News and Events

2021 Automation Fair Event

With your health and safety top of mind, Rockwell Automation is planning to host the 2021 Automation Fair event on 10-11 November in-person in Houston, Texas and as an online hybrid experience. 

The Automation Fair experience will feature engaging keynote presentations, interactive hands-on labs and technical sessions, industry-centric panel discussions, an exciting show floor showcasing the latest innovations and solutions from Rockwell Automation and members of our PartnerNetwork, and the opportunity to participate in networking activities with your peers in the field. 

Discover the newest innovations 

The Automation Fair event will showcase the newest products, solutions and services on the exhibit show floor. Experience the latest innovations from Rockwell Automation and members of the PartnerNetwork companies.

The exhibit hall will feature a new immersive, curated experience, interactive demonstrations and activities, and over 100 exhibits from Rockwell Automation and members of the PartnerNetwork.

Interactive training and inspiration

Rockwell Automation recognized as a finalist for the 2021 Microsoft Internet of Things Partner of the Year

Industrial leader recognized out of more than 4,400 nominations in over 100 countries

Rockwell Automation has been named a finalist of the 2021 Microsoft Internet of Things Partner of the Year Award. The company was recognized among a global field of top Microsoft partners for demonstrating excellence in innovation and implementation of customer solutions based on Microsoft technology.

“We’re honored to receive this recognition from Microsoft,” said Rockwell Automation Chairman and CEO Blake Moret. “Achieving results is what Rockwell is all about, and teaming with Microsoft helps us to deliver on that promise. Our intelligent industrial systems enable our customers to seamlessly save on infrastructure costs, speed time-to-value, and increase productivity.”

The Microsoft Partner of the Year Awards recognize Microsoft partners that have developed and delivered outstanding Microsoft-based solutions during the past year. Awards were classified in various categories, with honorees chosen from a set of more than 4,400 submitted nominations from more than 100 countries worldwide. Rockwell Automation was recognized for providing outstanding solutions and services for IoT.

The Internet of Things Partner of the Year Award recognizes a Microsoft partner that has designed, developed and deployed IoT solutions built on its intelligent cloud and edge innovations, such as Azure, IoT and edge devices with their customers. These solutions are helping companies quickly improve their business by increasing visibility into their digital assets, such as where they are at a given time or predicting maintenance required to ensure zero downtime. As a result, they can drive business results and grow customer value.

“I am honored to announce the winners and finalists of the 2021 Microsoft Partner of the Year Awards,” said Rodney Clark, corporate vice president, Global Partner Solutions, Channel Sales and Channel Chief, Microsoft. “These remarkable partners have displayed a deep commitment to building world-class solutions for customers – from cloud-to-edge – and represent some of the best and brightest our ecosystem has to offer.”

End-to-End Cloud-Based Industrial Traceability SolutionsAdvanced track-and-trace platform to drive easier regulatory compliance and improvements in product quality, safety, and sustainability

Rockwell Automation recently announced a partnership with Kezzler AS, a cloud-based product digitization and traceability platform, to help manufacturers capture the journey of their products from raw material sources to point-of-sale or beyond using cloud-based supply chain solutions that focus on product traceability.

Rockwell’s supply chain capabilities will combine with Kezzler’s traceability technologies to help customers connect suppliers, manufacturing, logistics, and consumers into one real-time traceability platform. Kezzler’s cloud-based solution provides integration flexibility and ease of access to existing systems of record that incorporate a wide range of technologies from immutable ledgers (blockchain) to traditional databases. The two companies can also create unique identities that can be used to digitally identify and track products from creation to consumption.

Rockwell anticipates integrating the cloud-native factory floor track-and-trace capabilities of Plex Systems with the end-to-end capabilities of Kezzler, providing supply chain visibility and management capabilities that are both broad in scope and deep in functionality.

“Our partnership with Kezzler will provide greater supply chain transparency to enhance safety and quality control measures, ensure regulatory compliance, and meet ESG goals with cloud-based technologies that are easy to implement and easy to use,” said Matt Fordenwalt, Rockwell vice president and general manager, Systems & Solutions Business. “By combining our technology and expertise with Kezzler’s, we can quickly design and deliver a serialization solution customized to meet specific business requirements with advanced cloud-native software.”

“Together, we can help manufacturers connect all points of a product’s journey, beginning with its inception and ending with its point of sale, consumption, or even where it’s recycled,” said Kezzler CEO, Christine C. Akselsen. “Tying upstream and downstream data together creates true end-to-end traceability, with a single data repository for each product.”

Kezzler is joining the Rockwell Automation Digital Partner Program, a centralized resource for best-in-class digital solutions designed to help customers as they guide and simplify digital transformation within their manufacturing operations.

Rockwell Automation Names Cyril Perducat as New Chief Technology Officer

Rockwell Automation Completes Acquisition of Plex SystemsTransaction expands Rockwell’s cloud-native smart manufacturing offering

Rockwell Automation recently announced that it has completed the acquisition of Plex Systems, the leading cloud-native smart manufacturing platform.

Plex offers the only single-instance, multi-tenant Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) manufacturing platform operating at scale, including advanced manufacturing execution systems, quality, and supply chain management capabilities. It has over 700 customers and manages more than 8 billion transactions per day.

“Plex Systems joins Rockwell at the perfect time, as more customers are starting to move their industrial applications to the cloud,” said Blake Moret, Chairman and CEO of Rockwell Automation. “Plex’s software capabilities will be further differentiated by Rockwell’s global market access, complementary industry expertise, and ability to turn real-time data into actionable insights. This will allow us to better serve our customers with cloud-native solutions that are easy to implement, use, and maintain. We are excited to complete this acquisition and welcome Plex and its employees into Rockwell.”

“Rockwell’s industrial and digital transformation leadership along with its geographic and industry scale make it the ideal home for the entire Plex Systems community of customers, partners, and employees,” said Bill Berutti, CEO of Plex Systems. “We are eager to integrate our Plex Smart Manufacturing Platform with Rockwell’s FactoryTalk suite to deliver on our commitment to optimize our customers’ operations and bring smart manufacturing to life.”

Plex delivers tremendous value to customers in high-volume, highly repetitive discrete and process manufacturing sectors such as automotive parts, metal fabrication, electronics, food & beverage, and aerospace. Together with the advanced, cloud-native asset maintenance and management capabilities provided by Rockwell’s earlier acquisiton of Fiix, the combined offering is ideal for customers in industries like life sciences and consumer packaged goods that are focused on complying with regulatory requirements and meeting consumer expectations in areas like product quality, safety, and sustainability.

HI-LEX, a leading global automotive supplier, is a customer of both Plex Systems and Rockwell Automation.

“At HI-LEX, our vision is to be a world-class manufacturer by providing quality, cost-effective, and on-time products on a global scale to our customers,” said Dr. Brad Semp, Chief Operating Officer of HI-LEX. “We’re excited to see these two industry-leading suppliers come together to accelerate our digital transformation and deliver on that vision.”

“We continue to see the adoption of cloud solutions accelerate within the industrial sector, but many struggle with how to best integrate these solutions into their operations to maximize benefits and minimize risk,” said Kevin Prouty, Group Vice President, Energy and Manufacturing Insights at IDC.