility they needed into security across projects using API calls to gather information from its security tools.

The need for assistance with pipeline flow was what led an American media company to create its own internal application, which detects new container images via Cloudtrail, scans them for vulnerabilities and uses its security tools API to get the results and processes that information to create Jira tickets for the relevant teams and developers. The companys director of platform engineering says the business works with thousands of container images, and up to 7000 code repositories. Only through automating as much of the workflow as possible could it feel confident that risks were being consistently spotted and mitigated.

As organizations continue to automate, several considerations must be applied in order to achieve the very best results. The first of these might well affect the overall choice of security tools and is the adaptability of the tools you wish to automate. The availability of a powerful and well-documented API might not always seem like a priority when decisions are being made, but will empower the creation of security automation tools which work exactly as the organization needs. For other organizations, typically those with smaller teams, the availability of an SDK native to their programming language of choice will be an absolute necessity.

A second key point, highlighted by the director of platform engineering at the media company, when the company developed its own internal application, is to carefully consider the results of automation. If a scan might conceivably detect thousands of vulnerabilities, then simply creating tickets for all of them could quickly create a log jam of low level jobs and a very frustrated development team. Instead, the system filters out vulnerabilities which are unfixable or which cannot be exploited, and prioritizes tasks according to how much impact they will make on the security of the application. The system also makes it far easier for developers to work through tickets, offering advice on the availability of patches as well as links to documentation describing the nature of the vulnerability.

A last point about automation projects is to be sure to always remember the goal is to make life as easy as possible. Creating new processes, new tools to work with or hoops to jump through may be a retrograde step. Wherever possible, aim to use the tools your developers already work with on a daily basis, whether thats through their IDE, repositories or ticketing systems. When automation enables security without increasing friction, then thats the ideal combination organizations should work towards.

Daniel Berman, Product Marketing Director, Snyk

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How automation is key to cloud-native application security - ITProPortal

"With these seasoned industry veterans on board, we are more prepared than ever to bring the benefits of cloud RPA and intelligent automation to every organization that wants to liberate its employees from manual, repetitive tasks, and free them to be more productive," said Mihir Shukla, CEO and Co-Founder, Automation Anywhere. "I'm thrilled to welcome both of these world-class executives as we build on market momentum and head towards our next phase of growth."

New CFO to prepare Automation Anywhere fornext growth trajectoryBudge brings to Automation Anywhere decades of experience as a CFO at both public and late-stage private companies, during which he has prepared three companies for initial public offerings (IPOs) and led multiple secondary public offerings, all while managing complex global operations. In his new role as CFO, Budge will lead finance, investor relations, legal and information technology management. A top priority will be to ensure the organization has the proper business processes and infrastructure as it aspires to become a public company.

Most recently, Budge was the CFO at Pluralsight where he led the company through an IPO, while increasing its revenues 400%. Prior to Pluralsight, he served as CFO at Anaplan, as COO and CFO at Genesys, and as COO/CFO at Rovi, the latter two companies each with complex global operations and revenues in excess of $1 billion. During his tenure at these companies, he collectively raised more than $6 billion in funding from public equity and debt offerings.

COO Micucci to scale cloud-native RPA company towards exponential growth

Mike joins Automation Anywhere as COO with a proven track record in executive product and marketing leadership roles in Cloud and enterprise technology. Mike was most recently CEO of Salesforce Commerce Cloud and Community Cloud, leading product direction, marketing, and global operations.

As COO, he will set Automation Anywhere's performance goals to accelerate the company's next stage of growth. This includes overseeing global operations and leading the development and execution of a business strategy that rapidly expands the adoption of the company's Automation 360platform and AARI smart digital assistant. The company currently has deployed nearly 3 million software bots by some of the world's largest enterprises and aims to grow this number exponentially over the coming years.

As an eleven-year veteran of Salesforce, Mike was the CEO & EVP of Salesforce Commerce Cloud, the market-leading enterprise ecommerce platform. This encompassed the products Salesforce B2C & B2B Commerce, and Community Cloud, which powered the world's leading brands to engage hundreds of millions of shoppers every day.

