By Walt Boyes, Editor in chief

We process automation professionals are busy. There are fewer of us than ever, and our responsibilities have grown. In project terms, automation accounts for less than 5% of the cost of a typical project, yet is entirely responsible for throughput, for safety and for quality. We've got no time to fool around.

So when we go looking for advice, we want to ask the people who know. Because we at ControlGlobal know that, we've assembled a cadre of the most formidable experts in process automation and control for your use. Let me introduce you to some of them.

Charlie Gifford—The "MOM" guy, Charlie Gifford is one of the world's leading theorists about manufacturing operations management and manufacturing execution systems. He shares his expertise in his blog, "Hitchhiking through Manufacturing" at www.controlglobal.com/hitchhiking.

Béla Lipták—What can you say about Béla? He's spent a lifetime working and teaching in process automation, and is one of the great control system designers of all time. Add to that the expertise he's assembled for the Instrument Engineer's Handbook, and you have one of the ur-fathers of our discipline. Consult with him and his panel of experts every month in his "Ask the Experts" column.

Greg McMillan and Stan Weiner—Humor laced with great application knowledge and process good sense are the hallmarks of Greg McMillan and Stan Weiner's "Control Talk" column monthly in Control magazine and on the web at ControlGlobal.com. McMillan has also shared his expertise in advanced process control in articles, and now has brought his highly followed blog from Modeling and Control to ControlGlobal.com. Be sure to follow Greg's new "Control Talk" blog  at www.controlglobal.com/controltalkblog/.

Joe Weiss—Joe wrote the book, Protecting Industrial Control Systems from Electronic Threats, and holds forth "Unfettered" on his blog at ControlGlobal.com at www.controlglobal.com/unfettered.

Ian Verhappen—End user, vendor expert, thought leader and industrial automation networking expert, Ian holds forth on his blog, "The Great Kanduski" at ControlGlobal.com at www.controlglobal.com/kanduski.

This list doesn't begin to include all the other industry experts who contribute an occasional article or regular column—Greg Shinsky, Eric Byres, Dick Caro, John Rezabek and Dave Spitzer, just to name some. When you need process automation help, ControlGlobal.com is the place to come.