Episode 1: What to Know Before You Go to Automation Fair
This year, Panduit is rockin’ the Rockwell Automation Fair (November 14-15 in Philadelphia) with both a booth (#349) and a speaking slot. We caught up with Jill Shea, Business Development Manager, at Panduit, for her take on what not to miss on the show floor and in the city of brotherly love.
Q: Both a booth and a technical session, Jill. That’s a pretty big presence. What makes Automation Fair the place to be?
Well, a few things really. First, Automation Fair really is the premier industrial automation event offering a ton of knowledge and skill-building opportunities in just two days.
Second, Rockwell Automation is one of Panduit’s two key alliance partners in the industrial networking space–the other one being Cisco. So this is a great opportunity to tell the story of how we’re working together to help customers.
And that brings me to the third reason. Panduit has a long history of working with customers on the plant floor. It’s where we started with our electrical equipment before expanding into the networking space. Many companies have great networking or great cabling or understand the plant floor and have ethernet products, but only Panduit has both. We understand customer needs on the plant floor as well as what’s happening with the network piece that need to work with it. So Automation Fair is a perfect fit for us.
Q. Isn’t Philly a great city? So much history, and so many famous lines from the Rocky films. Tell me, what’s Panduit’s line that Automation Fair attendees will remember when the event is over. What will be Panduit’s “Adrian!!!”
A. That’s an easy one, it will be “Turning standards into solutions.” And that’s with a period, not an exclamation point. We don’t like to yell at our customers.
Q: Can you tell me more about what “turning standards into solutions’ means?
A: Smart manufacturing continues to be a key trend, and connected machines and devices help us understand performance like never before. We can find and fix potential problems before they become actual problems.
So perhaps now more than ever, having a robust reliable physical network infrastructure that can keep everything connected is crucial. Standards tell you what is required for different applications and in different environments, but not how to do it. That’s where Panduit provides value. We’re helping people understand how to take a standards-based approach, and what products fit where in the process.
That’s what we’re doing with TIA-1005-A M.I.C.E guidelines, for example.
M.I.C.E is short for Mechanical, Ingress, Climatic Chemical, Electromagnetic, and at Panduit we align our solutions to industrial standards for evaluating M.I.C.E factors.
Because there are different M.I.C.E rankings for different parts of the environment, it’s difficult to know how to design the infrastructure, and what products to use where, to ensure safety and performance without overspending.
Panduit is the only Tier 1 Supplier that aligns solutions to these guidelines, and we’re showing what this looks like in these really cool environmental terrariums on the back wall of our booth. It’s Booth #349, by the way. That’s 3 – 4 – 9.
Q: Speaking of the Panduit booth, what else are you excited to talk about and show?
A: Our new NEMA-12 rated Micro Data Center (MDC) is something customers have been asking us for, so we couldn’t be happier to show it to them.
For those who don’t know, the MDC is part of the TIA standard, and is referred to as a Dist C – or where the enterprise meets the plant floor.
The new version of our MDC is a fully enclosed cabinet – an all-in-one logical-to-physical solution that can
be placed anywhere – and provides safe, secure connectivity.
Office-grade IT equipment often is deployed in the industrial space, with additional environmental
protection required. With the MDC, that’s no longer necessary.
Q: Well it sure sounds like Booth #349 is the place to be. Tell me, Jill, what about things to see off of the exhibit floor?
A. My colleagues Mike Berg and Jeff Beller are presenting a technical session titled Panduit: The Connected Cabinet, and they’ll be demonstrating how an ethernet-enabled connected panel allows the business to measure productivity in real-time, resulting in improved efficiencies, increased productivity and reduced costs. It’s on Wednesday and Thursday at 9AM in room 108B.
Q: One more question before we let you go. Do you have any tips for first-time tourists to Philadelphia?
A: I sure do. When it comes to cheese steaks, you’ll hear most people talk about the ongoing battle between Gino’s and Pat’s. The real number one is this great place right on South Street called Ishkabibble’s. They have chicken cheesesteaks in addition to steak ones, but it’s walk up only, so don’t go there expecting to dine in.
