Industry News, Trends and Technology, and Standards Updates

You may have noticed that there is a lot of positive news regarding the semiconductor industry and market for capital equipment. As such, we thought it would be appropriate to provide a mid-year update on Cimetrix’s performance.

We are pleased to report that Cimetrix is benefiting from a combination of the industry upcycle as well as the hard work of our employees to improve our products, build long-term relationships with our clients, and provide the highest level of support to our growing base of international clients. In addition, the benefits that Cimetrix is experiencing after going private in 2014 are higher than anticipated. As expected, the company is saving a significant amount per year in accounting, legal and consulting fees that were necessary for SEC filings, Sarbanes-Oxley compliance, and investor relations activities.  However, in addition to these financial benefits,  what we didn’t anticipate was the tremendous increase in focus and energy on our clients, markets and growth initiatives that has resulted, which has greatly exceeded our expectations.Cimetrix revenues for the first six months of 2017 were over $4M, up more than 40% year-over-year. Much of this increase was associated with strong increases in machine shipments from our growing client base. Cimetrix also gained over a dozen new design wins during the first half of 2017, which positions the Company for continued growth. In addition, Cimetrix introduced two new products in the first half of 2017, which have not contributed significant revenue yet, but are both gaining traction in the marketplace.

While Cimetrix no longer submits SEC filings, we have maintained strong internal controls and financial accounting. Our finance team was justifiably proud when a leading regional accounting firm completed its audit of our 2016 financial statements and made no audit adjustments. Cimetrix continues to operate profitably on a quarterly basis, while increasing investments in growth initiatives. For the first six months of 2017, adjusted EBITDA increased to over 15% of revenues to over $600K. All indicators show the markets Cimetrix serves should remain strong for the second half of 2017. The robust growth in revenues has enabled Cimetrix to further strengthen its cash position, balance sheet and stockholders’ equity. We continue to have no debt and now have $2.5M in cash.

Cimetrix continues to build its global brand as the leader in innovative factory automation software for equipment connectivity and control solutions by attending, presenting and exhibiting at industry tradeshows and events. These venues are a great place to meet face-to-face with clients, reinforce Cimetrix experts as industry thought leaders, and interact with many others in our chosen markets. It is exciting to participate in shows around the world as we expand our global presence.

We thank our clients for their business and trust in our products and people. We thank our employees for their dedication, hard work and quest for continuous improvement to provide the industry’s best products and services. And we also thank our shareholders for the confidence they have placed in us, as well as their patience and support.

Michael Lee of Cimetrix announces the Taiwan Office Opening. Read now in Chinese or English.

當工廠的產品需要加入更多的功能，交期需要更迅速，工資需要提高，智慧製造提供了一個最好的解決方案。美商矽美科所提供的工廠自動化軟體，提升了聯繫工廠主機與設備控制在半導體、電子組裝、太陽能模組、發光二極體等相關的電子產業。我們在工業界領先的產品，給予客戶用較低的成本、客制化生產、迅速上市，並集中在成功實行工具控制與SEMI標準。

我很榮幸在今年二月進入美商矽美科。我們和知名的半導體廠商、印刷電路板商、設備商、機器人製造商等客戶合作，而這些公司給予我們最佳的評價。矽美科帶給他們一個極為經濟、有效率和聯繫良好的方案。我們提供了CIMConnect, EDA等產品來滿足廠商不同的需求。

矽美科台灣辦公室將在5月31日開幕。我們感謝我們的客戶跟合作夥伴。我們將帶給你更方便、更熱情的服務，並展望在台灣及中國服務更多半導體、電路板和面板廠商。 

台灣銷售辦事處：

Cimetrix International, Inc., Taiwan Branch
美商矽美科國際股份有限公司台灣分公司4F., No.301,
Sec. 2, Tiding Blvd,
Taipei 114, Taiwan, R.O.C.
中華民國台灣台北市堤頂大道二段301號4樓 114

電話： +886-926395649
聯絡人：Michael Lee

I was honored to join the Cimetrix team in February earlier this year. We work with major semiconductor companies, PCB manufacturers, equipment vendors, robotics specialists and more. I was happy to know that everyone I've worked with has high praise for this company.  Cimetrix can bring their customers and clients connected products that are efficient and cost-effective. Cimetrix offers a large portfolio of products such as CIMConnect, HostConnect, and EDA to meet the various needs of their customers.

