Thoughts on automotive manufacturing pondering post by Kevin Kelly, is large petrochemical peaking for a new reality in process, networking, Ethernet, wireless sensor networks and the Internet of Things.

Gary discusses the rising stock prices for some automation companies, leadership, SME getting high school students involved in manufacturing, sustainability as a manufacturing model and wireless control.

In news from the last couple of weeks, Gary discusses changes to the upcoming Pack Expo, the need for visionary leadership, upcoming conferences for WBF and MESA.

Gary discusses happenings at the 14th annual ARC Forum in Orlando. There were product announcements from many companies, an indepth discussion of the multi-year Invensys strategy that has led to the formation of IOM, WBF and OMAC and their separation from ISA and a few thoughts about wireless from the Forum.

Gary reviews several earnings reports from the automation industry and then reports from MESA International and Cambashi research on manufacturers improving financial performance and manufacturing performance using well defined metrics and automated data gathering. The latest edition of the popular Packaging Automation Forum is announced. Then a few thoughts on Toyota, Lean and entrepreneurship in automotive manufacturing.