Last month, General Motors announced that it has standardized on Ethernet/IP as the networking protocol for its vehicle manufacturing operations in body, paint, general assembly and metal fabrication.

Equipment, device, and information technology suppliers to more than 60 GM factories have until January 1, 2007 to make their products compatible with the Ethernet/IP standards. GM made the announcement in Ann Arbor, Mich. at a meeting of ODVA, an international association of global automation companies that assists in the adoption of open network technologies based on a Common Industrial Protocol (CIP) like Ethernet/IP and DeviceNet.

"To meet our needs, we wanted an Ethernet implementation that is open, readily available, capable of real-time data delivery, and uses standard infrastructure devices," said Gary Workman, staff development engineer at GM. An open networking protocol will enable GM to plug and play products from a multitude of vendors when configuring a network. GM will be able to seamlessly transport data from the factory floor to its enterprise systems without specialized devices or software.