Product Description

If you have heard industry pundit Jim Pinto speak, or read his barbed writings or laugh-out-loud poems, or subscribe to his popular e-newsletter, you'll enjoy his new book. It's loaded with critical analysis of the changing face of industrial automation; predictions about future automation technology trends including Pinto's provoking prognostications on what major supplier companies will survive, and what ones won't; the best of his articles on marketing and distribution; and his highly rated fieldbus commentary. Of course, the book also includes the best-of-the-best poems from the recognized "poet laureate of instrumentation." The book has a special Introduction by Dick Morley, noted technology guru and father of the PLC. Each of 5 sections is introduced by a noted automation industry personality. Industrial Automation Majors, the good, the bad and the ugly - Introduced by John Berra, President Emerson Process Marketing, Sales and Distribution Perspectives - Introduced by Frank Williams, CEO of I/O Select Future of Automation Technology Technology - Gee Whiz! - Introduced by Bud Keyes, Senior Vice President, Emerson Process Industrial Networks - this bus is for you - Introduced by Dick Caro, CMC Associates, Chairman of ISA SP50 and formerly of IEC Fieldbus Standards Committees Pinto's Industrial Poetry - Introduced by Greg Hale, Editor, InTech

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1360500 in Books
• Published on: 2003-10
• Format: Illustrated
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 205 pages

Customer Reviews

Unpluggable - unputdownable
Since Jack Grenard decided that sailing was a whole lot more fun than newsletter editing, Jim Pinto has been the sole entirely independent commentator on the automation industry, on his side of the Atlantic at least. He’s regularly published in a host of journals and on web sites such as Automation Techies and Control.com and, most importantly, he produces his own Connections for Growth & Success eNewsletter and runs a series of weblogs on the automation industry leaders. As such he’s an invaluable source of inside information, an objective commentator on the state of the industry or a pain in the backside depending on where precisely you’re coming from.
“Automation Unplugged”, a collection of Pinto’s journalism - and poetry – from the past decade is something of a curate’s egg but like the man himself it’s never dull and if you think he’s wrong, you still have to concede that he’s wrong in an interesting way. His greatest assets as a commentator on the automation industry are his inside knowledge of its workings and his huge network of contacts in both the US and Europe, a small cadre from which is deployed to introduce the book and its various sections.
One disadvantage of republishing material is that it may no longer be relevant – I’m not sure there’s any real point, for example, in going over the fieldbus saga again other than for historical interest – and you may just be proved dead wrong. Pinto first predicted that the ‘Industrial Automation Big 10’ would become the ‘Big 5’ by the end of 2000. They didn’t, of course, but he’s still predicting the same outcome, even if the timescale has now stretched to “within the next couple of years.” “Hey, if I’m wrong,” he says, “I still won’t be far off.”
Pinto’s analysis of the current state of the industry in general and the major players in particular is penetrating and controversial. Nevertheless, given his enthusiasm for technology in all its manifestations, it is surprising how little consideration he gives to the role of technology in the creation of today’s winners and losers in the automation stakes. There’s no doubt that you can’t succeed in this game without excellent management, but it’s pretty clear too that you need to have, and be first to have, some excellent technology to manage.
But that's all pretty much nit picking. If your work brings you into contact with the automation industry, either as a vendor, an intermediary, a user or simply a spectator, this is, quite simply, essential reading.