The Cimetrix International, Inc., Taiwan Branch officially opened on May 31, 2017. Thanks to all our partners and customers. We hope to continue to bring you convenient and passionate service. I am looking forward to working with all our current and future customers in Taiwan and China! 

Contact Us:
Cimetrix International, Inc., Taiwan Branch
4F., No. 301,
Sec. 2, Tiding Blvd,
Taipei 114, Taiwan, R.O.C.

Phone: +886-926395649
Contact： Michael Lee

Join us as we meet the Leadership Team of Cimetrix in the second post in our “Meet the Team” series.

Jodi Juretich joined Cimetrix in May 2007 and was promoted to Chief Financial Officer in November 2008. She has over 15 years of experience in executive accounting management for private high-growth companies and 10 years of public accounting experience. Prior to joining Cimetrix, Jodi was Vice President of Finance for two venture funded private companies, General Manager for a subsidiary of Monster.com, and an Accounting Manager with a division of The Times Mirror Company (Los Angeles Times). She has played key roles in raising venture capital in start-up organizations and led Cimetrix in implementing and managing the new Sarbanes-Oxley compliance requirements. Jodi earned a bachelor's in Business Management from Westminster College. Juretich grew up in Titusville, Fl., where her father worked for NASA, but has been living in Utah for almost 20 years. She currently sits on the Board of Directors for the Utah Foster Care Foundation.

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What brought you to Cimetrix originally?

I moved to Salt Lake City in 1996 and I celebrated my 10-year anniversary with Cimetrix this year. It’s an interesting story of how I got connected with Cimetrix and proof that networking works! A local CFO consulting firm had my resume which they passed on to a local CPA firm, which happened to be Cimetrix’s CPA firm at the time. They passed my resume on to Cimetrix and the rest is history. I was attracted to Cimetrix because it was a small company and had strong leadership with heart and passion.

What's your favorite thing about working at Cimetrix?

Most definitely the people, without a doubt. Cimetrix’s core values include Integrity, defined as “Upholding the Highest Ethical Standards in Everything We do”. I could not work for a company where bad behavior or unethical practices were tolerated.

What do you think makes a good CFO?

A good CFO must be suspicious of everything and can’t be bamboozled by anyone, no matter the circumstances. I am responsible for making sure the books are clean, people are doing what they say they are doing and we are making decisions based on increasing shareholder value and not personal or “alternative” agendas.  I am proud to say that we have our financials audited by independent third-party auditors each year and this year, we did not have any audit adjustments. My peers in the finance world know that’s no simple accomplishment. I have an incredible accounting team and they are committed to maintaining solid internal controls to prove there is no monkey-business going on.

CFOs at smaller and mid-size companies often wear a lot of different hats, tell us about your experience with that.

I have worked for small companies for most my career and have had similar experiences at all: You must be agile as a CFO of a small company because there are not layers of people to delegate responsibilities to. You must recognize your own capacity in terms of work load and technical expertise and know when to ask for help. Establishing good relationships with third-party professionals as well as your own network is vital. No one knows everything and you must be prepared to call on those relationships when necessary.

Do you have a favorite quote?

“If you say you can, you will, if you say you can’t, you won’t.” I continue to be amazed at what we, as human beings, are capable of. During the mortgage crisis when businesses were closing right and left, including many of our clients, Cimetrix survived. A business must have grit to survive hard times and Cimetrix has lots of grit.

How do you deal with challenges that come up in your work life?

I like to reflect on the Basic Principles, which I learned from a wonderful employer a long time ago.  

• Focus on the situation, issue, or behavior, not on the person.
• Maintain the self-confidence and self-esteem of others.
• Maintain constructive relationships.
• Take the initiative to make things better.
• Lead by example.
• Think beyond the moment.

What do you like to do in your free time?

Since 2012, I’ve been competing in triathlons, completing 3 half Ironman’s and 2 full Ironman’s in the last 4 years. This year, I am committed to relaxing a little more, taking a few more vacations with my husband and son and work in my garden.

What's the best thing that's happened to you in your time working at Cimetrix?

The best thing that’s happened to me at Cimetrix is the professional growth, feeling that I make a difference and friendships made. Cimetrix is a great place to work.  

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Join us as we meet the Leadership Team of Cimetrix in this first post of our “Meet the Team” series

Bob Reback — has served as President and CEO of the company since June 2001. Bob joined Cimetrix as Vice President of Sales in January 1996, was promoted to Executive Vice President of Sales in January 1997, and became President on June 25, 2001.  Bob grew up in Wisconsin and is an enthusiastic Green Bay Packers fan. We talked to Bob about how he got started at Cimetrix, the makings of a good CEO, and the challenges of running a global business.

