Last month’s technology evening was hosted online and presented by Jaco Markwat and Leonard Smit of Element 8. The theme ‘Where’s my data?’ related to improving communication between different organisational components and departments.
Jaco Markwat, the founder and managing director, spent 15 years at an industrial software distributor leading the sales and marketing team. He is passionate about building communities and strives to deliver intuitive technologies to the industry.
Jaco Markwat.
Leonard Smit is currently the customer success and support manager at Element 8. He boasts experience in MIS/MES solutions and guiding client’s data requirements to actionable KPI information. He is responsible for delivering excellent customer experiences and tries to implement technology to its full potential.
Jaco and Lenard started the presentation by providing a brief overview of what technologies are relevant today. They stressed that most operational data is not in a form that can easily be accessed by IT systems or used in the enterprises’ reporting software. This is complicated by proprietary protocols, different data formats and the fact that most of the information is useless and out of context. They explained how many of these problems can be resolved by implementing a Unified Name Space and by using open modular systems to improve communication. These concepts improve the quality of data and transform it into information before conveying it to other systems.
Leonard Smit.
The presentation included a live demonstration showing how a Unified Name Space can be implemented. The demonstration used a combination of MQQT, with the Ignition software. They demonstrated how they changed ‘dumb’ data into ‘intelligent’ information by including meta data with the signals. This allows other users easy access to the information and existing values do not have to be re-entered. The demonstration showcased the advantages described in the presentation by putting them into a real-world example. It showed that with little planning, information can easily be captured into a reporting tool.
This presentation was highly relevant and a pleasure to watch. The branch thanks Jaco, Leonard and Element 8 for making the event possible.
MESA Africa Summit has been expanded and rebranded SAIMC Supplier Advisory Council
SAIMC
We are writing to share some exciting developments regarding the evolution of the MESA Africa Summit, which has been a cornerstone event in industrial automation and manufacturing excellence.
Read more...How to claim CPD points SAIMC Supplier Advisory Council
SAIMC
SAIMC makes it possible for you to claim CPD points for attending courses and technical meetings, or completing an online quiz on a SA Instrumentation & Control magazine.
Read more...SAIMC: From the office of the CEO:Slaughtering AI holy cows SAIMC
SAIMC
A couple of sessions at various dealers, a wrong delivery, a failed holiday plan, a two-week unplanned vacation and 32 kg of steel on the back seat awaited us as we left South Africa on a dream holiday. But let me start at the beginning.
Read more...SAIMC: Secunda branch SAIMC
SAIMC
At the most recent SAIMC Secunda technical evening, Jenine Jansen van Vuuren, sales account manager from Comtest Technologies, gave a presentation on the calibration of process instruments.
Read more...SAIMC: Durban branch SAIMC
SAIMC
The Durban branch of the SAIMC held its October technology meeting, not on the first Wednesday of the month as usual, but on the second Wednesday to accommodate the very interesting presenter, Nico Erasmus from Abacus Automation.
Read more...SAIMC: Johannesburg branch SAIMC
SAIMC
The October Technology Evening was hosted by Pepperl+Fuchs. Patience Moila, the enterprise mobility expert for sub-Saharan Africa, presented on ‘Lone Worker Protection for the Mobile worker 4.0’.
Read more...SAIMC: It’s not black and white SAIMC
Editor's Choice SAIMC
Grey imports are a problem worldwide, not least in the automation industry in South Africa. The Supplier Advisory Council (SAC) operates under the umbrella of SAIMC, and is tackling this problem head-on.
Read more...How to claim CPD points SAIMC Supplier Advisory Council
SAIMC
SAIMC makes it possible for you to claim CPD points for attending courses and technical meetings, or completing an online quiz on a SA Instrumentation & Control magazine.
Read more...SAIMC: From the office of the CEO: The real damage of fake news SAIMC
SAIMC
People depend on accurate information and their own reasoning and belief systems to draw conclusions or make decisions. However, when they are inundated with fake news, the reliability of the information they receive is compromised.