Concept Systems

Concept Systems Deploys a Modern Controls Solution for a Modern Materials Maker

When it came time for a large, northwestern U.S. timber manufacturer to choose a controls solution for a new facility, they reached out to their partners at Concept Systems. The new facility would be creating products for a growing industry—multi-story, timber-built structures.

Most of us think concrete and steel when we envision how taller buildings are designed and erected. However, modern engineered timber products have many advantages over their concrete and steel counterparts. Faster time to completion and more environmentally sustainable raw materials are just a few. These modern beams also respond better in a fire as they don’t buckle under the heat and burn very slow, allowing building occupants more time to safely exit if a fire event were to occur. [...]

Congratulations to Panacea Technologies

In the course of providing solutions to customers, Panacea Technologies not only found a great technology to improve their customer’s computing, but they also found a way to create a new offering that has the potential to change the benchtop and small-scale reactor space for the better. That technology is ThinManager from Rockwell Automation.

Last week we posted about Panacea Technologies and all that they have achieved with the expansion of their OpenBio platform. We are pleased to follow up that post with the announcement that Panacea has been recognized and received the 2018 Pharma Innovation Award.

“Designed to be the “centerpiece” of your laboratory operations, the OpenBIO Benchtop Bioreactor from Panacea Technologies can be controlled from anywhere with a tablet, phone or computer — a truly mobile experience for staff.” (By Karen Langhauser, Chief Content Director, pharmamanufacturing.com)

Read More On This Award.

It’s in to be thin

ThinManager was mentioned in a recent LinkedIn Post from InSource Solutions about how thin client technology is more manageable, scalable and mobile.

Below are excerpts written by Jason Paquette, Product Marketing Manager at InSource Solutions, from his post regarding thin client management and mobility with an HMI.

Happy Manufacturing Day

Today, October 2nd, 2015, is Manufacturing Day. Manufacturing Day℠ is a celebration of modern manufacturing meant to inspire the next generation of manufacturers. This is an exciting opportunity as many manufacturers are opening their doors to the public today to offer tours and to show just how the manufacturing process works for them.

As a “tip of the cap” to all those in this great industry, we have put together a video about ThinManager in a sit down interview with ACP’s CEO, Matt Crandell, asking where it all started, and where it is going.  ThinManager is the global leader in thin client management and industrial mobility.  Without our partners and customers in the manufacturing industry, we simply would not be where we are today.

To download and try ThinManager free for 30 days, please click the link below.  Thank you to all that support us and the manufacturing industry.  Happy Manufacturing Day!

 

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Data Secure with ThinManager

Using ThinManager – Safety and Security

Data Security – not just a buzzword.  Today we know all too well that our data is important and keeping it secure and safe is often even more important.

This video focuses on the security and data safety in ThinManager.  ThinManager gives you complete control in your production environment over who sees what, where and when.  Secure data management has always been in the forefront when creating ThinManager. Our location-based resolvers create “Geo-Fences” for total security when integrating mobility in to your production environment.

 

 

The Factory of the future runs on ThinManager. Start a free trial of ThinManager today.

 

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ThinManager Control Terminal

Build The Ultimate Control Room

In today’s modern production environment visualization is not only important, it is essential.

Visualization is one of the cornerstones of ThinManager and building your ultimate control room to see everything in your production environment is simply put… “A Piece of Cake”!

Start by obtaining a capable thin client, one that can support multiple monitors. We like a configuration for at least 4 large monitors.  Need suggestions, look at the ThinManager Knowledge Base of ThinManager ready hardware. Install and layout your monitors.
sample ThinManager monitor configurations
screen-configUsing ThinManager you can now assign your control room thin client with all the applications, HMIs, IP Camera Feeds and Desktops that you will need to operate in complete control with optimal visualization of what is happening in your production environment.

Quickly and easily “Shadow” plant floor terminals or take control if needed.  You have options for “Tiling” on each individual monitor, as well as using camera overlays for even more visualization. You can ever move content from screen to screen on the fly!

Simply restart your control room terminal and you now have the set up you always wanted.  It is just that easy and all simply built in to the functionality of ThinManager.