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What brought you to Cimetrix originally?

My background was in robotics and factory automation. I worked at Texas Instruments in the ‘80s when TI’s business was booming and had the opportunity to deploy leading robotics and factory automation technologies of that era. I became involved in the semiconductor industry in the mid-80s with an important project which was one of the first applications of clean-room robots and the SEMI Equipment Communications Standard (SECS) to fully automate a lithography bay. This led to additional factory automation projects with the world’s leading semiconductor manufacturers, including the first uses of the new Generic Equipment Model (GEM) standard. In the early ‘90s, I moved to California to work for FANUC Robotics, the world’s largest robot maker. While at FANUC Robotics, Cimetrix called and recruited me. Cimetrix had a unique concept for a PC-based open architecture robot controller, which had the potential to disrupt the growing robotics industry.

What’s your favorite thing about working at Cimetrix?

There are several things that get me really energized. The first is meeting with a client who is an enthusiastic reference for Cimetrix. Fortunately, these meetings now occur on a frequent basis, and have become our expectation. These meetings are very enjoyable and personally satisfying, as I get to hear wonderful stories about how Cimetrix team members worked hard and took extra care to help our clients. The second thing is seeing the individual professional development of the great people who work at Cimetrix. We invest a lot in building the Cimetrix culture, emphasizing continuous improvement, and establishing shared values. It is a joy to see Cimetrix employees grow in not only the skill sets of their craft, but also in their professional careers.

What do you think makes a good CEO?

Well, I believe there are a number of things necessary to be a good CEO. First, I believe the focus must be on creating long-term value and building a company that lasts. This means looking at “What is best for Cimetrix?” over the long term. You must consider the interests of shareholders, clients and employees, while also ensuring every decision reflects the Company values. I believe the values and culture of the company start at the top. The CEO must personally possess the values he or she wants in the company, and demonstrate those values by example. They can’t just appear on a poster on the breakroom wall - you’ve got to really live and breathe them. They should be communicated and celebrated regularly, and there must be consequences for those whose actions do not reflect the company’s values.

Second, being a good CEO means being a good teacher who is able to listen, understand, empathize, and mentor. To do this, the CEO must be secure in his position - slow to blame others for problems, and quick to give credit to others when good things happen.

In addition, I believe the CEO must have passion and perseverance in the business. You never know what challenges may arise, and the CEO must be ready and able to lead the team in overcoming whatever obstacles the world may throw at us. It’s important for the CEO to have passion in order to articulate and reach alignment on the vision for the company, because you need people to be excited and energized about their role in fulfilling that vision.

Do you have a favorite quote?

People at Cimetrix know I read a lot of biographies, and can pull out quotes for almost any occasion. If I had to choose one favorite, I would go with the classic Vince Lombardi, “The will to win is not nearly so important as the will to prepare to win.”

How do you deal with challenges that come up in your work life?

First I refresh my memory and review what were the real goals and objectives we were trying to achieve. Then I try to understand the possible options, how much time we have to make a decision, and whether or not we have time to gather more data. We also always check to ensure that any decision reflects our company values, and discard options that might not reflect them.

What do you like to do in your free time?

I love to read on a wide variety of topics, especially history and biographies. I believe in doing some physical exercise on a daily basis, which might be running, biking, golfing, or skiing. I’ve also developed an interest in mindfulness and meditation which has led to some formal classes, retreats, and a regular yoga practice.

What’s the best thing that’s happened to you in your time working at Cimetrix?

Without a doubt, it would have to be all the wonderful people I’ve come to know, which includes clients, shareholders and employees. It also gives me genuine pleasure to see the company grow, and to work with satisfied clients and the truly great team of people we have here at Cimetrix. We’ve invested a lot in continually improving our software products, and know our clients can use our products to achieve success in their projects. We’re also seeing the financial rewards that come with that growth, using our profits to invest in some new products and markets to support that growth over the long term. It’s exciting for me to consider what’s possible in the next phase of our evolution as a company. We have a clear vision for how we can grow our markets, expand our product offerings, add more value for our clients, and do all that in a way that provides a good return to our shareholders. 

Finally, we know you travel quite a bit with your job. What have you learned from your travels?