Before Salesforce, Mike was the co-founder and CEO of GroupSwim, which Salesforce acquired. Mike has also served in senior Product and Marketing roles at Commerce One, Netscape and HP.

Interact with Automation Anywhere:

About Automation Anywhere Automation Anywhere is a global leader in Robotic Process Automation (RPA), empowering customers to automate end-to-end business processes with intelligent software bots AI-powered digital workers that perform repetitive and manual tasks, resulting in dramatic productivity gains, optimized customer experience and more engaged employees. The company offers the world's only cloud-native and web-based automation platform combining RPA, artificial intelligence, machine learning and analytics, yielding significantly lower TCO, higher security, and faster scalability than legacy monolithic platforms. Its Bot Store is the world's first and largest marketplace with more than 1,200 pre-built, intelligent automation solutions. Automation Anywhere has deployed nearly 3 million bots to support some of the world's largest enterprises across all industries in more than 90 countries. For additional information, visitwww.automationanywhere.com.

Automation Anywhere and AARI are a trademarks/service marks or registered trademarks/service marks of Automation Anywhere, Inc. in the United States and other countries.

SOURCE Automation Anywhere

http://www.automationanywhere.com

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Automation Anywhere Appoints Former Salesforce Executive and Tech Finance Expert, Strengthening the Executive Team for Its Next Phase of Growth -...

Dublin, May 05, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Laboratory Automation Market: Global Industry Trends, Share, Size, Growth, Opportunity and Forecast 2021-2026" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The global laboratory automation market reached a value of US$ 5.21 Billion in 2020. Laboratory automation can be defined broadly as any device, software or process that requires minimal human intervention and improves the efficiency of the laboratory. Laboratory automation may include the use of robots, conveyors, software, machine vision, etc. Looking forward, the publisher expects the global laboratory automation market to exhibit moderate growth during the next five years.

Laboratory automation has played a major role in saving time, reducing costs, eliminating human error and improving the efficiency of experiments. As a result, automation has moved past the "nice to have" to the "must have" in the modern laboratory. Laboratory teams today are continually looking for ways to increase their efficiency and improve the long-term value of their operations. Organisations are now adopting laboratory automation solutions to enhance their work and maximize the efficiency of their testing processes.

Market Drivers:

Laboratory automation is playing a major role in maximizing the accuracy of laboratory results and minimizing human errors to ensure that work is completed efficiently. It also enables the laboratory to deliver the reports quickly ensuring that actionable data is available on a short notice for review.

Automation is also enabling laboratories to reduce manual work. Automation solutions can complete many testing processes that would otherwise require significant amount of manual work. Labor costs account for a significant share of the total laboratory costs. Moreover, automation systems improve the productivity of labs and reduce the increase in costs that may arise due to wastage.

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The application of automation systems has also led to a significant increase in the productivity of the drug discovery process. These systems can operate for long hours with minimal monitoring and instruction. They also allow more time for researchers to focus on their core work and reduce their time on repetitive tasks

Automated testing solutions enable the ideal ways to protect data and ensure that it is easily available for lab teams. These systems also improve productivity of lab teams as they can track everything that happens to a sample, enabling them to view its entire history.

Market Summary:

Based on the type, the market has been segmented into modular automation and whole lab automation. Modular automation currently dominates this market.

Based on the equipment/software type, the market has been segmented into automated clinical laboratory systems and automated drug discovery laboratory systems. Currently, automated clinical laboratory systems represents the larger segment. The automated clinical laboratory systems have been further segmented into automated workstations, LIMS, sample transport systems, specimen handling systems and storage retrieval systems. Similarly, the automated drug discovery laboratory systems have been further segmented into automated plate readers, liquid handling systems, LIMS, robotics, storage retrieval systems and dissolution testing systems.

Based on the end-users, the market has been segmented into biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies; hospitals and diagnostic laboratories; and research and academic institutes.

