Industrial automation helps manufacturing and other industrial organizations to streamline industrial processes, reduce costs, improve quality control, manage supply chains, and achieve energy efficiency by connecting, monitoring, and programming industrial assets. As part of Industry 4.0 trends, organizations are embracing industrial connectivity, IIoT, data collection, machine vision and machine learning, robotics, programmable logic control, and other solutions to automate production processes and meet today’s most important production goals.
The fourth industrial revolution, also called Industry 4.0, has introduced a new age of automation and efficiency that’s transforming the manufacturing industry. Today’s smart factories are relying on artificial intelligence, automation equipment, SCADA software, and IIoT devices for connected and automated production processes. By embracing these efficiencies, manufacturers are reducing costs, eliminating errors, increasing efficiency, and supporting long-term innovation.
Industrial control and automation offer manufacturers the solutions they need for a true competitive advantage.
An industrial control system brings together information from multiple sources into a single system for faster production, higher product quality, and lower costs. Information is integrated for industrial automation at the field level, control level, and enterprise level.
Field level devices include sensors or actuators that measure specific factors such as temperature or pressure and transfer that data between machines used in production.
At the control level, controls engineers gather insights from sensors, including automation devices such as PLC, CNC, and SCADA systems to drive the production process forward.
Enterprise industrial automation takes a top-level view for managing the production process based on a continuous flow of information from the factory floor to the top floor.
Fixed automation, also called hard automation, uses permanent equipment to create a fixed assembly process. It’s often used in environments that rely on standardized machinery to complete set tasks. This type of industrial automation can have a high barrier to entry and be difficult to change. It requires a significant upfront investment. However, in structured environments with high volume production, continuous workflows, and a long-term production plan, fixed automation can yield powerful benefits.
Programmable automation systems
Flexible or soft automation systems empower your team to enter codes into a computer-controlled manufacturing environment. Instructions at each production node can trigger things such as changing tools, loading components, or transferring end products to new machines with ease. In manufacturing settings that serve a range of customers with low-to-medium production volume, flexible automation can provide the benefits of automation with a higher degree of control to support fast-changing production models.
From automotive factories to healthcare and beyond, industrial automation and control is helping manufacturing companies to increase efficiency, reduce cost, and streamline essential production processes. See what our industrial automotive customers are saying.
MT Connect offers a universal language for manufacturing systems with no proprietary format that allows users to share structured, contextualized data.
OPC Data Access (OPC DA) is a communications protocol that lets programmable logic controllers (PLCs) to share data with SCADA systems.
OPC Historical Data Access, also known as OPC HDA, allows control systems to exchange archived and historical data.
OPC Unified Architecture (OPC UA) offers open, secure, and platform-independent communication between different asset classes within industrial settings.
Kepware has been automating industrial operations for over 25 years. With connectivity solutions for the plant floor, boardroom, field, and beyond, Kepware industrial automation software helps you harness, control, and utilize your industrial data to improve operational performance and efficiency, reduce downtime and waste, save cost, and provide insight into all aspects of the manufacturing process.
Automation is a crucial investment for manufacturers and industrial organizations to stay competitive. Increasingly, leading companies rely on connectivity, flexible computer-controlled industrial automation systems, and evolving technologies to grow and meet their objectives. Establishing the foundation for automation today—from OPC communications to automation software—will help manufacturers to successfully scale and prepare for tomorrow's innovations.