For the past 20 years, Cimetrix has developed a client base across the US, Europe and Japan. This has provided many opportunities to travel to semiconductor regions in the US, such as the Bay Area, Portland, Phoenix, Austin, Boston and many other cities. We have clients in almost every European country, each with its own culture and work habits. Japan was the first Asian country in which we developed a meaningful client base. Japan requires a lot of patience as it has a unique culture, but once you establish a solid reputation and client base, it is a great place to do business.

Recently we’ve been developing business opportunities in Taiwan, Korea, China and southeast Asia. It has been fascinating to recruit staff and open offices in these areas, as each country has its unique ways of doing business. Cimetrix has become a truly international company with a diverse group of employees, as we now have employees from many different countries.

If I had to summarize what I’ve learned, it is that even though we have employees and clients from a wide range of backgrounds and perspectives, we also share many similarities. People want to be treated with respect, they want to be appreciated for their contributions, they want to be part of a team in which they take pride, and everyone wants to provide a good living for their family. I am convinced we can build a great company with employees from many different backgrounds while also having a shared Cimetrix culture and set of values.

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Thanks Bob for a great interview!

To the Cimetrix community of clients, partners, shareholders and employees,

Cimetrix had another year of solid progress during 2016. Financial results were in-line with expectations, as Cimetrix continued to achieve profitability every quarter with full-year revenue in the $6M to $7M range.

Our key highlights include:

• Cimetrix continued to enhance its reputation for product quality and the highest levels of customer support in the industry, receiving consistently excellent feedback from our client base.

• Cimetrix continued to invest in building great products with new releases of all our product lines. Substantial improvements were made in both new features and internal testing that will benefit our clients for many years. 

• Cimetrix gained additional “design wins” for its products in North America, Europe and Japan, where the company has an established presence. In addition, Cimetrix won important new clients in China and Korea. 

• Cimetrix strengthened its organization as we added a number of new employees in business development, software engineering and technical support functions. The Company continued to invest in employee development, education and continuous improvement. We believe the concepts and training we’ve received in lean and agile processes will enable Cimetrix to build better products and more efficiently provide our clients with the highest levels of service. 

• Cimetrix made a number of key investments that we believe will lead to future long-term growth. We strengthened our local sales and technical support in a number of Asian countries. We developed a number of new product prototypes in collaboration with key clients leading to the introduction of an exciting new Cimetrix product in 2016. Several other new products are in development and have the potential to significantly expand our markets.

Cimetrix also held its first shareholder meeting since going private in late 2014, which provided a forum to explain to shareholders why the Company took that important step, the progress we’ve made since going private, and our future plans. As a result of generating positive cash flow from operations, Cimetrix was able to continue providing liquidity for shareholders that contacted the Company. Prior to going private, the Company had over 4.5M shares outstanding, adjusted for stock splits. As of December 31, 2016, the Company had fewer than 3.9M shares outstanding. This means that every current shareholder’s ownership percentage has increased by over 15%.

Going Forward

Going forward, industry analysts predict an increase in semiconductor capital equipment spending for 2017. In addition, we are seeing increased traction for the relatively new SEMI Standards for Equipment Data Acquisition (EDA), also known as Interface A. We believe these trends will enable us to achieve short-term incremental increases in revenue that support continued operations on a profitable basis and investments in new products and markets that will lead to longer-term step function increases in revenue.

We will continue to focus on satisfying our worldwide base of clients, improving our efficiencies and effectiveness, and executing our plan to expand the markets for Cimetrix products for long-term growth.

From all of us at Cimetrix, we thank our clients for the trust they have placed in our products and our team. We also thank our shareholders for their patience and support. 

Sincerely,

Robert H. Reback
President and Chief Executive Officer

The 14th innovations forum for automation was held on January 19 and 20, 2017 at the DGUV Akademie in Dresden, Germany.

Cimetrix was one of the sponsors of the conference.  Dresden is hot bed for semiconductor manufacturing in Europe.  In fact, 50% of the chip output from Europe comes from Dresden. The conference is organized by the Automation Network Dresden which consists of 5 Dresden based companies; AIS, HAP, Ortner, SYSTEMA and Xenon.  SYSTEMA is a Cimetrix partner and helps us with integration projects. 

The focus of the conference is to bring the latest information on best practices, new technologies and the future of automation.  Themes this year were Smart Manufacturing, Industry 4.0 and IIOT (Industrial Internet of Things).  Presentations by Bosch about their automation roadmap, Infineon about running experiments in a highly automated fab, Kostal about standardizing MES, and IAV about the challenges of automated driving where a few of the interesting case studies and technologies.  This is a great conference to meet semiconductor professionals from Europe and learn what the European community is doing in the area of fab automation. For Cimetrix, it is good to see that equipment to host connectivity plays a key role in all the projects outlined during the conference. Sponsoring and attending gave us the opportunity to meet with current customers and start discussions with new potential customers. 

