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Author Profile

Feature Image for Bill Lydon

Bill Lydon

Bill Lydon, an experienced industrial automation technical and business professional, is currently a consultant providing insights, facilitating thinking and coaching for digital manufacturing transformation. Lydon has 35 years of experience, including industrial, Programmable Logic Controller (PLC), process control/DCS, electrical power/utility and building automation with technology and business experience ranging from design, application engineering, corporate experience, co-founder & president of a start-up company. He started his career as a designer of computer-based machine tool controls; in other positions, he applied programmable logic controllers (PLCs) and process control technology. He's trained and experienced as a group Creative Problem Solving & Value Engineering facilitator.

Working at a large company, Lydon served a two-year stint as part of a five-person task group, that designed a new generation automation system including controllers, networking and supervisory and control software. He also designed software for chiller and boiler plant optimization. Bill was the product manager for a multimillion-dollar controls and automation product line and later cofounder and president of an industrial control software company with solutions for factory and process control and automation.

208 Results Found
  • Control Remains Fundamental

    Control Remains Fundamental

    Automation professionals need to take the lead in guiding management to adopt new technology or the organization will become noncompetitive. This feature originally appeared in the February 2022 issue of InTech magazine.
    By: Bill Lydon
    17 February, 2022 | 2 minutes
  • Mary Ramsey Has Advanced ISA, Creating a Better Organization

    Mary Ramsey Has Advanced ISA, Creating a Better Organization

    Mary Ramsey understood that organizations need to periodically recalibrate based on member and industry needs, and she has done a great job of collaborating with staff and member volunteers to craft clear definitions of ISA guiding principles. This article was originally published in the December 2021 issue of InTech magazine.
    By: Bill Lydon
    02 February, 2022 | 2 minutes
    Sponsored By International Society of Automation (ISA)
  • Automation Standards Still Need Work

    Automation Standards Still Need Work

    Has the industrial automation industry matured enough to avoid a standards war like the 1990s “Fieldbus wars?"
    By: Bill Lydon
    27 January, 2022 | 3 minutes
  • AWS IoT TwinMaker Simplifies Digital Twin Implementations

    AWS IoT TwinMaker Simplifies Digital Twin Implementations

    The AWS IoT TwinMaker provides a comprehensive set of tools and services to federate, model and make use of data from any source including sensors, controllers, video, drawings, 3-D models, ERP, logistics and energy to create digital twins leveraging existing and new data sources.
    By: Bill Lydon
    26 January, 2022 | 4 minutes
  • Industrial Automation Standards Convergence or Divergence?

    Industrial Automation Standards Convergence or Divergence?

    Can another standards war be avoided with exciting new industrial multivendor interoperability and plug and play standards?
    By: Bill Lydon
    19 January, 2022 | 3 minutes
  • Experts Discuss Open Process Automation Issues

    Experts Discuss Open Process Automation Issues

    The Coalition for Open Process Automation (COPA) hosted a 90-minute virtual broadcast discussion and first public demonstration of the COPA QuickStart system illustrating the benefits and value of Open Process Automation based on the O-PAS standard.
    By: Bill Lydon
    10 January, 2022 | 8 minutes
  • Enhancing Virtual Events

    Enhancing Virtual Events

    Informal interactions at events foster greater camaraderie in the automation community. You make long-term professional connections and friendships, and these become your personal ecosystem of automation resources. This article was originally published in the October 2021 issue of InTech magazine.
    By: Bill Lydon
    07 January, 2022 | 2 minutes
  • UniversalAutomation.org Launched to Achieve Multivendor Industrial Control Program Portability

    UniversalAutomation.org Launched to Achieve Multivendor Industrial Control Program Portability

    This shared-source, not open-source, code is based on the nxtControl IEC 61499 runtime engine code donated by Schneider Electric.
    By: Bill Lydon
    14 December, 2021 | 4 minutes
  • Koch Ag & Energy High Value Digitalization Deployments Leverages AWS

    Koch Ag & Energy High Value Digitalization Deployments Leverages AWS

    Dave Kroening, IT leader, and Martin Miller, data analytics leader with Koch Ag & Energy, discussed two high value digitalization applications using AWS (Amazon Web Services) including Monitron and SeeQ software in a re:Invent session.
    By: Bill Lydon
    07 December, 2021 | 3 minutes
  • Rockwell Automation Expands Industrial Digitalization Scope

    Rockwell Automation Expands Industrial Digitalization Scope

    At the 2021 Rockwell Automation Fair, the company discussed the expansion of its scope to provide a full set of products and services for manufacturing business digitalization. Rockwell Automation has put together resources, creating a new business model and positioning them as the primary resource for manufacturers industrial digitalization journey, including the conceptual stage, design, deployment and operations.
    By: Bill Lydon
    01 December, 2021 | 3 minutes
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