Positive attitude pervades “Microsoft in manufacturing” user group

Erik Goode is chief architect of the plant controls group at Cargill, a food and agricultural products manufacturer. As such, Goode has an abiding interest in use of Microsoft technology in production environments, and serves as the current chairman of the Microsoft Manufacturing Users Group (MS MUG).

MS MUG was formed in 1999 to define and resolve issues related to such things as version management, systems integration, maintenance, and supplier responsibility as they apply to Microsoft in manufacturing.

Over time, says Goode, the atmosphere surrounding the group's efforts has taken a definite change for the better.

“If you go back to 2004, life-cycle support for many Microsoft products was being set, and there was a definite reaction to that from the group. Subsequently, support was extended for a number of products,” says Goode.

The user group is affiliated with The Open Modular Architecture Controls Users' Group (OMAC), which in turn is affiliated with ISA, the Instrumentation, Systems, and Automation Society.

Earlier this year, Microsoft and MS MUG hosted a Manufacturing Operations Forum. Of 140 attendees, 60 percent represented users, and 40 percent Microsoft or vendors partnering with Microsoft in the manufacturing space. In a pre-event survey, 80 percent of user attendees said their plant IT infrastructure is based entirely on Microsoft technology.

“The group recognizes today that Microsoft beats the heck out of proprietary technologies, and if there are issues to be addressed, there are ways we can work together. The group understands now that Microsoft is sincerely interested in hearing what we have to say,” says Goode.

Chris Colyer, worldwide director of manufacturing operations for Microsoft, says MS MUG is positioned to play a real role in furnishing a feedback mechanism to Microsoft about what it can do better. “The group represents an opportunity to have a meaningful exchange of views, something people have said they wanted,” says Colyer.

With patch management being a real issue—32 percent of attending users indicating they don't test patches before applying them, and 31 percent saying their reboots were based on patches—Goode says interest is high concerning the Microsoft Vista operating system, which is said to be less “patch-intensive.”

MS MUG's role here can be to help establish benchmarks that justify Vista operating system upgrades to upper management, says Goode.