 

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What Is ThinManager?

I am sure many professionals in numerous industries can relate with the resulting hardship from this seemingly simple question.

As with most high tech companies, the answer is not always so easily explained without creating even more questions.  “We are the global leader in thin client management and industrial mobility solutions”.  Sure, it rolls off the tongue, but does that explain ThinManager to someone that does not know about factory automation, thin clients or industrial solutions?

We have developed a new video to quickly and concisely illustrate an overview of what ThinManager is and does.  This is the first in a new series of videos offering a more “in-depth” look in to the core functionality of ThinManager.

 

ThinManager Moves Factories into the Mobile Future

Technology is a constantly evolving ecosystem within which everything it encounters is presented with the option to adapt or risk becoming antiquated.  At ACP we believe this holds true for the Manufacturing sector, as well as the people who drive it.  History has shown time and time again, that industries only remain competitive if they are willing to adopt and make real use of new technologies that drive efficiency, productivity, and profitability.  Those who choose to ignore or fight against the inevitable evolution of innovation often become mere footnotes in the history of pioneers and juggernauts that continue to thrive today.

For over a century, the basic premise of the moving assembly line pioneered by Ford Motor Company has essentially remained the same.  Over time, automated processes have been added and improved upon to increase speed and output, but the true improvement to the basic model has been the platforms created to monitor and manage the systems that drive those processes.  Because of this, and the proliferation of the global economy, the very basics of manufacturing must now be reexamined and challenged to move forward from the Industrial Age into the Modern Computing Age.

The days of running a manufacturing facility that stands alone on an island or operates within a vacuum is over. The modern factory will have to be more nimble, able to adapt quickly to changes in manufacturing techniques and the demand for customized products that can be produced in line with current demand.

The days of running a manufacturing facility that stands alone on an island or operates within a vacuum is over. The modern factory will have to be more nimble, able to adapt quickly to changes in manufacturing techniques and the demand for customized products that can be produced in line with current demand. These facilities will need to be able to expand quickly or even be replicated within short time constraints, to stay one step ahead of the competition.  And even more importantly, they must do so in conjunction with other facilities and operations that are equally adaptive.

ACP also believes that mobile computing is the evolving technology that will meet the demands of the modern plant floor and offer the agility required to drive it.  We believe that what modern manufacturers need, is a system platform that will allow them to move toward this mobile future with as little disruption to their current process as possible. ACP’s ThinManager is an Adaptive Platform Technology (APT) that is designed to allow facilities to move into this new mobile industrial evolution at a pace that is reasonable for their particular facilities.

This is essential because far too often a technology is introduced that forces a “leap” forward from the industry standard…and more often than not, that technology is nothing more than a bridge that spans what was, and what is to come.  This is why ThinManager has positioned itself as a platform that can drive the processes of today, as well as offering the mobile agility that will be required tomorrow.

Using what we call a relevant information delivery system, ThinManager will soon offer a brand new add-on technology called Relevance. This Adaptive Mobile Platform (AMP) will allow plant managers and operators to have customized computing experiences that are completely relevant for the work they perform, regardless of the specific environmental demands of their facilities or the computer hardware they currently deploy.  ThinManager Relevance will offer a new way to organize applications, data, and users.  More importantly, it will allow for delivery of that data based on a user’s ID, location, a specific time or an event—or any combination of these criteria.  ThinManager delivers this relevant information to virtually any device including PCs, thin clients and mobile tablets or smart phones. Now, operators have the ability to perform their duties, react to changes in production and solve problems from any location.

No matter where your facility is today in this new industrial evolution, ThinManager’s Adaptive Platform Technology will allow you to become the nimble company of tomorrow by letting you choose when and how you move your process into the future. Regardless of the current hardware or software solutions you currently deploy, ThinManager will extend your ability to control how you deliver information and how you interact with your manufacturing environment. No other platform can offer a path that allows you go from where you are today, to where you want to be tomorrow, like ThinManager.

Find your path through the Industrial Evolution at http://www.thindustrial.com

Tom Jordan
ACP – ThinManager