Headlines from Tuesday, Nov. 9
Rockwell Automation core strengths ensure customers' future
Blake Moret, Rockwell Automation Chairman and CEO, opened the Perspectives event, just before the start of Automation Fair 2021 reflecting on the lessons learned in the past year and Rockwell's vision of the future for itself and its customers. Read more.
Tech trends driving Industry to v5.0
Although it may be too soon to look at Industry 5.0, Rockwell Automation’s Cyril Perducat outlined five changes that are attainable and impactful in Frost & Sullivan’s comparison of Industry 4.0 to Industry 5.0, as well as four areas where technology can help companies along their journeys. Read more.
Devices smarten up to better aid humans
New product offerings being featured at Automation Fair 2021 in Houston combine device intelligence with human usability. Rockwell Automation’s Fran Wlodarczyk discussed several new offerings including GuardLink, PowerFlex 755T and more. Read more.
Personify customers to meet their needs
Rockwell Automation's Brian Shepherd explained the company's customer-focused approach and detailed the four key value drivers it considers when developing new programs and solutions, which resulted in The Connected Enterprise. Read more.
How services can connect the digital dots
Frank Kulaszewicz, senior vice president of lifecycle services at Rockwell Automation, shared an update on the company's LifecycleIQ Services offering, which launched last year, and explained how it serves to help customers realize their digital transformation initiatives. Read more.
PlantPAx runs up the score at PSUG
PlantPAx isn’t resting on its many advantages and achievements in recent years, and is instead building on its gains to give process industry users even more capabilities, efficiency and productivity. Rockwell Automation's Jim Winter discussed PlantPAx's latest capabilities, gains and and future aspirations. Read more.
Headlines from Wednesday, Nov. 10
Kraft Heinz, AB-InBev take digitalization plunge
Kraft Heinz's Scott Ingles and AB-InBev's Charles Tisdell discuss their respective companies' start on the journey to digitalization, sharing lessons learned as well as the gains they expect to realize from digital transformation of their operations. Read more.
Downtime is the right time for digitalization
The COVID-19 pandemic slowdown allowed some manufacturers time to upgrade existing production systems and embark on their digital-transformation journeys. The Chemical Industry Forum panel at Automation Fair 2021 discussed their journeys and how to plan for transformation. Read more.
To protect your assets, start at the beginning
Rockwell Automation's Angela Rapko and Shoshana Wodzisz, along with TÜV Rhineland's Ted Haschke provided guidance on how to get started with cybersecurity, the value of cybersecurity standards and third-party certifications, and the conditions that have recently propelled digital adoption and cybersecurity attacks in an Automation Fair media briefing. Read more.
PlantPAx all aces for Texas natural gas production
Natural gas producers must remove hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide, dehydrate, cryogenically cool, recover natural gas liquid, and filter other residues before compression and transport of their product. To accommodate the problems that come with that, BXG began using the PlantPAx DCS. Jerry Christian and Jeffrey “Scott” Cayton shared BXG's PlantPAx success story. Read more.
PlantPAx speeds production line development
Automated Control Concepts' Chris Monchinski and Anand Lakshmanan shared their experience migrating a facility to PlantPAx within the constraints of a customer's tight schedule while also offering ease-of-use for operators. Read more.
Headlines from Thursday, Nov. 11
3 steps toward a more agile, flexible workforce
Recruiting, managing and retaining skilled workers have remained critical priorities for manufacturing organizations, especially since COVID-19 global pandemic. And as baby boomers continue to leave the workforce, growing a strong workforce becomes even more crucial. Rockwell Automation's Rachael Conrad identified three strategies the company is using to build, manage and retain that workforce. Read more.
People and partnerships lead digital transformation
In automotive and tire manufacturing, the opportunities for growth seem limitless, as are the risks of failure. During the Automotive & Tire Industry Forum, industry leaders discussed the digital advances they have made, what has inhibited scaling at the company level and industry-wide, and how to encourage digital transformation and support its long-term growth. Read more.
Rockwell Automation goes all in on diversity, inclusion
Rockwell Automation’s accelerating diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives are closely aligned with is its overall mission—and even tops its latest list of strategic business objectives. Rockwell's Bobby Griffin and Becky House shared the company's DEI objectives as well as its efforts and achievements toward those goals in a media briefing at Automation Fair 2021. Read more.
A roadmap for life sciences digitalization
A team of experts pondered the future of digitalization in the life-sciences field and discussed the best paths to get there during the Life Sciences Forum of Automation Fair 2021. “The key is to leverage as much external knowledge as you can from all of your partners and solution providers," Thermo Fisher Scientific's David Hinkler explained. Read more.
PlantPAx helps overcome COVID restrictions
Cybertrol Engineering's Tim Barthel and John Tertin shared their experience integrating PlantPAx distributed control in a greenfield facility for Merit Functional Foods. Making this installation particularly challenging were the restrictions set in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Here's how they did it. Read more.
Just like Legos: Digital transformation with PlantPAx DCS
Rockwell Automation's Shannon Chan discussed the increased connectivity and improved insights promised by the new PlantPAx distributed control system, providing an in-depth explanation of the expanded reporting capabilities delivered by the tool. Read more.
Headlines from Friday, Nov. 12
Machine builders bring transformation to the plant floor
Original equipment manufacturers are literally bringing transformation to the plant floor in the machines they build. Three OEMs from different industries shared their organizations’ progress with industrial transformation during the OEM Forum at Automation Fair. Read more.
Leverage data to be productive and sustainable
New technologies, empowered by the utilization of data, are enabling industrial enterprises to maintain a balanced approach to sustainable practices and productive operations. Rockwell Automation's Tom O’Reilly explained how the company maintains this mindset in its own processes, and how its solutions enable its customers to do the same at their facilities. Read more.
Digitalization fuels oil and gas recovery
Schlumberger’s Agora business, Rockwell Automation and the two companies’ Sensia joint venture presented at the Oil & Gas Industry Forum at Automation Fair 2021 this week. The consensus view says it appears that digital transformation and related technologies may provide the efficiency and optimization to smooth the oil and gas industry’s bumps and enable its recovery in the next several years. Read more.
Power producers making room for renewables
Renewable energies are growing. While more renewable energy will help create a sustainable industry, it's variability also presents challenges for the power grid. Three industry experts presented at the Power and Energy Forum to discuss renewables' effect on other segments and solutions for power variability. Read more.
The time for the industrial cloud is now
Manufacturing’s lag with respect to cloud adoption is changing rapidly in the current market, as the benefits are hard to ignore. Rockwell Automation's Brian Shepherd, along with Plex's Bill Berutti and Fiix's James Novak discussed the current acceleration in the adoption of cloud technologies and the benefits it brings those organizations that do. Read more.
The digital future of decarbonized energy
The largest contributors to carbon emissions are varied—they come from different verticals and add to the challenge in their own ways. Speakers at the Automation Fair industry forum “The Future of Energy with Decarbonization and Emerging Energies” addressed their respective industries’ contributions to the problem and how they're working to mitigate the severity. Read more.
