On a recent site visit to Rockwell Automation's Sydney facility, AIP members were briefed by OEM Lead Michael Vlahos on how smart manufacturing and the connected enterprise is impacting the way OEMs design machinery and manufacturers run their plants.
Vlahos shared Rockwell's experience and global best practices supporting OEMs to design, develop and deliver new machines with improved performance, safety, diagnostics and connectivity to meet end-user expectations.
The expectation from end users that OEMs must innovate and keep pace with their requirements is a given. But today, in the era of Industry 4.0 and smart manufacturing, end users want to optimise their production and supply chain by bringing together islands of information – and they want OEMs to help.
“Retrieving data from machines is nothing new,” Vlahos said, “and today we have access to even more of it. But the data is irrelevant if you don't actually do something with it, or what we call 'contextualise' it – so you can use it to make decisions that will lead to improved processes.”
Vlahos said that it's the OEM who is best placed to analyse data retrieved from a machine or a manufacturing line; the knowledge to optimise the process typically does not reside with the machine operator, but rather with the OEM.
“Using current automation and control technology, we can present the information to the OEMs, so they can analyse it, and then optimise the process on the machine they have designed. And with the technology we have access to today we can make this data available securely,” he added
“If [as a local industry] we want to be globally competitive, we have to tap into the knowledge that we have got inherent in the workforce.”
He noted that for local OEMs competing with less expensive machinery being developed in Asian markets, designing smart machinery is the way to differentiate their products.
The visit ended with a walk-through of Rockwell's assembly facility where Rockwell provides local configuration, customisation and load testing for automation, motor control and drives systems.
