Software company Emerson is looking to transform industrial manufacturing with its next-generation automation architecture
Emerson said that current automation architecture has certain limitations. Technology stacks built around each functional department – production, reliability, safety and most recently sustainability – have resulted in islands of fragmented data. This is proving to be difficult to integrate or use. As a result, new business insights promised by digital transformation remain elusive.
To address this challenge and help customers achieve their operational improvements, Emerson is introducing new solutions.
Outdated systems
It includes flexibility to deploy software across the intelligent field; a modern, software-defined edge; and the cloud. All three domains will be connected through a unifying data fabric, helping to maintain data context, improve its usability and increase security.
“After decades of implementing evolving automation strategies, manufacturers recognise the need to extract greater value from data that is locked in a rigid and now outdated automation architecture,” said Emerson president and CEO Lal Karsanbhai. “The proliferation of data and the development of advanced software are moving us to an era of unprecedented productivity. Rich data and advanced software are converging to form the next major inflection point in the industry.”
Measuring improvement
“With an industry-leading technology stack and decades of proven expertise, Emerson is uniquely positioned to engineer and deploy automation to maximise customers’ technology investments and deliver measurable performance improvements,” Karsanbhai said.
Emerson’s Boundless Automation architecture will break down barriers and data silos across the intelligent field, edge and cloud. Integrating these disparate systems with a unifying data fabric will offer new insights and help companies optimise operations across production, reliability, safety, sustainability and its workforce.
Intelligent Field: An intelligent field will simplify access to more data from more sources and a greater diversity of applications. With smarter devices and new connection technologies like 5G and APL, customers can streamline both connectivity from anywhere in the world, and integration across the new architecture.
Edge: The new OT edge creates a modern, secure, low-latency computing environment, putting new software tools and actionable data closest to its user. This enhanced edge environment establishes a platform for IT and OT colleagues to innovate and collaborate more than ever before.
Cloud: The cloud will power complex operations and engineering capabilities on-premise and across the enterprise by providing infinite analytical computing power, enterprise collaboration, attractive lifecycle costs and on-demand support and service.
