Insights from Automation Fair 2024 | Rockwell Automation

By Amanda Joshi, Managing Editor

Rockwell Automation kicked off its 33^rd annual Automation Fair^® event in Anaheim, California, on Nov. 18, 2024. This four-day immersive event united more than 10,000 automation industry professionals from around the world to help attendees achieve resiliency, agility and sustainability in their work. The event featured an expo with more than 130 interactive exhibits, 275 educational sessions and opportunities to connect with industry changemakers.

Each attendee could tailor their experience with customizable schedules, hands-on training and thought-provoking keynotes designed to spark inspiration. Visitors engaged in conversations and training sessions, asked questions and expanded their professional networks.

They also learn about into the latest IT/OT trends, explored practical smart manufacturing applications, and discovered how digital transformation can help meet business objectives. Participants also learned about technologies from Rockwell Automation and members of its global PartnerNetwork™ program that can help address challenges while optimizing production.

Keynote Conversations

Keynotes, open to all attendees, represented some of the most impactful moments of thought leadership. These inspirational presentations focused on the future of manufacturing, innovations in industrial technology and inspiring resiliency and sustainability.

“When you think about manufacturing, you can see just how important it is,” said Blake Moret, chairman and CEO of Rockwell Automation, establishing the event’s “Make it Matter” theme in the opening keynote address. “From providing food and clean water to medicine and energy, what manufacturers do matters.”

He added that manufacturing is, of course, also critical to economies, noting that Automation Fair^® attendees are “right in the middle of it all” with their work in industry. “There’s nothing less at stake than expanding human possibility,” he stressed.

The company plans to drive inefficiencies out by bringing its technologies together to make them easier to apply, design and maintain. “That’s really our focus for the next couple of years,” Moret shared. “The opportunity to reduce risk is our best opportunity to make life easier [for industry] when it comes to automation implementation.”

To do this, Rockwell Automation plans to bolster its edge and cloud technologies, noting the technologies work well together to enable a “resilient edge that can serve as the data broker for information moving up to and down from the cloud.” This hybrid approach recognizes the realities of plant floor operations, “because you can't always rely on a persistent cloud connection. That’s why having dependable edge capabilities to hold data at the ready and reduce any issues with cloud latency is critical,” he noted

The future of manufacturing also includes merging technologies with artificial intelligence (AI). Rockwell Automation has added AI to its traditional automation technologies with FactoryTalk^® Analytics™ VisionAI™ for vision inspection, FactoryTalk Analytics LogixAI^® designed to help monitor and stay ahead of product quality issues and FactoryTalk Analytics GuardianAI™ that helps predict equipment failures.

You can watch this keynote and others on demand.

Automation Fair 2024 Keynotes CEO Blake Moret — Blake Moret addressed attendees at the 2024 Automation Fair^® event in Anaheim, California.

Expo Shines a Light on Robots, AI, More

At the popular expo, which was expanded from two days to all four days of the event, robots quickly grabbed attendees’ attention.

For example, Rockwell Automation System Integrator Grey Solutions “walked” Boston Dynamics’ agile mobile robot, Spot, through the aisles of the show floor. It showed off its agility and even “played dead” for the crowd.

OTTO Motors’ autonomous mobile robots, a company Rockwell Automation acquired last year to help address material handling challenges, were also a popular attraction.

Attendees and exhibitors talked about the industry’s challenges and benefits, including how the latest advancements in AI are disrupting the industry and creating a new, exciting tool that can further help increase production efficiencies. Kris Dornan of Rockwell Automation noted that with all the new technology and tools available, maintenance that used to take months, is now being completed in days.

Ryan Leroux at Sensia, a joint venture between Rockwell Automation and technology company SLB, mentioned that the automation sector has grown exponentially, and the visibility it provides helps optimize production outputs. But with more focus on digitalization, one challenge is finding the right workers to fill the IT/OT space.

To help with reskilling workers to fill the gaps between traditional manual labor and more digitalized roles, training options have increased. However, with the higher quantity of training class options available, the quality has decreased, noted Leroux. When looking for a good training program, “It’s pretty much ‘you get what you pay for,’” he cautioned.

The workforce challenges also bring new opportunities to think creatively. While younger workers might not have a more experienced engineer to shadow and gain valuable knowledge, they often are more adept with technology.

This has allowed many industry providers to rethink more traditional offerings. For example, nVent Hoffman, a company in the Rockwell Automation PartnerNetwork, recognized that simulation technologies could help simplify cabinet design and reduce the amount of time engineers spent commissioning and installing. So, regardless of the years of experience an engineer might have, their approach helps minimize the learning curve.

