While manufacturing is sometimes seen as a technology laggard, Rockwell Automation sees an inrush of technology that’s changing the landscape from labor intensity to highly productive production processes.
As a result, industry is now at an inflection point driven by the growing convergence of information technology (IT) and operations technology (OT), a merging that Rockwell Automation calls “The Connected Enterprise.” While OT refers to industrial equipment (machines, controllers, sensors and actuators), IT is the world of end-to-end business processes.
The Connected Enterprise links people, processes and technology to improve productivity, sustainability and economic performance, which is enabled by an integrated control and information architecture and results in a smarter, more productive and more secure environment. This environment is further enhanced by the “Internet of Things” technologies.
Specifically, The Connected Enterprise delivers faster time to market, improved asset utilization and optimization, lower total cost of ownership and safer, more secure enterprise risk management.
Based in Milwaukee, Rockwell Automation is the world’s largest company dedicated to industrial automation and information and employs about 22,500 people serving customers in more than 80 countries.
- Originally prepared by Global Media for The Japan Times Special Report on the U.S. Midwest 2014 (Credit: Philippe Le Saux, Angelo Romualdez, Elizabeth Arcega and Brian Banta)
