SUPPLEMENT Industry 4.0 & Smart Factories
Rockwell Automation and PTC: stronger together
A partnership that started about Industry 4.0 grew to much more than just making factories smarter O
ver two years ago, Rockwell Automation and PTC embarked on a journey together to build
a smart factory concept, which blended the expertise and products of both organisations to create something that was bigger and more desirable than the sum of their parts.
“If you look at what it takes for an industrial manufacturing company to go through a complete digital transformation, there’s a huge footprint,” said Jim Heppelmann, President and CEO of PTC. “Rockwell has a lot of the ingredients, and acquired some more; PTC has a lot of ingredients, and we acquired some more. When you put them together, it’s a special combination, and we’re going to collaborate more at our customers’ sites.” According to Heppelmann, Rockwell Automation has risen to become PTC’s biggest and most important partner. “We really have a partnership that works for customers; certainly works well for PTC, and I believe works well for Rockwell Automation,” he said.
Smart factories
The partnership was originally conceived to be about smart factories and Industry 4.0, but it grew to more than just making factories smarter. “We’re actually helping customers design, engineer and plan smarter factories with Onshape and Emulate3D simulation tools working together. We’re also thinking a little bit more about the products being made in those factories and connecting the digital thread from engineering upstream to the factory and downstream, as well to service and support,” said Heppelmann. Expanding the partnership has been accelerated by the acquisitions of Onshape and Kalypso. “They’re critical ingredients to bring that whole digital-thread, cradle-to-grave, digital-transformation story to life,” explained Heppelmann. “A lot of smart factories’ strategies are
really about the assets, the machines and the equipment,” he continued. “We do that well together. But augmented reality
32 December/January 2021 | Automation
Rockwell Automation has risen to become
PTC’s biggest and most important partner
(AR) is like IoT for people. How do you do remote connection and support of the workers at these plants? How do you provide information and get information back from them as they do their work in the real-world environment of the factory? This idea of optimising for both equipment and for people, that’s very special to our partnership. That’s something we can do much better together than either one of us can do alone.” According to Rockwell Automation Chairman and CEO, Blake Moret, both companies are seeing the general interest and desire to accelerate digital transformation at customers across all industries. “We’ve had some great wins against some pretty strong competition with our digital-thread implementation together, and customers are giving us feedback that it really hits the mark and that the open approach has been successful for them,” said Moret.
CAD and PLM heritage The work the two organisations have done together at Pfi zer is a great example. “Pfi zer is an account that frankly you knew much better than PTC,” admitted Heppelmann. “In our CAD and PLM heritage, we wouldn’t have crossed paths with them that much. But, as you know, we’ve been doing IoT projects, we’ve
been doing AR projects and training and supporting factory workers, and we’ve been doing some PLM projects around FDA compliance to help with risk management. It’s a great example of both companies working together to implement a footprint of solutions that neither one of us would be able to satisfy without the other.”
In the specifi c case of Pfi zer, as well as other critical manufacturing processes involved with making food, medicines and vaccines, there’s a sense of accomplishment and goodwill that comes from knowing Rockwell Automation and PTC are contributing to things that are so important for the whole world during the global pandemic.
“It’s with that optimism that I’m going into this new chapter with a lot of excitement. As we gear up, it’s the beginning of our fi scal year – and for PTC, too – and it’s going to be a great year for us,” said Moret. “We’re certainly looking forward to our
fi scal 2021, and we’re very bullish on the market in general,” agreed Heppelmann. “Covid has created many issues, but it’s also created a much deeper appreciation for digital technology. It’s become clear to companies how Rockwell Automation and PTC take digital to a whole new level, and it’s starting to show in demand and our pipeline. I’m excited about fi scal ’21!”
automationmagazine.co.uk
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