Before the conference, SYSTEMA held an Expert Day session at the SYSTEMA facility in Dresden on the morning of January 19.  The session was a series of presentations targeting predictive maintenance.  SYSTEMA and its partners have a wealth of experience in this area.  

Exhibiting at SEMICON Taiwan for the second time in as many years, Cimetrix significantly expanded its presence at the show with a booth in the Smart Manufacturing Pavilion. Like last year, we shared an exhibit with one of our Taiwan partner companies, Flagship International.

Since the semiconductor industry is one of the most important economic engines in Taiwan, this year’s Gala Dinner at the Grand Hyatt featured an excellent and supportive speech by the country’s new President, Dr. Ing-Wen Tsai. Taiwan’s tech industries have had a solid year thus far, leading other regions of the world and capturing additional market share.

In recent years, SEMI has increased its emphasis on focused “educational” forums at its SEMICON shows, and set a new high-water mark at SEMICON Taiwan with 20 of these events ranging from Design to Materials to Packaging to Overseas Investmen. Cimetrix was privileged to be named as one of the speakers at the Smart Manufacturing Forum, which included presentations by a variety of thought leaders from UMC, Rockwell Automation, ASE, and others. Alan Weber represented Cimetrix with a presentation entitled “Realizing Smart Manufacturing in Semiconductor Industry with SEMI Standards,” making the case that the industry’s factories already embody many of the characteristics of a Smart Manufacturing environment by virtue of the latest generations of SEMI Standards that support the required connectivity and control capabilities.

As a specific example, the UMC “Big Data to Manufacturing Excellence” presentation by Mr. James Lin described the “Wait Time Waste” analysis application, which is directly enabled by the SEMI E168 (Product Time Measurement) standard and the underlying detailed equipment event data called for in the E164 (EDA Common Metadata) standard.

To support the level of ongoing activity at the show and elsewhere in Taiwan, the Cimetrix contingent also included Derek Lindsey and Kerry Iwamoto, shown here during one of quieter moments in the booth.

Another highlight of the week for Cimetrix was participation in the eMDC (e-Manufacturing & Design Collaboration Symposium), now in its 10th year in Taiwan. Alan Weber made a presentation entitled “The Role of Models in Semiconductor Smart Manufacturing” that echoed a number of the messages shared at the Smart Manufacturing Forum but with heavier emphasis on the manufacturing applications that are enabled.

The basic idea is that most of the information required to support generic process monitoring and calculation of productivity KPIs is now mandated by the latest generation of equipment model standards, and this promises to drastically reduce the factory cost of developing and integrating these applications.
 
On a final note, in discussing the use of the SEMI EDA standards for critical production applications with a number of the leading chip makers during the week, it seems that we are now very close to an industry tipping point for the adoption of this technology. This has been a long time in coming, and opens up a realm of exciting new possibilities for consumers of detailed equipment and process data!

When my daughter turned one year old, she got a very soft blanket as a birthday present. She loved that blanket and would take it everywhere with her. She couldn’t/wouldn’t go to sleep at night without it. When she got old enough to talk, she called it her special blanket or “spesh.” Needless to say, after many years of toting that blanket around, it started to wear out – in fact, it started getting downright nasty. She adamantly refused to part with it even though it was just a rag with little redeeming value.

A couple of years ago, Microsoft made the following announcement: “After 12 years, support for Windows XP ended April 8, 2014. There will be no more security updates or technical support for the Windows XP operating system. It is very important that customers and partners migrate to a modern operating system.”

In the immortal words of Dr. Leonard “Bones” McCoy from Star Trek, “It’s dead Jim!”

Many arguments have been proffered on both sides as to why users should stay with or move away from XP. Windows XP was first introduced in 2001. That makes the operating system 15 years old — an eternity in computer years. The main argument I see for upgrading from XP is that it is impossible to keep up with advances to the .NET framework and remain on the old operating system. By staying with XP, you are missing out on new features and technologies. These features include taking advantage of better hardware integration for improved system performance and being able to use 64-bit applications and memory space.

Since Microsoft no longer supports XP and no longer provides security updates for the OS, staying with XP is a security risk. Any security holes that have been discovered since Microsoft withdrew support have been ruthlessly targeted.

