While The Organization for Machine Automation and Control (OMAC) has its roots among U.S. multinationals, it continues to gain supporters not only in Europe, but in key developing markets such as India, where Nestlé's well-traveled OMAC demo will appear at no fewer than three trade fairs this year.
Why is this important to B&R? And why did B&R send key packaging machinery business managers from Italy, Germany and North America to UCIMA's Packology fair in Rimini, Italy to support the OMAC demo's presence there?
It is the global nature of the consumer packaged goods (CPG) manufacturers and the packaging machinery and automation suppliers who must support them worldwide. These global CPGs are the core customers for European machinery exporters, and therefore for B&R, with its Global Packaging Solutions Team located in Europe, The Americas, Asia/Pacific, China and India.
The stakes are higher than ever for multinationals, which need to bring their international standards with them to emerging markets - or face chaos in terms of packaging line operations and maintenance. "OMAC is the best thing that could happen to European machine builders," explains Maurizio Tarozzi, Global Technology Manager for B&R's packaging group and representative to UCIMA's membership committee. "We like to say that sharing is winning, and by supporting global adoption of key IEC and ISA standards, along with best practices being developed by OMAC working groups, we all share common ways to communicate in the machinery world."
For Tarozzi, "we embrace the opportunity to help establish these standards and show our customers the benefits of adopting them. It gives them more freedom of choice as well as meeting the needs of the Nestlés of the world."
OMAC member companies include the SESAM consortium in Scandinavia, with members such as Arla Foods. It also includes Bosch Packaging Technologies, MillerCoors, PepsiCo, Procter & Gamble, Pro Mach, and of course B&R.
The Organization for Machine Automation and Control (OMAC) brought its interoperability demonstration unit to the Packology trade show in Rimini, Italy in June. UCIMA, the Italian packaging machinery manufacturers association, invited the standards group to bring the demo unit, introduced to the public by Nestlé at PACK EXPO 2012, to the European fair. Visitors to Packology were given a guided tour by OMAC chair Dr. Bryan Griffen of Nestlé, who explained how four automation suppliers including B&R implemented PackML to coordinate four machine modules over Ethernet. The demo has a storage and feeding module, a vision module, a presentation module and a robotic orienting module, with the robot controlled by B&R.
The booth attracted a number of machine builders and packagers interested in the organization and the full range of international standards being aggregated by the PackSpec committee into a universal User Requirements Specification (uURS) to be completed this year. Instead of inconsistent specifications that often call out individual components that tend to become quickly obsoleted, PackSpec will provide a functionality- and standards-based URS that will save everyone time and money.
For membership information and to learn more about OMAC activities, visit www.omac.org.
Why is this important to B&R? And why did B&R send key packaging machinery business managers from Italy, Germany and North America to UCIMA's Packology fair in Rimini, Italy to support the OMAC demo's presence there?
It is the global nature of the consumer packaged goods (CPG) manufacturers and the packaging machinery and automation suppliers who must support them worldwide. These global CPGs are the core customers for European machinery exporters, and therefore for B&R, with its Global Packaging Solutions Team located in Europe, The Americas, Asia/Pacific, China and India.
The stakes are higher than ever for multinationals, which need to bring their international standards with them to emerging markets - or face chaos in terms of packaging line operations and maintenance. "OMAC is the best thing that could happen to European machine builders," explains Maurizio Tarozzi, Global Technology Manager for B&R's packaging group and representative to UCIMA's membership committee. "We like to say that sharing is winning, and by supporting global adoption of key IEC and ISA standards, along with best practices being developed by OMAC working groups, we all share common ways to communicate in the machinery world."
For Tarozzi, "we embrace the opportunity to help establish these standards and show our customers the benefits of adopting them. It gives them more freedom of choice as well as meeting the needs of the Nestlés of the world."
OMAC member companies include the SESAM consortium in Scandinavia, with members such as Arla Foods. It also includes Bosch Packaging Technologies, MillerCoors, PepsiCo, Procter & Gamble, Pro Mach, and of course B&R.
The Organization for Machine Automation and Control (OMAC) brought its interoperability demonstration unit to the Packology trade show in Rimini, Italy in June. UCIMA, the Italian packaging machinery manufacturers association, invited the standards group to bring the demo unit, introduced to the public by Nestlé at PACK EXPO 2012, to the European fair. Visitors to Packology were given a guided tour by OMAC chair Dr. Bryan Griffen of Nestlé, who explained how four automation suppliers including B&R implemented PackML to coordinate four machine modules over Ethernet. The demo has a storage and feeding module, a vision module, a presentation module and a robotic orienting module, with the robot controlled by B&R.
The booth attracted a number of machine builders and packagers interested in the organization and the full range of international standards being aggregated by the PackSpec committee into a universal User Requirements Specification (uURS) to be completed this year. Instead of inconsistent specifications that often call out individual components that tend to become quickly obsoleted, PackSpec will provide a functionality- and standards-based URS that will save everyone time and money.
For membership information and to learn more about OMAC activities, visit www.omac.org.
