Innovative Thinking

How many blinking lights register as background noise for the operator on your plant floor?

In the design or planning phase of a project, alarms may be touted as central to the safety and efficiency of a process. But without considering the realistic use for an alarm and taking steps to ensure truly effective reactions, alarms may do more harm than good.

The real danger is that important alarms will get lost in the static. Known as "alarm fatigue," it can dull an operator's sensitivity to alarms when a dangerous or costly situation occurs. 

“Please turn off all personal electronic devices, including laptops and cell phones. Thank you!”

Many of us who have boarded a commercial flight are familiar with this quirk of air travel. If you own a smartphone, it likely features a toggle called “Airplane Mode” somewhere in your settings. Why? And what does it have to do with manufacturing?

The answer is Electromagnetic Interference, or EMI.

Historically, cell phones are considered a culprit of EMI, which can impact the performance of navigation instruments in a plane. In manufacturing, EMI plays an even bigger role in producing “dirty power” that can pollute an electrical system.

This could be a major factor behind your factory’s unplanned downtime when equipment falters or the entire system shuts down.

A recent study by Deloitte revealed that the industry will face a shortfall of almost 2 million skilled manufacturing workers in the next decade. That’s a lot of shoes to fill. Unfortunately, manufacturers often aren't sure how to prepare for the gap, especially in a challenging global market. Three recurring problems have been shadowing the industry for a long time, contributing to the shortage companies see today.

If you trace the demand for automation solutions back to the source, you’ll find the same pressures and economic pitfalls that affect manufacturing across diverse industries. The difference? How companies adapt and grow in response to a challenging market.

PITTSBURGH, February 17, 2016 - Premier Automation is proud to announce ISNetworld certification. While many companies promise a seamless partnership, fewer businesses back up these claims with the documentation clients really need. ISNetworld (ISN) provides a portal for companies and clients to pool safety, insurance, quality and regulatory documentation to streamline projects, saving money and time for both parties. The ISN system standardizes project management to decrease incident rates and increase compliance rates.

PITTSBURGH, February 2, 2016 - The Pittsburgh Business Times named Premier Automation one of Pittsburgh’s Best Places to Work in 2015. Premier Automation ranked in the Large Company category with nearly 100 employees, 8 of whom have been with the company since its foundation.

The Pittsburgh Business Times selects the Best Places to Work by surveying companies across four metrics:

In an uncertain global market, manufacturers are facing disruptions and revolutions in the way things are made. Digitalization in manufacturing—the Internet of Things (IoT), analytics, and cloud computing—buzzes in the industrial community’s collective thoughts. It provides a glimpse into the future of manufacturing and the industrial solutions that future will need.

But technology never solves broad and complex problems without structural changes to support it. Just as the tools we use to manufacture evolve, so do the business models.

PITTSBURGH, January 18, 2016 - The Pittsburgh Business Times ranked Premier Automation the 18th Largest Engineering Firm in Western Pennsylvania for 2015. With nearly 100 employees and over 20 full-time engineers on staff, Premier Automation has the capacity to take on projects of any size and complexity.

Pittsburgh was once as renowned for pollution as it was for industry and manufacturing. Decades after the Smoky City cleaned up its act and became a modern pillar of education, healthcare, technology, and finance, many people still associate Pittsburgh with a coal-gray haze.

Now manufacturing itself has undergone a millennial renaissance, yet it still carries a bad reputation as dirty and dangerous work.

But like Pittsburgh, the nature of industry has changed.

PITTSBURGH, December 23, 2015 — Control Engineering recognizes Premier Automation as a 2015 System Integrator Giant, ranking the company #19 on a list of the best system integrators in the United States. Premier Automation ranked as only one of three companies in the top twenty with less than twenty engineers, competing with companies of over 100 or 200 engineers at the same level of system integration revenue or higher.