To come full circle, my daughter finally did give up the little rag that she had left of the blanket. I don’t remember what ultimately made her give it up. She is now 18 and a few months ago, we came across that small piece of her special little blanket that we had stored away. The rag brought back good memories, but we were both glad it had been retired. Isn’t it time to do the same with XP?♦

An issue that inevitably crops up in long-running, complex software systems is memory use. In the worst cases it manifests as a crash after several hours or days of running when the software has consumed all available memory.

Another inevitability is that these out-of-memory crashes are found very late in the development cycle, just prior to a delivery date. Or, worse, they are found after delivery. Given the fact that the crashes take hours or days to occur because the testing cycles are very long, they cause a lot of stress for the development team and frequently delay delivery.

The rest of this blog contains a proposed process to find these issues sooner in the development process and some tools to help the developer investigate memory use.

Early and continuous testing of the software system is the key to avoiding delivery of memory leaks. As soon as possible a dedicated system should be set up for endurance testing. The software should be built in debug mode, but it is not necessary to run it in a debugger. Preferably, for equipment control software, this would use a simulator for the hardware. This should be done as soon as there is enough of the software developed to be able to perform any significant functionality in a repetitive manner. This test can evolve as more of the software is developed with functionality being added to the test as it becomes available. For semiconductor equipment control software, a logical test would be to perform wafer cycling as this would exercise a good majority of the software. 

This endurance test should be kept running during development, right up to delivery. The computer running the endurance test should be configured to collect Windows crash dumps for the software application(s) and have Windows Performance Monitor configured to monitor Private Bytes for the application(s), https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/ff560134(v=vs.85).aspx. The test should be checked daily to see how the Private Bytes memory use has changed.  If the application has crashed, then the crash dump .DMP file can be collected and analyzed. Visual Studio can be used to open the .DMP file for analysis on the developer’s computer. 

The endurance test should be maintained and updated as the software is updated. However, since run time is important for this test, consider only updating it on a weekly basis unless the update is to fix an issue that caused the test to crash.

If the endurance test shows that the Private Bytes for the application increases steadily with no signs of levelling off, then the application probably has a memory leak.

For C++ programs, Microsoft’s UMDH memory dump utility is very useful for tracking down what allocations are occurring in the application, https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/ff560206(v=vs.85).aspx. The concept is to take two or more memory snapshots and analyze the differences to see what new objects have been created. Remember to have the software built in debug mode so full debug information is available in the memory dumps.

For .NET programs, newer versions of Visual Studio have built in memory profiling, https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd264934.aspx.

There are third party memory analyzers on the market that some have found to be useful. Most of these will report numerous false positives that the developer will have to wade through to get to the real leaks. Most third party memory analyzers for .NET seem to frequently report false positives for COM objects. 

The tools just provide the developer a location to review the code for leaks. It still requires diligence and expertise on the part of the developer to analyze the information and find the cause of the leak. Seldom do the tools create a treasure map with "X" marking the spot of the leak.

Having an endurance test running allows the developer to understand the memory profile of the software and watch how the profile changes as the software changes. Early detection is critical given the length of the testing cycle.♦

Almost everyone I know that has built a house has given me a list of things they would “do differently next time,” but a lot of those same people would also say that they would never build again. So does that mean everything they learned through the process is lost? Is it possible to get it right the first time? Maybe not, but there are a lot of things you can do to learn from the experience of others. For example, you can buy house plans that have been used before and are designed to leverage standard components. Rather than designing and building everything from scratch, you can use pre-built sub systems like fabricated floor joists and manufactured roof trusses. Using proven components saves a lot of time and worry about whether or not they will work properly and as expected. This allows you to focus on the customizations that will make the home meet your unique needs.

Implementing an equipment control application is a lot like building a house. You can design and build a complete control system from the bottom up—building all the components necessary to handle communication with the hardware, display information to the operators, manage user access, log relevant event and data information—but it doesn’t add value to the core competency of your equipment. The best option is to leverage proven design that has been built through multiple prior applications and leverages those lessons learned along the way.

Cimetrix's CIMControlFramework provides all the standard components necessary to build an equipment control application. With working samples for both atmospheric and vacuum equipment, it can easily be customized and extended as needed to meet specific control needs.

There is an old saying that goes, “If you don’t have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over?”

If you would like to learn more about CIMControlFramework and how it can help you on your next project, give us a call or feel free to contact us here.♦