03 Jul

Happy Birthday Synergy!

Happy Birthday Synergy!

Tomorrow is the 4th of July, America’s Independence Day and, like other patriots around the country, we are excited to meet with friends and family, enjoy a good meal and watch firework displays.  It’s a day that reminds us of all that makes our country great and helps us better envision a future even more great than our present.

Check out our Energy Patriot pilot program to see how we are trying to promote a vision of an Energy Independent America.

There is more to celebrate today than just the eve of Independence Day. Today, 34 years ago, was the day Synergy Systems Inc. was born.  We had a small celebration in our office to commemorate the event, complete with cake.

As if that wasn’t enough reason to celebrate, we hit another milestone this week as one of the top 100 System Integrator Giants of 2013. Based on 2012 data, we are listed 79th on the list.

The article, published on pages 46 – 56 in the June issue of Control Engineering had some interesting states about the industry of system integration and the 100 giants that define the business.  The importance of CSIA (Control System Integrators Association) Certification was clearly seen, as the magazine reported that 57 percent of giants are certified. This is up from 43 percent last year.

In addition, CSIA was among the top affiliations of giants, along with NFPA (Nation Fire Protection Agency) and ISA (The International Society of Automation).  We are proud to have all of these as our affiliations as well. In addition, Rockwell Automation brands to the first three places on the list of brands preferred among integrators.

Perhaps brightest of all, was the news that the number of integrators reporting the economy as a challenge to their business fell significantly. Instead, this year the biggest challenge is finding skilled workers to hire. While this is a significant challenge, it is also a sign of progress showing that integrators are looking to hire.

We have a lot to celebrate this holiday weekend. We here at Synergy hope you all have a safe and joyful time with your friends and family. Happy 4th of July.

26 Jun

The Benefit of Holidays for Plants and Industries

Energy PatriotThe 4th of July is almost here and numerous plants will take some down time, or at the very least reduce their operation to the bare essentials, so that employees can celebrate pride in their country with their families. While the 4th is a great time to set aside political differences and embrace unified pride, it also provides a great time for plants to perform maintenance work on the plant.

An article from Control Engineering specifically points out computer numerical control (CNC) maintenance, noting that scheduled down time provides an opportunity to make sure all equipment is performing optimally and all batteries have enough power in them. A complete memory back up can also be done during this period and is essential if it has been a while since the last backup. We’ve been talking a lot about cyber security this year and one of your best tools to protect yourself is having a backup in place. Then, regardless of what happens, you have something to fall back on.

In addition, the holiday may be the perfect time to perform a boiler assessment to identify areas where production could be improved. While this is something that can be done at any time, holidays tend to provide at least a couple days where demand at a boiler room or plant is relatively low. Since activity is as low as it ever is, an assessment can be carried out with extremely low impact on the overall function of the plant for that day.

In the spirit of American pride, consider also looking for way in which your energy use can be optimized. Those who take great strides to lower the electrical load and pollution generated by their plant are recognized by Synergy as Energy Patriots. In the past, we have awarded plants with an Energy Patriot pin for their achievements. The Energy Patriot Pilot program is not just about the conservation of energy, but about reducing energy demand as a whole so that a day may come when America is energy independent.