Prosoft Magazine Issue 8
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A PUBLICATION OF PROSOFT TECHNOLOGY, INC ISSUE EIGHT | 2014 RemoteRemote ControlledControlled has a whole new meaning! CarCar Page 6 What happened to customer service? Cementing India’s In Mining, Safety is Crucial “Good” customer service seems to be Infrastructure Mining system in Poland going out of fashion. UltraTech cement and emphasizes “safety first.” Page 4 ProSoft radios. Page 18 Page 16 CONTENTS Editor’s Notes 4What happened to customer service? Remote Controlled Car 6Has a Whole New Meaning! Malaysian Offshore Oil Field 14 Upgrades to ControlLogix® Cementing India’s 16 Infrastructure 18 In Mining, Safety is Crucial What’s Coming to 21Automation Fair® ProSoft Spot the Were You Profiles 26 Difference 28 There? 29 ProSoft ISSUE 8 | 2014 Magazine Staff Perspective Editor-in-Chief Danetta Bramhall Contributing Editors Lauren Robeson By Mark Ewing solutions now possible. We also released our Graphic Artists Jim Duncan Vice President, Global Product Development IEC 61850 protocol in the ControlLogix® Juliane Bone platform to provide an integrated solution for As I complete my seventh year at ProSoft Rockwell Automation®’s Energy focus. Technology, the change I have seen is ProSoft Technology® considerable. The tragic passing of our We didn’t forget about the CompactLogix™ Senior Leadership Team founder, Doug Sharratt; the incredible L1 and POINT I/O™ customers. Chris Williams Vice President, growth; the growing pains; the new faces; ProSoft Technology released Modbus® Global Sales and continued worldwide expansion; relocating Communications for the POINT I/O™ Marketing my family to Bakersfield; new ownership. backplane in both RS232 and RS485 The list of changes can go on for days, but Ken Roslan Vice President, versions for those cost-conscious applications. Global Marketing the one thing that hasn’t changed is our relentless focus on delighting and satisfying Expanded Gateway Protocol Mark Ewing Vice President, our customers. Toward that vision, here are a Communication Global Product few examples of our progress in 2014. Development Thanks to our customers’ adoption and Migration Solutions feedback of our PLX30 and PLX80 gateways, Lenus Hong Managing Director we have expanded the product selections. of Asia Pacific If you are responsible for Control Systems Our newest additions include a second that determine the everyday success of your Bruno Forgue Managing Director Ethernet port for our EtherNet/IP™ to company, entrusting your livelihood to of Europe, Middle Modbus® TCP, EtherNet/IP™ to Siemens® that 20-year-old equipment could cause a East and Africa Industrial Ethernet, and Modbus® TCP few sleepless nights. You would feel much to Siemens® Industrial Ethernet gateways, Franco Melchiorre Vice President better with newer equipment and could and the protocol release of EtherNet/IP™ to of Latin America take advantage of new technology advances PROFINET® IO Device (Slave) gateway. Lary Marshall Vice President to improve your uptime, streamline your of North America production, and lower your costs. But ripping Comprehensive Wireless Solutions it all out is expensive! The creative use of wireless to solve The ProSoft Magazine is a publication of ProSoft Technology, Inc., headquartered at 5201 Truxtun The newest addition to the ProSoft application problems is expanding beyond Ave., Bakersfield, California USA. Please address Technology migration solutions platform is traditional SCADA applications. ProSoft all correspondence to the Editor-in-Chief at our family of Media Converters. This truly Technology has been providing wireless the above address. The magazine is published innovative solution allows the simultaneous solutions for over 12 years and continues the twice a year (Spring and Fall). All trademarks, transmission of EtherNet/IP™ and Remote expansion of our diverse product line with company names and product names referred I/O™ over your existing Belden Blue Hose® the release of our ICX30 Cellular Gateway, to throughout this publication are used for infrastructure, allowing you to avoid identification purposes only and are the more features in our Frequency Hopping and properties of their respective companies. All expensive infrastructure updates and costly 802.11 radios, and a new Radiating Cable rights reserved. The contents of this publication downtime. antenna. may not be reproduced in whole or part without consent of the copyright owner. Enhanced In-Chassis Control The future is unpredictable and we will SUBSCRIPTIONS: Qualified reader subscriptions ProSoft Technology often receives customer continue to adapt to the changes that come are accepted from the Industrial Automation requests for application solutions that with it. One thing that will not change is industry at no charge. To apply for a free require some