Cybersecurity was also a hot topic at the expo. As software and cloud-based technologies advance, so do cyber threats. AI not only can help improve operational inefficiencies, but it also can provide a more proactive approach to cybersecurity, finding risks before they create vulnerable pathways into operations.

Summits Create Connections

Introduced in 2023, the half-day Summit experience brought together like-minded individuals to solve problems, build community and share successes. Attendees could choose from five summits:

Motion User Group (MUG) Summit.
New Capacity Excellence Summit.
Plex Customer Summit.
Process Solutions User Group (PSUG) Summit.
OEM Leader-to-Leader Summit.

All Summits offered exclusive access to keynote speakers and subject matter experts (SMEs), roundtable collaborations and topic breakouts.

For instance, Rockwell Automation has been evolving its PlantPAx distributed control system (DCS) since its launch in 2009, and shared its latest developments at the Process Solutions Users Group (PSUG) Summit. The release of PlantPAx Version 5.3 focuses on enhancing functionality, efficiency and data integration for process automation.

Attendees learned the latest updates to PlantPAx prioritize practical improvements in system performance, usability and scalability, reflecting the evolving needs of process automation users. The system is positioned to integrate emerging technologies and improve operational efficiency in industrial settings.

Arvind Rao, industry solutions vice president at Rockwell Automation, shared how the company’s collaboration with Red Hat also helps streamline the system and simplify installation.

“We need partners like Red Hat and its Ansible automation provisioning and management platform, which we’re integrating with [our] own provisioning and management platform to enable PlantPAx,” said Rao. “This can shorten the task of updating PlantPAx installations from multiple days to just a few hours. Users can connect to current software versions in the cloud or deploy templates with the click of a button.”

Users can log into Rockwell Automation and Red Hat’s combined solution, view pending jobs and workflows, select and identify an applicable process, click to launch their software application, and the system will carry out the update. Rao said his colleagues recently updated 12 PlantPAx servers by using the provisioning and management software, and it only took 4.5 hours. The two companies’ combined provisioning and management product will be available in Spring 2025.

Learn more about the PSUG summit.

Unique Off-Site Visits

Also introduced last year, the popular off-site visits were expanded to offer more behind-the-scenes tours of area partners and customers, so attendees could examin real-world applications.

Inland Empire Utilities Agency (IEUA) provided a tour of its Chino headquarters and Regional Plant 5 (RP-5) upgrade, which is under construction. Attendees learned how the IEUA fosters cooperation among municipalities to address water scarcity in southern California through innovative water management and treatment strategies. They explored IEUA's integrated approach, including importing water, recycling, groundwater recharging, renewable energy generation and composting.

The visit highlighted the challenges and technological advancements at IEUA's Regional Plant 5 (RP-5), built in 2003 and currently being expanded to take over solids processing for RP-2, which is scheduled for decommissioning.

To assume RP-2’s role, RP-5 will expand from 16.3 million gallons per day (mgd) to 22.5 mgd and include a new biosolids facility with membrane-bio-reactor technology. Construction on the $330-million project began in 2021 and is expected to last another year and a half.

Automation Fair 2024 Off-site Tour Inland Empire Utilities Agency — The Inland Empire Utilities Agency provided a tour of their Chino headquarters and Regional Plant 5 upgrade.

IEUA is working to standardize its automation platform to support and streamline the water management and environmental stewardship of the seven municipalities it serves while maintaining current staff levels.

The tour also showcased IEUA's commitment to sustainability through automation, duality policies for reliability, and cybersecurity measures. Attendees gained insights into IEUA's role in managing water resources efficiently while adapting to changing population needs and environmental conditions.

Attendees also toured global food company Grupo Bimbo’s U.S. bakery production facility to learn about the operations evolution, sustainability commitment and production-line modernization.

And Hestan, a manufacturer of advanced commercial kitchen equipment and luxury appliances, invited visitors to see how Plex® ERP and MES helped improve the company’s speed-to-market, quality, visibility and productivity.

Visitors also toured the Papé Material Handling Warehouse Design Center, showcasing OTTO autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) designed to improve material handling automation.

Advanced Training

Hands-on labs allowed event attendees to spend time with domain experts and get personalized guidance. Participants experienced hardware and software simulations for more in-depth, specific scenarios and use cases.

Rockwell Automation offered more than 450 hours of training, including Product & Technology Sessions, and attendees could earn professional development hour (PDH) credits while attending the fair. Those who attended can download their PDH credits for Advanced Training sessions and certificates of attendance for General Access sessions.

In all, Rockwell Automation, its partners, and its customers delivered more than 275 educational sessions plus learning opportunities at discovery theaters in the expo, training sessions and panel discussions.

See You in Chicago Next Year

Plan ahead for the 2025 Automation Fair^® event, Nov. 17-20, McCormick Place, Chicago. We’ll see you there.

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