Representative End User Clients
Representative Automation Clients
Representative Software Clients
Rockwell Automation hosted its 25th Automation Fair in Atlanta, Georgia on November 9th and 10th, following its Process Solutions User Group on November 7th and 8th. The company used these venues to make numerous product announcements that continue extending the company's vision of "The Connected Enterprise" to all production assets. Rockwell Automation’s new President and CEO, Blake Moret, defines The Connected Enterprise as “delivering transformational value in productivity, sustainability, and global competitiveness”. That theme permeated the entire event, which featured about 172 Rockwell Automation and partner exhibits, 95 technical sessions, 19 labs, and 9 industry forums. That included previewing “asking Shelby” (Rockwell Automation’s version of asking Siri) to access the maintenance status of manufacturing assets. The company featured a number of self-aware and system-aware assets, such as IO-Link sensors, servo drives and servo motors, and other smart products that can be automatically found on a network to provide critical heath and diagnostic information. Ultimately, this information will result in reduced unplanned downtime by proactively addressing problems before they occur or as they are about to occur. Also showcased was FactoryTalk TeamONE’s collaborative mobile app, once known as Project Stanton. This was designed by a team whose mission is to increase productivity by a minimum of 33 seconds per hour for all its users. The team estimates that doing that for a plant that has 2,000 people, on average, could enhance productivity by about $1.4 million per year. TeamONE is a new product, developed in collaboration with Microsoft. This converts a mobile device into a smart node that can opportunistically sync and keep industrial communications local. Both of these announcements certainly received lots of attention by the 10,000+ attendees, of which about 7,000 were customers. The company backed up The Connected Enterprise theme by demonstrating a full portfolio of connected services, such as product & application lifecycle support, network & security services, asset management & security services, people & asset safety, and remote monitoring and cloud analytics. Rockwell Automation is also working with Panduit, Cisco, and VMWare to simplify and accelerate converged plantwide Ethernet (CPwE) deployment. The current fast-growing demand for security services should be reflected in customer demand for Rockwell Automation’s connected services. The Process Solutions Users Group featured about 25 case studies that featured business case justifications for their projects. DuPont Nutrition and Health in Brazil made a great case for why to replace a good DCS system. Reasons included when the current system is obsolete and I/O modules are out of support, when no I/O space is left and no new I/Os are available, when the DCS was programmed in a closed language that is difficult to support, when it is hard to find a local system integrator that can provide support, and when it is difficult for the DCS supplier to continue to provide support. Gilead Sciences presented its greenfield API pilot lab. This was successful because they defined very clear project goals up front. These included adding flexible, expandable, robust PLC/HMI systems with backup and restore capabilities; creating a redundant SCADA architecture, installing an enhanced security architecture, strict adherence to regulations and standards (such as 21 CFR Part 11 and ISA 88); and the ability for the system to capture historical process data and leverage a reusable library of modules. As we already reported via ARCwire, Rockwell Automation also made Numerous Product Announcements. Newly released Rockwell Automation Analytics Solutions ranged from devices and equipment builders up to the enterprise. One of these is a new FactoryTalk Analytics for Machines cloud application with Microsoft Azure cloud-enabled capability that provides equipment builders with information from IIoT-enabled assets and machines. This new application provides access to performance analytics from deployed systems. OEMs can embed a FactoryTalk Cloud gateway device onto the machines they provide. Once commissioned, the machines start collecting data. The data from the selected controllers is sent to the FactoryTalk cloud application. The equipment builder then has access to real-time analytics and information via prebuilt dashboards. This cloud-based application, provided as a software-as-a-service (SaaS), enables equipment builders to better support their systems and offering insight into performance, states, and events. The company also released an enhanced Rockwell Software Studio 5000 integrated development environment. This now includes expanded integration with engineering tools, predeveloped application content to replace custom code, and new security features. The company also announced the latest release of its FactoryTalk Batch software with built-in mobility. Integration with its SequenceManager solution helps enable batch sequencing at either the controller or server level. This allows machine builders to develop and deliver tested skids that end users can integrate into their batch process, while helping reduce the validation and commissioning effort. It also helps minimize the rework required when manufacturers with small, controller-based batch systems expand to larger, server-based batch systems. Rockwell Automation also introduced a suite of PowerFlex 755T drives that provide harmonic mitigation, regeneration, and common bus system configurations, all compliant to the IEEE 519 specification. These drive solutions mark the introduction of TotalFORCE technology, which delivers motor control through adaptive control of velocity, torque, and position for electric motors. These new drives offer a common footprint and predictive diagnostics to estimate and provide notification of the remaining life span of drive components, such as fans, relay contacts, power semiconductors and capacitors. Users can actively monitor parameters of the drive and motor (such as temperature and runtime) to allow timely preventive action. The drives can be fully configured in the Rockwell Software Studio 5000 design environment. In summary, all industries face issues, such as minimizing unplanned downtime, implementing predictive and proactive asset management, maximizing KPIs such as OEE, and empowering their transitioning workforce with intelligence via wireless mobile devices. Automation Fair provided its attendees with the justification needed for addressing these issues and deploying the connected enterprise in their respective plants.