creative technology. Given the ProSoft Technology’s continued focus on subscription, fill out the subscription form found increased popularity of Linux in the general delighting and satisfying our customers. As at www.prosoft-technology.com/subscription. marketplace, ProSoft Technology introduced we embark on the next phase of ProSoft, it is To non-qualified subscribers in the US and increasingly clear that we will only increase Canada, subscriptions are $20 per year. All our innovative Linux Development other regions are $30 per year. Modules (LDM) for the ControlLogix® and our focus on customers and drive innovation CompactLogix™ controller families. Your aligned with their needs as we support them imagination is the only barrier to the creative through exciting market transitions. prosoft-technology.com | 3 Editor’s Notes What happened to customer service? By Danetta Bramhall Editor-in-Chief My co-worker, Kim, bought a new refrigerator from a major (This is at least better than the cable TV company that tells you they will be department store last week. It was the largest refrigerator in the there sometime next week or the phone store and the last one in stock of that particular model. She company that you can never get anything out of since you never talk to a live person arranged for it to be delivered to her home the next day. Now and finally give up after being stuck in you all know how this works when you have something like this phone-menu hell for 20 minutes.) delivered. They tell you they will be there between 12 and 2 Anyway…back to my story…The truck because, after all, you don’t have anything better to do than take shows up at 1:30 and the delivery men proceed to take the refrigerator off work and wait for a delivery, right? off the truck. As they unwrap it, Kim 4 | The ProSoft Magazine immediately notices that this is not the Not so at ProSoft Technology. to their hand 24/7. If you have a question right refrigerator. She tells the delivery about a specific product and they don’t man this and he begins to argue with her. Maybe it’s because we started as this little know the answer, they will find out He assures her that it is her refrigerator. mom & pop company and knew most She assures him that it absolutely is of our customers by name. A lot of “old and…wait for it…call you back. What a NOT her refrigerator. This goes on for timers” who were with ProSoft in those concept! 20 minutes. She then whips out her cell days are still with the company. We take a phone to show him the photos she took of great deal of pride in doing a job well. I stumbled across some statistics today the right refrigerator the day she bought Take our Technical Support department from ProSoft Technology’s supply chain it. The delivery man checks his paperwork as an example. Their philosophy is to do that I think best sum up our work ethic and only then decides that, indeed, it whatever it takes to get our customers up isn’t her refrigerator. “Do you have my as it applies to customer service. Did and running. Ask anyone who has called refrigerator on that truck?” Kim asked. you know that 97% of the products ProSoft Technical Support worldwide that are ordered from us are delivered “Well, uh, mmm, let me see…” said the and they will all tell you the same thing. delivery man. These guys know their stuff and they love on time? It’s the truth! The other 3% playing Sherlock Holmes and figuring out are delivered between one and five days He finally decides that her refrigerator is the root of a problem. after we promised them. Yes, I said days, on the truck waaaaay in the back. They wrestle it to the lift gate on the truck and not weeks. And, we only have .8% of begin to take the wrapping off. To Kim’s mediocre and even products returned due to defects. Now let disgust, the first thing she sees is a huge me give you something to compare that dent in the back of the refrigerator. As to. The Food and Drug Administration’s more wrapping comes off she sees a large bad customer scratch on the door handle and several handbook has a list of what are considered smudges on the stainless door. She points service has become acceptable defect statistics for food these out to the delivery man who, again, manufacturers. begins to argue with her, saying she bought the refrigerator “as-is.” the new norm. Raisins: 10 or more whole or equivalent “But it didn’t have those dents and insect parts and 35 fruit fly eggs per every scratches when I bought it,” she said. Not so at prosoft eight ounces. “Sorry ma’am,” he said, “but you’ll have to Frozen strawberries: Average mold count take that up with the store.” technology. of 45%. To make a long story short, three days later, after working her way up through Canned mushrooms: Average of over 20 the chain of command at the store, But it starts with our Customer Service or more maggots per 100 grams.