Xchange 2008 - Judged to be a great success

Cheadle, Cheshire. Nov 6th, 2008 – Wonderware United Kingdom, a business unit of SolutionsPT Ltd, who market and support the world’s leading range of industrial automation and manufacturing execution and technology products, today announced attendance and general feedback on their Xchange 2008  user conference and industry networking event that occurred this week at the Alton Towers Conference Centre in Staffordshire.  

The event opened with a Keynote from Stephen Radley, Chief Economist of EEF – The Manufacturers Organization addressing the highly topical subject of the manufacturing sectors state of readiness to weather economic storms. Mr Radley commented “With consumer spending declining and key export markets in Europe and North America heading for a downturn, manufacturers are facing tough times. But manufacturers are much more competitive than even five years ago and are better placed to withstand the downturn.” 

The second Keynote speaker was Simon Pollard, VP Manufacturing Operations & Execution for SAP EMEA. Mr Pollard spoke about the important subject of integrating shop-floor automation systems with enterprise layer business systems. "There has never been a better time for companies to combine the implementation of next generation manufacturing best practices with significant and welcome reductions in operating cost. 

The partnership between SAP and Wonderware as leaders in their respective fields offers manufacturing companies a low risk roadmap approach to such business goals"said Mr Pollard. Other speakers at Xchange were Michael Grasley, Director of Consulting for Aseco Integrated Systems of Canada; Nick Barnett, Director of Manufacturing Operations EMEA for Microsoft and, from Wonderware Corporation in California, Niels Andersen. Break Out sessions were themed around Hands-on “Come and Play” style workshops, Products & Technology, Applications and Vision.

Over 100 delegates heard about new technology available from SAP, Wonderware, Microsoft and Preactor International. John Bailey, Managing Director of SolutionsPT Limited, the parent company of Wonderware UK, said “We set out to provide our delegates with a definitive range of presentations to address today’s most pressing manufacturing technology challenges. Having so many key people in the same room for two days has been fantastic. Our industry is just as much about ideas and relationships as it is products and technology, so, from a networking standpoint, Xchange 2008 has really delivered.”