Region-wise, the market has been segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa, and Latin America. Amongst these, North America is the biggest market.

The competitive landscape of the market has also been examined with some of the key players being Danaher, PerkinElmer, Tecan Group, Thermo Fisher, Abbott Diagnostics, Agilent Technologies, Aurora Biomed, Becton Dickinson, BioMerieux, Biotek Instruments, Brooks Automation, Cerner, Eppendorf, Hamilton Storage Technologies, LabVantage Solutions, Labware, Olympus, Qiagen, Roche Holding, Siemens Healthcare, etc.

This report provides a deep insight into the global laboratory automation market covering all its essential aspects. This ranges from macro overview of the market to micro details of the industry performance, recent trends, key market drivers and challenges, SWOT analysis, Porter's five forces analysis, value chain analysis, etc. This report is a must-read for entrepreneurs, investors, researchers, consultants, business strategists, and all those who have any kind of stake or are planning to foray into the laboratory automation industry in any manner.

Along with this, the publisher has also done a study on United States laboratory automation market which has enabled our clients to set up and expand their businesses successfully.

Key Questions Answered in This Report:1. What was the global laboratory automation market size in 2020?2. What will be the global laboratory automation market outlook during the forecast period (2021-2026)?3. What are the global laboratory automation market drivers?4. What are the major trends in the global laboratory automation market?5. What is the impact of COVID-19 on the global laboratory automation market?6. What is the global laboratory automation market breakup by type?7. What is the global laboratory automation market breakup by equipment and software type?8. What is the global laboratory automation market breakup by end user?9. What are the major regions in the global laboratory automation market?

Key Topics Covered:

1 Preface

2 Scope and Methodology2.1 Objectives of the Study2.2 Stakeholders2.3 Data Sources2.3.1 Primary Sources2.3.2 Secondary Sources2.4 Market Estimation2.4.1 Bottom-Up Approach2.4.2 Top-Down Approach2.5 Forecasting Methodology

3 Executive Summary

4 Introduction4.1 Overview4.2 Key Industry Trends

5 Global Laboratory Automation Market5.1 Market Overview5.2 Market Performance5.3 Impact of COVID-195.4 Market Breakup by Type5.5 Market Breakup by Equipment and Software Type5.6 Market Breakup by End-User5.7 Market Breakup by Region5.8 Market Forecast5.9 SWOT Analysis5.9.1 Overview5.9.2 Strengths5.9.3 Weaknesses5.9.4 Opportunities5.9.5 Threats5.10 Value Chain Analysis5.11 Porters Five Forces Analysis5.11.1 Overview5.11.2 Bargaining Power of Buyers5.11.3 Bargaining Power of Suppliers5.11.4 Degree of Competition5.11.5 Threat of New Entrants5.11.6 Threat of Substitutes

6 Market Breakup by Type6.1 Modular Automation6.1.1 Market Trends6.1.2 Market Forecast6.2 Whole Lab Automation6.2.1 Market Trends6.2.2 Market Forecast

7 Market Breakup by Equipment and Software Type7.1 Automated Clinical Laboratory Systems7.1.1 Workstations7.1.1.1 Market Trends7.1.1.2 Market Forecast7.1.2 LIMS (Laboratory Information Management Systems)7.1.2.1 Market Trends7.1.2.2 Market Forecast7.1.3 Sample Transport Systems7.1.3.1 Market Trends7.1.3.2 Market Forecast7.1.4 Specimen Handling Systems7.1.4.1 Market Trends7.1.4.2 Market Forecast7.1.5 Storage Retrieval Systems7.1.5.1 Market Trends7.1.5.2 Market Forecast7.2 Automated Drug Discovery Laboratory Systems7.2.1 Plate Readers7.2.1.1 Market Trends7.2.1.2 Market Forecast7.2.2 Automated Liquid Handling Systems7.2.2.1 Market Trends7.2.2.2 Market Forecast7.2.3 LIMS (Laboratory Information Management Systems)7.2.3.1 Market Trends7.2.3.2 Market Forecast7.2.4 Robotic Systems7.2.4.1 Market Trends7.2.4.2 Market Forecast7.2.5 Storage Retrieval Systems7.2.5.1 Market Trends7.2.5.2 Market Forecast7.2.6 Dissolution Testing Systems7.2.6.1 Market Trends7.2.6.2 Market Forecast

