Cisco, GE to link plant, corp. nets

By
Network World, 06/12/00

Cisco and GE Industrial Systems, a supplier of factory control and automation equipment, last week announced they have formed a company to build networks that link the factory floor to the corporate IT infrastructure.

The new company, called GE Cisco Industrial Networks, will use Ethernet to bridge the information gap between the factory floor and the rest of the corporation.

Plant-floor information traditionally has been exchanged over proprietary networks, which cannot communicate with office networks, says Lloyd Trotter, president and CEO of GE Industrial Systems. "The factory floor remains disconnected from the rest of the enterprise, and the promise of e-business cannot be fulfilled," he says.

GE and Cisco officials did not divulge the amount of money each has invested in GE Cisco.

The new venture hopes to lower the cost of installation and maintenance of factory floor networks by using Ethernet, in addition to integrating manufacturing operations with the rest of the corporation and the Internet. The company's mission is reminiscent of the MAP/TOP factory floor and office automation standards initiative of the mid-1980s, which died a slow death because of the market acceptance of Ethernet. MAP, which stands for Manufacturing Automation Protocol, was based on an alternative and less popular IEEE standard.

Available now, GE Cisco's offerings include network design, assessment and troubleshooting; hardware installation, including Cisco products; as well as support, training, maintenance and remote monitoring.

In equipment bids, GE Cisco will pitch gear from its parent companies. But in service bids, the company will work with whichever equipment customers want or have installed, GE Cisco officials say.

Jeff Pompeo will be president and CEO of the new company. Pompeo joined GE in 1995, serving most recently as chief information officer for GE Fanuc Automation, a supplier of industrial automation controls.

The company will be headquartered in Charlottesville, Va., and employ 45 to 50 field engineers by year-end.