Why going paperless improves your quality control

Transcript

Stan Miller: Hello everyone and welcome to ROK Studios.  I’m Stan Miller, I’m the PR and Analyst Relations Manager for Rockwell Automation, in the EMEA Region.  And I’m here with Oscar Cortada.  He is the Business Development Manager at Adasoft.  Oscar, welcome to the studio.

Oscar Cortada: Thanks for having me, Stan.

Stan Miller: So, we’re here to talk about why going paperless can improve quality control.  But before we get into the topic, can you just give us a little bit of background around Adasoft?

Oscar Cortada: Sure.  Adasoft is a technology services company with over 40 years of experience in the food and bev, life science and chemical industry, and we’re a System Integrator for Rockwell.

Stan Miller: All right.  Important context for our audience.  So, let’s talk about digital transformation.  How does digital transformation support with quality control?

Oscar Cortada: Well, I think, Stan, the first thing that we need to figure out is when a customer says that they want to have a digitalization transformation in their factory, what exactly are they talking about?  Because we’ve seen, through many use cases, that they have wildly differing definitions of what exactly it is, because they’re at different stages of the process.  You know, some are very early adopters of the technology, so they’re much farther ahead in the path than others.  I would say the biggest driver of their growth has been the increase in productivity and efficiency, and of course the much less talked about is peace of mind.  They know they can sleep soundly at night, knowing that their production capability is running 100% as smoothly as it can.

Stan Miller: That’s good context.  So, let’s talk about the industries that potentially benefit from – from this approach we’re discussing.  Let’s talk about industry and share your experience there.

Oscar Cortada: Yeah.  So, we’ve seen that the biggest proponents are industries where the end product cycle needs to be a very, very high quality.  So, we know that, for example, in the pharmaceutical industry, the regulations are incredibly stringent, and we’re seeing that throughout the food and beverage market, it’s moving in that direction right now, so for example, in the US, the FDA or different organizations like that, it’s very important for these type of industries to go digital, to go paperless, because they need that information at their fingertips to make the correct decisions.

Stan Miller: Okay.  Let’s talk about how immediate access to data can help prevent mistakes.  I mean, help us understand how that access to the data helps avoid those types of deviations, for example.

Oscar Cortada: So, it used to be that companies had most of their data in pen and paper, and we actually have – I have a really funny anecdote where we were at a client and we were going over some data, and he opened the drawer, in fact, and took out a paper and it had been so long since that data had been analyzed, that there was literal dust on it, he had to blow it away.  So, I was blown away by that anecdote, I think it’s quite telling.  But it’s been really good for reducing down times with different customers, because these types of production processes have many different stages, and when one machine is slowed down, it affects the next machine down the process line.  So, if they have this information ready at their fingertips - nowadays with SMS and with email, whereas before you had to figure out what the mistake was much after - much later in the production process, it’s much easier to make the correct decisions.

Stan Miller: Well, one, that makes complete sense, and two, what a remarkable reference – I mean, from just pulling something out and it having dust on it, that’s useful information.

Oscar Cortada: That’s right.

Stan Miller: All right.  Well, let’s talk about the Rockwell Automation/Adasoft collaboration.  From your perspective, how does that potentially help improve end product quality?

Oscar Cortada: Well, Stan, no man is an island, right?  And I think many companies might make the mistake of wanting to do everything themselves, that’s not been our philosophy at Adasoft, and we’ve been glad to see that it’s not been Rockwell’s philosophy either.  So, we understand that we need to work together to better serve our customers.  We – everybody has their strengths and weaknesses.  The idea is to partner with the type of companies that can help you fully extend the potential of your strengths, while maybe covering some of those weaknesses.  So, I know that Adasoft and Rockwell have been partners for decades, and we will continue to do so, and serve our customers to the fullest extent.

Stan Miller: Oscar, thank you for joining us in the studio today.

Oscar Cortada: Thanks for having me.

Stan Miller: And thank you for watching.  If you’d like to learn more about Rockwell Automation or Adasoft, visit www.rockwellautomation.com.