8 Market Breakup by End-User8.1 Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Companies8.1.1 Market Trends8.1.2 Market Forecast8.2 Hospitals and Diagnostic Laboratories8.2.1 Market Trends8.2.2 Market Forecast8.3 Research and Academic Institutes8.3.1 Market Trends8.3.2 Market Forecast

9 Market Breakup by Region9.1 North America9.1.1 Market Trends9.1.2 Market Forecast9.2 Europe9.2.1 Market Trends9.2.2 Market Forecast9.3 Asia Pacific9.3.1 Market Trends9.3.2 Market Forecast9.4 Middle East and Africa9.4.1 Market Trends9.4.2 Market Forecast9.5 Latin America9.5.1 Market Trends9.5.2 Market Forecast

10 Competitive Landscape10.1 Market Structure10.2 Key Players10.3 Profiles of Key Players10.3.1 Danaher10.3.2 PerkinElmer10.3.3 Tecan Group10.3.4 Thermo Fisher10.3.5 Abbott Diagnostics10.3.6 Agilent Technologies10.3.7 Aurora Biomed10.3.8 Becton, Dickinson and Company10.3.9 Biomatrix10.3.10 Biotech Instruments10.3.11 Brooks Automation10.3.12 Cerner10.3.13 Eppendorf10.3.14 Hamilton Storage Technologies10.3.15 LabVantage Solutions10.3.16 Labware10.3.17 Olympus10.3.18 Qiagen10.3.19 Roche Holding10.3.20 Siemens Healthcare

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/njy1rk

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Insights on the Laboratory Automation Global Market to 2026 - by Type. Equipment & Software Type, End-user and Region - Yahoo Finance

Summary

Chooch recently partnered with a well-known medical devices provider. The company serves operating rooms (ORs) and hospitals, aiming to replicate human visual recognition and automate dozens of vital OR processes so personnel can focus on procedures and patients instead of on manual, repetitive, IT-related tasks such as data entry.

Key Findings

Chooch was established in 2015 as an end-to-end visual Artificial Intelligence (AI) platform. As a vertical-agnostic solution, Chooch AI provides fast and accurate computer vision training, image, object, and process recognition. The company serves numerous industries, including healthcare, workplace safety, military, retail, media, aviation, and security. It also trains and develops flexible, custom AI models to extend standard models for edge or cloud use cases. With its easy-to-deploy API and dashboard for AIoT and Cloud AI, Chooch helps acquire visual expertise in a structured way that accurately mimics human behavior. Chooch also partners with other companies to provide training of AI models to identify objects, actions, and images for any visual task; and to label and annotate images and video.

The Chooch AI solution was recently deployed by a well-known biomedical device company that designs, manufactures, and supplies a range of cutting-edge medical devices to hospitals and operating rooms (OR). It focuses primarily on Smart OR technologies that streamline OR processes, improve communications among healthcare personnel, and deliver better care to those who matter mostthe patients.

Currently the company is adopting surgical logs (electronic records) to help ORs track surgical procedures, prevent costly errors, minimize malpractice events, and ensure compliance with HIPAA and other laws.

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Medical Automation: AI for the OR v Chooch - Gigaom

Over 70% of employees admit theirsense of purposeis defined by their work. Yet when it comes to industrial engineers central to our ability as a society to unlock sustainable development up to 50% of their time and effort can go into wrestling with legacy or vendor locked-in manufacturing and production equipment. In this time, engineers could have been innovating, creating value, driving efficiencies, enabling sustainable growth and supporting a green recovery. At a minimum, they could simply have spent more quality time with their loved ones.

