By Jose Rivera
CSIA has been recruiting the new CSIA LATAM regional director. I visited Mexico City in late May to interview candidates. We are getting very close to making an offer. Until we have this person on board, I’m writing this section.
The CSIA LATAM had a nice delegation of 14 members at the recent 2019 Executive Conference. I had the opportunity to have lunch with them during the conference. It is always great to see members who regularly attend CSIA events, some of whom bring other members along. I see this as recognition of the value they receive from attending the conference.
As part of my trip to Mexico City, I met with Cynthia Ramírez, the CSIA administrative assistant for the LATAM region, to review membership development efforts. Together we met with the company we designated to translate version 5.0 of the BP manual into Spanish. Translations are complex; the fact that terminology may vary by country adds another complexity element. We will create a small task force to develop and agree on a glossary. We also need to decide if there is terminology that we may want to leave without translation (e.g. FAT, factory acceptance test, or SAT, site acceptance test). Translation represents an investment in the region and hopefully the removal of a barrier in the implementation of the BPs by SIs there.
I also participated in "Integrator Day," which was sponsored by Bosch-Rexroth in Monterrey, Mexico. This was a very successful event that saw the participation of around 50 people. We had a panel of SIs and a local consultant that shared their experiences adopting BPs in the aim of getting certified.
I would like to thank the following CSIA members who were part of the panel:
- Gustavo Rojas, executive president, Grupo Gersa Monterrey
- Victor Gonzalez, director, Cybermax Automation
- Giovanni Trinidad, director engineering and projects, AMS Instrumentación y Control
- Ignacio Guerra, president, Deux
- Moderator: Jose Rivera, CEO, CSIA
Digital transformation: A presentation by Bosch-Rexroth initiated a good discussion and gave me insight into what is happening on this front in Monterrey. Shortly before my visit to Monterrey and through the kind introduction by Gustavo Rojas, I had the opportunity to meet via conference call with Manuel Montoya, the general director of CLAUT, a cluster of the automotive industry in Monterrey. It has been very interesting to witness how manufacturers in this part of the world are also motivated by the promises of digital transformation and are at the same time struggling to translate it into actionable plans.