Heaven Hill Distillery, located in Bardstown, Kentucky, is one of the most iconic bourbon producers in the world, operating in an industry with a century‑long legacy and fast‑evolving digital expectations.
A member of the Rockwell Automation PartnerNetwork™, Opus Integration is their region’s leading standalone system integrator. From machine safety to distilled spirits manufacturing, the Opus Integration team connects people to process, ensuring every stakeholder’s needs are met.
Challenge: Building a Data‑Driven, Secure Greenfield Distillery
Heaven Hill Distillery began construction on a new greenfield site with a clear expectation: a fully digital, data‑intensive operation capable of mirroring every physical process with reliable digital insight. The team wanted deep visibility across operations, which includes grain receiving, mashing, fermentation, byproducts, and finished goods.
However, their existing Louisville facility relied on an older version of PlantPAx®, creating a gap between capabilities and future needs. They also prioritized information security, requesting a system architecture that would allow them to deploy Dragos monitoring and gain visibility into hardware status and network behavior.
Above all, Heaven Hill needed a cohesive visualization layer that could streamline monitoring, reduce manual troubleshooting, and prepare the business for long‑term digital transformation and AI‑driven decision‑making.
Solution: Unified Plant Visualization with PlantPAx®
Heaven Hill turned to Opus Integration, a trusted Rockwell Automation partner with deep expertise in process automation and plant modernization. With a long‑standing relationship already in place through work at their Louisville facility, Heaven Hill sought Opus for strategic guidance, engineering leadership, and hands‑on implementation support.
Opus deployed PlantPAx® 5.1, giving Heaven Hill a modern, cohesive view of the entire facility. The solution centralized plant visualization, allowing operators to monitor equipment, interlocks, and system behavior from any terminal in the distillery.
Opus also helped the Heaven Hill team configure the network architecture to accommodate Dragos information security, giving the customer visibility into their connected assets and strengthening the facility’s cybersecurity posture.
Result: Faster Troubleshooting, Better Decisions, and a Path to AI
PlantPAx® transformed how operators at Heaven Hill engage with their production environment. With modern interlock objects, operators can instantly see what conditions are preventing equipment from running. No longer did they need to wait for maintenance, dig through code, or place multiple calls for support. Troubleshooting time has dropped dramatically, improving responsiveness and keeping production moving.
The new system also allows the team to analyze historical trends and compare past production runs. This data foundation supports anomaly detection, process optimization, and continuous improvement across operations.
Don Ault, Owner and CEO of Opus Integration, says,
“[Heaven Hill] felt that they could spend a whole lot more time focusing on their product versus the process. It's been very, very valuable for them. They're just able to look at the process as a whole and really have that comfort level with what they're looking after.”
Notably, the digital infrastructure is also helping the distillery prepare for AI‑driven manufacturing insights. Heaven Hill is already building roles centered on cognitive AI to interpret data harvested from PlantPAx®, a major step forward for an industry over 100 years old.
The partnership between Heaven Hill, Opus Integration, and Rockwell Automation continues to create long‑term value, delivering both modern visibility today and a foundation for continued digital transformation.
Published February 26, 2026
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