In this day and age, technology shouldnt punish the people and organisations using it. It should enable and empower agile teams, helping infuse them with a renewed sense of purpose. I believe that universal automation open, software-centric industrial systems can solve this issue for industry, enabling smarter and more sustainable manufacturing, faster.

Industrial technology concept. Factory automation. INDUSTRY 4.0

Turning uncertainty into opportunity through purposeful collaboration

If the last 12 months have taught us anything, it is that change can be unexpected and long lasting. While industrial players may no longer be able to predict the future, modern technologies based on the principles of interoperability and universal automation can give them the tools to quickly react to fluctuating market demand and changes in production environments. It can also improve circularity, reduce waste and extend the lifespan of hardware. Industry is yet to unlock key efficiencies, estimated at between $30bn annually according to ARC, and $100 billion in value based on an estimate by McKinsey. But this will only be possible if industry transforms itself and embraces digital collaboration at scale.

How could this be when we hear about multiple breakthroughs in machine learning, augmented reality, real-time analytics and the IIoT, which hold great promise for industrial enterprises and manufacturers to meet the demands of today's agile and digital world? In reality, industry is still held back by vendor lock-in, limited machine-to-machine collaboration and limited ability to integrate the best-of-breed technologies. The same restraints are preventing it from realising a new purpose becoming a conduit to the net zero future through low impact, carbon neutral manufacturing, cutting-edge products and solutions. As we strive to recover from the impact of the pandemic, improve productivity and drive sustainable agendas, industry has a golden opportunity to become a central pillar of a green global economic recovery.

Fragmentation and isolation are preventing industrial players from moving at pace to respond to rapidly changing market conditions or dramatically reduce their carbon footprint. Industry is currently responsible for almost a third (32%) of global emissions. If the status quo is maintained, industry cannot transition to sustainable models. Industrial collaboration at scale is required. Only then can top engineering talent be fulfilled, the promise of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and the purpose of Industries of the Future realised.

Standardisation is essential for innovation

I believe a standardised approach to industrial automation is the answer. The existing IEC61499 already provides the basis for integration and collaboration. Standardisation and the separation of hardware and software lifecycles have played a vital role in the growth and success of the IT sector. Today, downloading real-time software updates on our computers and smart phones has become second nature. Tesla has pioneered a similar approach when it comes to its vehicles, with software updates regularly available to optimise and enhancing performance.

With universal automation for the first time this dream is within reach for industrial machinery. The ability to standardise will free up engineering time and refocus their priorities from troubleshooting to innovating. It will also help make industrial operations more cost and energy efficient and expand the lifespan of hardware, unlocking sustainable growth while protecting the planet.

The pioneers of positive change

New software-centric universal automation technology is already paying dividends for the rapidly changing segments of consumer-packaged goods, pharmaceutical and logistics enterprises, including companies like GEA and Master Systmes.

As the software is decoupled from the hardware, modifying the conveying line to adapt as flow requirements change is easier and more cost-effective. When something goes wrong, universal automation is able to pin-point the root cause of failure and troubleshoot four times faster. And with 45% less products on the error line when it comes to packaged consumer goods enterprises, workers and consumers all win.

There can be resistance to standardisation. But industrial machines dont thrive on individuality. Quite the opposite. Their whole purpose is to be part of a bigger whole, working in harmony across the operating environment. The standardisation of screw threads back in the day revolutionised manufacturing because it meant machines could be made and repaired using any standard rather than custom-built screw. This was one of the first major feats of industrial standardisation, one which the modern world has come to rely on. Imagine what we could achieve by standardising platforms on which the software solutions run in our factories today?

Universal automation will help engineers realise their full potential and infuse the industry with a renewed sense of purpose, all while granting manufacturers especially those struggling during the pandemic a new lease on life. We must ensure that ecology and progress are no longer at the opposing ends of the environmental spectrum, as industry becomes one of the cornerstones of a green recovery. This and more will be possible through industrial innovation, building on the advances of unified, easily interoperable, standards-based systems.

