The Organization for Machine Automation and Control (OMAC) on May 28 announced the addition of their newest board of directors member, Rick VanDyke of Frito-Lay. VanDyke was named to the OMAC board at its meeting held in Orlando in conjunction with the ARC Forum.
VanDyke is a senior group manager of FACTS (Factory Automation Control System Technology Systems) for the Frito-Lay division of PepsiCo, a position he has held since December 2005. He holds a bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering from the University of Kentucky. Prior to joining Frito-Lay, VanDyke worked for Procter & Gamble for more than 15 years in corporate engineering and in a variety of engineering positions throughout the different global business units. Before joining Procter & Gamble, VanDyke worked for Brown & Williamson Tobacco for three years. While at P&G, he became an active member of OMAC.
Prior to his appointment to the board, VanDyke has served as chairman of the OMAC Packaging Workgroup (OPW) since October 2006. In this role, he has worked tirelessly to promote the OPW Connect-and-Pack effort with users, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and technology providers.
When asked about what he hoped to accomplish through OMAC, VanDyke responded, “My goal for OMAC is to improve the overall capability of the automation control industry’s ability to drive business results through high-performance manufacturing and warehouse systems. The majority of the controls community’s activities revolve around the non-valued activity of integrating systems. What matters the most is that our solutions provide value to the business and to the operational users of our systems. For the controls community to get to a new S-curve on business impact, we need to come together as a group and commercialize common proven business, operational, and technology solutions (e.g. Overall Equipment Effectiveness(OEE)) so we can move on to solving other important business opportunities. If we provide a common robust infrastructure for the known solutions, it will be much easier for the industry to drive valued business results with additional capabilities on top of the common platform. Then we can move from costing money to enabling our businesses to make money.”
In addition to being elected to the OMAC Board at the ARC Forum, VanDyke took the initiative to develop and facilitate the creation of a new MES Definition Team. This team will develop user-based MES functionality definitions, standards, and requirements that leverage the data from the PackML and PackTags standard championed by the OMAC Packaging Workgroup.
To learn more about OMAC, the OPW, and the Connect-and-Pack standards, visit www.omac.org.
About OMAC
The Organization for Machine Automation and Control is the global organization for automation and manufacturing professionals that is dedicated to supporting the machine automation and operational needs of manufacturing. OMAC has about 500 members from end-user companies, OEMs, and technology providers and integrator companies, and currently operates three working groups: Packaging Machinery, Manufacturing Infrastructure, and Machine Tool. OMAC is a charter member of the Automation Federation (www.automationfederation.org).