Headlines from Monday, Nov. 16
What’s next in industrial automation
Blake Moret, chairman and CEO, Rockwell Automation, kicked off Automation Fair At Home, a primarily virtual conference created by Rockwell Automation, from the company’s Milwaukee headquarters today. “Throughout all this change, our strategy has remained the same: bringing The Connected Enterprise to life, and doing it with 117 years’ experience in solving customer problems.” Learn more.
Pandemic highlights need for inclusive leadership
Madison Anderson, diversity and inclusion program manager at Rockwell Automation, led a discussion on how the pandemic has changed the way we work and the new challenges of being an inclusive leader. Read more.
Integrated supply chain eases COVID symptoms
International supply chains have always been subject to hiccups, but now, a global pandemic threatens their integrity on local and transcontinental bases. Rockwell Automation's Ernest Nicolas explains how the company is balancing the industry's new requirements. Read more.
OEMs find COVID prompting tech adoption
"Our customers need to be running 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The pandemic has pushed us forward," said Billy Goodman, Cama North America, explaining the recent uptick in digital transformation during today's OEM Industry Forum. Read more.
Ecosystem partners ignite practical transformation
ANSYS’ Prith Banerjee credits partnerships with companies like Rockwell Automation and Microsoft as enabling simulation to improve everyday industrial operations. "This lets us take physics and simulations that used to be mostly only on the design side, and instead use them to add real-time value in the real world." Read more.
Digital thread enables enterprise continuity
“A digital thread can extract insights and deliver real value,” said Rockwell Automation’s Sujeet Chand in a presentation on how open standards, virtualization and the cloud can provide continuity for products. Read more.
Headlines from Tuesday, Nov. 17
ARMI sets out to manufacture human organs
Dean Kamen, executive director of the Advanced Regenerative Manufacturing Institute, discussed his work in developing an industry to support the large-scale manufacturing of replacement human tissues—skin, bones, cartilage—and eventually complete organs, like livers and kidneys and lungs. Read more.
COVID puts life sciences in unique digital position
Cytiva’s Kristen Manchester explained how digital transformation has increased data visibility at her company. “People are trying to use the information that used to just live in these binders upon binders of paper.” Learn more.
A virtual version of the Rockwell Experience
The new Rockwell Automation Experience boasts three virtual representations of actual facilities within Rockwell’s Milwaukee, Wisconsin, headquarters that enable Automation Fair At Home attendees to experience and explore all from the comfort of their home office. Read more.
Transforming pipeline operations on a grand scale
With 6,000 miles of pipeline, 115 terminals and 118-million-barrel tank capacity, Buckeye Partners is one of the largest independent liquid petroleum pipeline operators in the world. Angel Matos, Buckeye Partners’ senior manager of terminal automation applications, explained how control systems and software from Rockwell Automation, together with fault-tolerant computing platforms from Stratus Technologies, proved central to its digital transformation campaign. Read more.
Survive and thrive in the post-pandemic future
Kalypso's Rein Singfield and Steve Riordan outlined four scenarios of the future. “Real life is most likely to be some combination of them, varying over time and in different places,” Singfield said, but they suggest common goals for digital roadmaps. “Companies need to be faster, smarter, more virtual and more adaptive.” Read more.
PlantPAx 5.0 boasts increased flexibility, simplified engineering
"PlantPAx and its modern DCS approach has four main pillars: plantwide, scalable and modular, secure and flexible." Blair Wilson, global marketing manager for PlantPAx at Rockwell Automation outlined the latest PlantPAx release at the Process Solutions User Group Conference. Learn about PlantPAx 5.0.
Headlines from Wednesday, Nov. 18
Transformational successes in face of COVID challenges
Stanley Black & Decker’s Sudhi Bangalore explained how the company’s Digital Continuous Improvement Program facilitates advances that scale across the enterprise, which are part of its effort to succeed despite the pandemic. Read more.
Rockwell Automation, Microsoft team to simplify your work life
“A little over a year ago we decided to engage in a co-innovation challenge. We wanted to explore what more we could do, together, to enable digital transformation for our industrial customers.” Rockwell Automation's Tessa Myers and Microsoft's Sam George explained the companies' collaboration in today's press conference. Read more.
Oil & gas panel tackles energy transition, digital challenges
Digital transformation may be one of the few saving graces that can help oil and gas producers cope with their roller-coaster, rapidly transitioning and COVID-19-impacted markets. Industry experts explored these issues and possible solutions during the Oil & Gas Industry Forum during Automation Fair At Home. Read more.