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Digital Transformation: Can Universal Automation Offer Industry A Renewed Sense Of Purpose? - Forbes

Join Transform 2021 this July 12-16. Register for the AI event of the year.

The past year was marked with a lot of uncertainty for businesses. A new study from Zapier, which allows users to automate tasks for web applications, found that 63% of small businesses said automation helped them survive COVID-19.

Above: The findings from the 2021 Zapier State of Business Automation Report.

Image Credit: Zapier

With a specific focus on the small and medium-sized business community more than 3,000 partners apps on its platform for small businesses key findings include:Despite the common narrative of automation taking over jobs, it isnt a competitor against humans. The future of automation is about how technology can support humans, especially in the small and medium-sized businesses. Software automation continues to grow and it enables workers to be more efficient, which gives humans time back to do things only people can do.

Automation is essential software for small and medium-sized businesses.

Sixty-three percent of SMBs say automation allowed their company to quickly pivot as a result of the pandemic whether it was bringing their goods and services online or changing their business model completely. That benefit isnt likely to shrink, either: even as things get back to normal, well live much more of our lives online. Small businesses are already using technology to prepare for that reality: 66% say automation is now essential for running their business.

Why is automation essential? SMBs rely on software to perform specific functions, like capturing leads from Facebook Lead Ads. Rather than spend time manually sending data from one place to another, SMBs use automation to connect different software and create scalable systems and processes.

While automation helps SMBs eliminate repetitive, everyday tasks, there are bigger benefits as well: 88% of SMBs say automation allows them to compete with larger companies by allowing them to move faster, close leads quickly, spend less time on busywork, reduce errors, and offer better customer service.

By identifying repetitive tasks that take the most time, SMBs can develop a strategy to automate manual and repetitive processes and free up time for more creative or strategic tasks. In fact, nearly 70% of SMB employees say using automation software has helped them be more productive at work.

The future of automation is already here. Many SMBs are using automation to increase worker productivity and happiness, create efficient and scalable systems, and compete with larger businesses.

Zapier surveyed 2,000 U.S. knowledge workers from small and medium businesses [fewer than 250 total employees] on whether or not workflow automation tools are being used at their company. This survey was completed online in March 2021 and responses were random, voluntary, and completely anonymous.

Read more in Zapiers full report 2021 Zapier State of Business Automation Report

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Zapier: Automation helped small businesses survive the pandemic - VentureBeat

Turkey vulture released back into the wild

A turkey vulture that somehow made its way into Rockwell Automation in Milwaukee has been rehabbed and released back into the wild.

MILWAUKEE - A turkey vulture that was found inside Rockwell Automation in Milwaukee a couple of weeks ago is flying free again.

A Facebook post by the Wisconsin Humane Society (WHS) said, "No one is quite sure how this bird with a wingspan of nearly six feet blundered its way into the building, much less made its way into a large office. But once there, it needed help. Two of our staff captured the big bird and transported it back to the wildlife hospital for care. The vulture was dehydrated and underweight from its ordeal, but several days of extra fluids and food got it looking and feeling strong enough to return to the skies."

WHS officials say within minutes of its release, the turkey vulture was soaring hundreds of feet above Miller Valley.

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Turkey vulture released into wild after visit to Rockwell Automation - FOX 6 Milwaukee

MSPs do some incredibly complex and technically demanding complex work. They can make sure a complex IT estate is monitored and patched, protect their customers from attack, and figure out difficult help desk requests. They also, however, do a lot of rote, repetitive tasks for businesses that are simply not set up to complete these jobs efficiently.

This need to perform repetitive tasks, if done manually, can create human errorand it can indicate that talent is being wasted on menial activities. Automation can help solve this issue, so it should be an easy sell. But many MSPs are not investing in the skills and technology to automate more of what they do. Part of this is an overriding fear from staff that it will take away jobs. But the aim of automation, done right, is not to replace staffinstead, it opens up opportunities to focus on more meaningful work that fuels growth for the business and technicians.

