Unlocking the value of digital manufacturing

The recent Rockwell Automation TechED event in Auckland was well attended and revealed the latest technologies for high performance manufacturing and production, reports the company. With a strong focus on New Zealand’s food and beverage, water/wastewater and OEM industries, the event brought together industry professionals including end users, system integrators, distributors, partners and machine builders.

“Rockwell Automation TechED is all about making a connection; to people, to new ideas, to inspiration. The innovative minds here are advancing industrial automation and solving business challenges in new ways,” said Laura Hernandez, commercial marketing manager, Rockwell Automation.

“TechED had a strong focus on helping customers implement The Connected Enterprise in their organisations. The event revealed techniques and technologies to identify where information is located, how to connect it securely, and how to analyse and present it where it’s needed. Attendees were also able to explore the networks, architectures, intelligence and power devices to increase productivity and efficiency.”

The first keynote of the event was delivered by John Genovesi, vice president, Information Solutions & Process Business, Rockwell Automation and revealed how manufacturers can unlock the value of digital manufacturing – a key focus of the event.

Digital manufacturing is made possible through the use of new technologies, from analytics and mobility to collaborative machines. These technologies communicate with each other and adapt to internal and external conditions to create flexible, efficient, responsive and secure operations.

With a variety of training settings, including hands- on labs, technical sessions and discussion forums, Rockwell Automation TechED provided the ultimate venue for attendees to learn about the latest techniques and technologies to maximise their manufacturing and production operations.

Tom Fisher, IoT Software managing director at Cisco, delivered an informative keynote presentation highlighting the trends in Industrial IoT and the power of harnessing meaningful data. In his presentation, Fisher discussed the challenges and opportunities that IoT presents to industrial environments.

As a Rockwell Automation Strategic Alliance Partner, Cisco collaborates with Rockwell Automation to bridge the gap between plantfloor and enterprise with a common network infrastructure through training, network design, and products.

New Zealand TechED had a strong OEM focus, with a networking executive event on the second day of the program specifically for OEMs. “This forum provided the opportunity for OEM’s and a major dairy end user to network and discuss their specific challenges. There was a key focus on smart machine and machine analytics and how Rockwell Automation Technologies can be leveraged to help customers on their journey to a Connected Enterprise and new service models to help OEM’s be more successful within their own businesses,” said Prasad Nory, Industry manager & OEM lead, Rockwell Automation.

Smart manufacturing is driving new opportunities for endusers to optimise their production and supply chain. Machine builders can help their customers meet these objectives by delivering smart machines and equipment that easily integrates into facilities, provide access to information and enables agile reaction to changing market demands, states RA.

With more than 50 sessions on offer, attendees were able to experience the latest trends and technologies in the areas of scalable industrial analytics, operational data infrastructure and management, digital transformation, remote access and monitoring, and connected services and solutions. A new product roadmap session brought all these technologies together while highlighting the latest developments and future directions for products in Logix, software and power control.

“This year’s event also featured an inaugural stream focused on power and motor control which was very well received by attendees,” added Nory. “The latest motor control developments in intelligence, information and operational technologies were presented and new products including the new low harmonic PowerFlex drives were demonstrated.”

The latest techniques and technologies from Rockwell Automation Authorised Distributor, NHP Electrical Engineering Products, together with PartnerNetwork companies including Cisco, Panduit, Endress + Hauser and EPLAN were also showcased at the event.

“TechED brought together the best in the industry and provided the perfect venue for sharing ideas, proving concepts and learning new strategies. We would like to thank all our customers who invested the time to attend the event and for making it such a success,” said Hernandez.