Patti Engineering Insight

I am a transplant to the state of Michigan. One place in the state I have fallen in love with is Mackinac Island (pronounced MACK-in-aw). The Island has an 8 mile perimeter and is located within sight of the Mackinac Bridge which connects the upper and lower peninsulas. The Island prohibits the use of motor vehicles. The only vehicles on the Island are emergency vehicles. To get around, you must walk, get a taxi (horse drawn), or use a bicycle.

My brother-in-law David and his wife, Barb, have a vacation home on the Island and have invited the whole family up the last 3 years to shack up with them one weekend (there were 23 of us this past weekend). The weekend has been one of the highlights of our recent summers. An annual baseball game has been played at the Great Turtle Park and I am not so proud to report that my daughter and wife each matched my hit total of 1 (and my side, the Tigers, lost to the Yankees 9-8 in extra innings).

80% of the Island is owned by the State and controlled by the Mackinac State Historic Parks. Fort Mackinac, now maintained by the Park, was controlled by the British in both the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812. The State maintains the Governor’s summer residence on the Island and I have it on good authority that Governor Granholm attended services at St. Ann’s Catholic Church on the Island this past Sunday.

There are a little over 500 year round residents on the Island. In the winter, when the Ferries are no longer running, the only way to get off the Island is by air or by snowmobile once the lake has frozen (The residents use snowmobiles in the winter to navigate the Island). The Island has its own public school with less than 100 students k-12.

There are three 9-hole golf courses on the Island. Having played all three courses I highly recommend the Wawashkamo Golf Club. Although it will never make the golf digest top-100 list, it has a unique feel as it is an original links style course dating to 1898. The Grand Hotel is the most famous Hotel on the Island, but having spent my 5th wedding anniversary there in 1996, I found it overrated and overpriced. I recommend renting a room at Stonecliffe which is located on a beautiful piece of property far enough out of town to be peaceful.

When you stay on the Island, you will find that a ride through the center of the Island is pretty awesome. You will struggle biking up to the center, but the ride down is awesome. Be careful of coming down too fast by the Grand Hotel, as my nephew once got a speeding ticket on his bicycle! You will find the bars on the Island are pretty lively at night and a moonlight run around MI-185 is a great way to work off those 2 beers from Horn’s Bar.

Hopefully you will also have the opportunity to enjoy the Island the way my family and I have.

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I have seen large companies stress over which software package or suite they are going to standardize on for months. For the ERP system they may choose Manhattan Associates, MFG/PRO, or Peoplesoft. At an MES level the question may be Iconics, Simatic IT, or Cimplicity. At the plant floor level they will agonize on whether to use PC based control (such as SteeplechaseVLC) or a traditional PLC approach, whether Rockwell, Siemens, or Mitsubishi.

Often, these same companies will spend months of time and resources to select a package, then select an integration partner in a couple of days with limited research and limited due diligence, thereby treating the integration as a commodity.  Take this as gospel:  this solution is going to come off poorly unless properly integrated.

The Package Supplier is often not a good resource as the common sales pitch is “our stuff is so easy, anyone can program it,” or “we have our own integration team” (which mean they will charge 50% more for personnel who has 50% less experience and will never address or use any other solutions to work around the shortcomings that any package has).

An independent systems integrator is the key to your program being successful. If you are looking at the MES and plant floor level, I would highly suggest using a certified control systems integrator. By being certified, the company has been audited to ensure that they are meeting the best practices and benchmarks of the CSIA. The CSIA puts out a great resource for companies that will be selecting and working with an integrator. The document is completely free and titled “Guide for Selecting and Working with a Control Systems Integrator”

A good Integration partner will be concerned about your overall success as well as the success of the project. They will understand the need for the ERP, MES, and Floor Level Systems to appear seamless and support all phases of the business. Often the good integration partner will question and suggest ways to improve the business. They will also document the planned system before any code is written through means of a detailed functional specification.

Good Luck on your next project, and remember selecting the right integration partner is as important or more important than selecting the package.