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Why are Productivity PLCs Special? - FACTS Engineering Interview at AutomationDirect
To learn more: https://www.AutomationDirect.com/productivity?utm_source=zsDUVnw7N8E&utm_medium=VideoTeamDescription
(VID-OT-0033)
FACTS Engineering’s VP of Engineering Rick Walker discusses how and why Productivity PLCs came about, what makes them different, and where the Productivity family is headed. We cover the Productivity family of PLCs including the arduino-compatible platform.
Online Support Page: https://community.automationdirect.com/s/?utm_source=zsDUVnw7N8E&utm_medium=VideoTeamDescription
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The Productivity family of PLCs has definitely been an achievement between Facts Engineering and AutomationDirect. Can you give us a little bit of information like why has it been so successful for all of us? Well, I think that really goes back to, you know the reason why we started it anyway. I mean, as AutomationDirect, as their customer base grew and really what made them so great is that tight relationship with the customer. You didn't have all these middlemen in between the manufacturer and the customer. So, as part of that customers started opening up and really sharing what they wanted in the next generation PLC. So, what, what we started hearing was customers wanted a low-cost solution. They wanted something that was super easy to use. They wanted something that would visually show them when they hooked up to the system that would discover the modules there. Not just give them a text list, but show them a picture of the modules and then you know what, it'd be great if you could click on that module and configure it right there in your, in your software. So, those are the kind of things that we started hearing from the customers. And they also wanted a family of products because not everybody's application is the same size and customers may have multiple applications that that expand on a certain process that a machine does. So, they wanted a platform that where they could start with a small project and as that project grew, that they could expand that to onto a larger PLC platform. And that's really what gives us the, that scalability with the Productivity family - with the P1000, the P2000, and the P3000 - which projects can easily be converted and moved from one family to another depending on the I/O requirements for the individual application. So, customers really want and require ease of use on these products. How did that evolve with the Productivity suite, or the Productivity hardware? Well, at facts you know, we're hardware experts. You know, we love doing analog modules and we love doing the hardware design. So, when we started talking with AutomationDirect about the next generation PLC which became Productivity, AutomationDirect, they have such that such good relationship with the customers, and you know what the customers wanted. So, they really felt like they would like to have control over what the GUI was going to look like. AutomationDirect formed its own internal software development team in 2003. This team works closely with FACTS Engineering to ensure seamless integration between the Productivity suite programming software and FACTS Engineering's hardware, providing customers with not only hardware that's easy to use, but an extremely user-friendly software package as well. So, with industry changing so much and technology changing so much, are there any trends that y'all are seeing that you want to try to, you know maybe work in and develop anything new or what do y'all see for the future? We recently visited some local manufacturing plants you know just to ask them what kind of things are they looking at. It's great to have local manufacturers that use your products where you can go ask them hey hey what are you guys looking into? And one of the top things that keep coming up is the wiring cost for the actual machines are just going through the roof. So, they're asking for more innovative ways you know to reduce those wiring costs. Again, it's all about just increasing the productivity of a customer.
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