Automation is not just about increasing overall efficiencyit can also be a differentiator. MSPs that fail to automate lose the opportunity to show how tech-savvy and efficient they can be, especially to customers that expect it. A customer questioning why things are being done the old fashioned way may not stick around for long.

This isnt old news either: MSPs know about the benefits of automation and want to change but there are barriers. Automation is often a discussion point alongside complex topics like machine learning and artificial intelligence, and that can make it feel overwhelming, leading many to admit defeat before even starting. But automation for MSPs doesnt need to be overly complex. Its not an overnight revolution but a journeyand it can start small.

One of the biggest problems of automation, from front line IT staff at least, is the fear that automation might make them redundant, figuratively and literally. This can lead them to avoid automation altogetherone report from KPMG found an estimated 67 percent of tech workers feared they would be automated out of a job. But this is far from the truth, most MSPs that want to automate their work do not to reduce their staff head count and instead do more with the staff they have.

By adopting automation in the right areas, MSPs can better allocate their staff to more demanding jobs that require more thought from their employees. The IT staff that does learn automation ends up automating themselves into jobs. A recent McKinsey report shows that the focus to increase automation has been accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic, and that increasing automation will significantly shift the need for skill profiles to accommodate the next normal. IT departments need people with the right skills to develop, manage, and maintain automated environments, so IT professionals will need to start building these skills to remain employable.

One of automations biggest challenges is simply deciding where to start. The prospect of automation can seem overwhelming, but it should be broken down into automating simple, smaller tasks. Even in small areas, automation can create huge benefits. Only after these tasks are automated should MSPs build up to bigger more complex projects.

The best place to start is ticketing. Here technicians can seek out and find the issues that occur the most often and determine what can be done to reduce time to resolution. Each element that can be automated may save a technician anywhere from a few minutes to hours, or even days of work in the aggregate. Outside of ticketing, investing one hour to self-heal a disk cleanup on laptops and workstations can remove several calls per weeksaving MSPs more than one hour per week in technician time.

It might seem counterintuitive, but its important not to make automation its own dedicated project. MSPs are too busy to be investing a sizeable portion of their resources in one particular area. Automation, when just beginning, should be a discussion point and a side project. Some MSPs do this by scheduling weekly or monthly meetings to identify common issues that occur and then look to resolve them. Automating is easier than you think, and the resources to help are easily available.

To get MSPs started, here is a list of a few key areas MSPs can look to automate.

Ticketing: Ask any technician, and they will likely tell you they receive at least ten near-identical tickets each week. By identifying these, MSPs can try to find a process for automating these tickets. IT technicians can spend significant amounts of time going through hundreds of tickets per week, so even saving a few minutes per ticket can provide some valuable time back.

Client billing: Areas outside of the help desk can also present opportunities to automate. Accurate and timely billing is essential to maintain a healthy customer relationship. If this is a completely manual activity, it runs the risk of introducing errors and slowing down the overall process of the billing department. MSPs should see every part of the business as an opportunity to automate; soon theyll find there are aspects of HR, accounting, and management that present themselves.

Updates: Managing and deploying updates for security is an important part of any IT departments responsibilities. If an antivirus solution isnt deployed, configured, and updated correctlyand in a timely mannerit can result in MSPs and client environments becoming vulnerable to bad actors. Automation can help you steer clear of these pitfalls, and if full automation isnt possible, reminders can help.

Its believed by many that the biggest benefit of automation is time savings and accuracy, but the biggest benefit can actually be a shift in company culture. For MSPs that typically operate small teams, workloads can often be overwhelming at times. By automating tasks, not only are MSPs creating a business that is efficient at addressing client needs, theyre also creating a more positive work environment with increased productivity levels and stronger customer retention. MSPs need to stop worrying about the barriers to automation, and instead see the opportunities and take those vital first steps.

Marc-Andre Tanguay, Head Automation Nerd, N-able

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Whats really stopping MSPs from adopting automation? - ITProPortal