Collaboration between equipment builders and manufacturers boosts performance

IoT-enabled assets and machines can improve operations when information that matters is delivered to the people who can use it best. Yet, equipment builders who invested heavily to build smart machines often are blind to the use and performance of their products after deployment.

Today, Rockwell Automation is announcing FactoryTalk Analytics for Machines cloud application – a new Microsoft Azure cloud-enabled capability that empowers equipment builders with information. As part of the company’s expanded Information Solutions strategy, the application provides access to performance analytics from deployed systems in order to gain valuable insight to support their customers. For manufacturers going through a digital transformation, this capability capitalises on connected technologies to help drive higher availability and output while reducing maintenance costs.

“The sophistication of plants today has made specialisation and collaboration essential,” said Axel Rodriguez, SaaS/Cloud products manager, Rockwell Automation. “Your manufacturing operations and maintenance teams have a lot on their plates. Allowing your equipment builders – who know their machines like the backs of their hands – to become collaborators in performance analytics can free up the best minds to focus on optimising entire lines, plants or applications.”

OEMs can embed a FactoryTalk Cloud gateway device onto the machines they provide. Once commissioned, the machine starts collecting data.

The data from selected controllers is sent to the FactoryTalk cloud application securely with minimal configuration by the equipment builder or the end user. The equipment builder then has access to real-time analytics and actionable information via prebuilt dashboards. It’s that simple!

This cloud-based application, provided as software-as-a-service (SaaS), empowers equipment builders to best support their systems by seeing how they are used and offering insight into performance, states, events and other relevant activities.

Before now, there was no standard approach for equipment builders who needed to collaborate with their manufacturing customers. With Rockwell Automation providing trusted access to information, equipment builders can offer customised services, like proactive maintenance and training, and help manufacturers operate more effectively.