Kimberly-Clark rebuilds tissue machine despite COVID-19
The show must go on, especially when you're making toilet paper and facial tissue. Kimberly-Clark’s Gabriel Pacheco described how his team—and their suppliers—overcame pandemic travel restrictions to start up a fully rebuilt tissue machine even after a COVID-19 case in one of its mills forced its machine suppliers to head back home. Read more.
Rockwell Automation and PTC: Stronger together
"Augmented reality is like IoT for people," said PTC's Jim Heppelmann as he reminisced with Blake Moret about the companies' partnership. "This idea of optimizing for both equipment and for people, that’s very special to our partnership. That’s something we can do much better together than either one of us can do alone.” Read more.
5 ways to speed transformation during COVID-19
"Choosing a partner in the space is about speed, speed and speed—you want someone who knows the technology and also knows how to get it done," said Mick Mancuso of Rockwell Automation, during his presentation on how companies are accelerating digital transformation during this unprecedented time. Read more.
Headlines from Thursday, Nov. 19
Pandemic spurs demand for digital lifecycle services
"Many are turning to the lifecycle services organization of Rockwell Automation to help fill in the technology and expertise gaps revealed by the pandemic," said Rachael Conrad in conversation with Matt Fordenwalt of Rockwell Automation as they discussed the increasing scope of the company’s lifecycle services offering. Read more.
Food & beverage panel charts digital transformation path
ADM’s Gopal Elumalai discussed how individuals from different functional organizations can help advance each other’s digital competencies. "Parts of a team may be in exploration mode, while others already know what they want to accomplish, but including both will help them align their digital transformation goals." Read more.
Rockwell Automation and Cisco building digital foundations
“Everything that made our relationship a good idea 13 years ago has been reinforced and accelerated during the past nine months." Cisco’s Chuck Robbins joined Blake Moret of Rockwell Automation in a virtual fireside chat offering an update on the latest news in the companies’ longstanding partnership. Read more.
PlantPAx 5.0 integrates InnovationSuite capabilities
FactoryTalk InnovationSuite integration enables DCS users to bring live and historical data to life within dashboards, process templates from PTC and advanced analytics. Armand Craig, PlantPAx system architect, explained these and other new features and applications of PlantPAx 5.0 today during an Automation Fair at Home presentation. Read more.
Hybrid twins yield quick and accurate results
The digital-twin market is set to quintuple during the next five years, led by new hybrid systems that are combining the best of models based on data and physics, too. Ansys’ Prith Banerjee explained the evolving technologies that is making all of this possible. Read more.
ControlLogix graduates to the Ivy League
Grant Selking, engineering manager at system integrator Thermo Systems, reported how his team recently replaced legacy Modicon controls managing the chilled water plant at an Ivy League university with ControlLogix PLCs. The six-month project began in fall 2019 and was completed this past spring. Read more.
Headlines from Friday, Nov. 20
It’s time for courageous conversations in the workplace
Rockwell Automation’s Olivia Leak believes difficult conversations on divisive topics can build mutual trust when approached with authenticity from both sides. “Finding those spaces to be curious, finding those spaces to demonstrate humility and grace and compassion toward the other person, I think that creates a bridge.” Read more.
Auto industry empowering workers to foster flexibility
"How do we use AI and machine learning?" asks Mark Hernandez, senior vice president, global manufacturing and supply chain at Navistar International. In an industry requiring more and more mixed manufacturing, it’s important to implement technology that creates flexibility and empowers operators. Read more.
Mining practices evolve for COVID and beyond
“It’s amazing how fast we’ve moved, but it’s still exposed our fragility. Now mining is in a recovery phase, and we have the opportunity to return better and stronger, more sustainable, using more renewable energy and better water management to improve living standards.” BHP’s Daniel Riquelme was among several mining professionals who discussed the state of digital transformation in the mining industry. Read more.
Press fire is no match for teamwork and PlantPAx software
When a bearing failed on an exhaust fan, dropping sparks on the hot stacker and loader in-feed equipment, a fire devastated a press and forming line at Plummer Forest Products in Post Falls, Idaho. Here’s how PlantPAx software helped get the major production line up and running two or three times faster than would've been possible without the software. Read more.
Walk the modern DCS path with PlantPAx 5.0
"Aging systems increase the risk of downtime and lost production, so we're looking for the best ways to work with users to modernize their systems." To help potential users modernize their aging systems, Rockwell Automation's Chris King reported there are many tools, tips and strategies to convert from legacy DCSs to PlantPAx 5.0. Learn more.
Navy overhauls boiler controls with PlantPAx
"The original control room had one computer per boiler, and operators moved from computer to computer to control the boilers," explained Systems Interface’s Craig Beesley, who helped increase operational flexibility with an integrated, use-any-screen PlantPAx system at U.S. Naval Base Kitsap.. Read more.
