I visited Automation Fair, Rockwell Automation’s annual customer showcase gathering, Tuesday. We had six briefings and a gathering to discuss the new ControlLogix 5590 platform. This year’s event felt both similar to past years (this was my 29th) and also a bit different. The original format recreated the trade show environment. The past few years has seen a change to include large keynotes as other large automation suppliers traditionally feature and more breakout sessions. And a bit more than 10,000 people turned out. (I didn’t get an official number, but guessing was perhaps 12,000 total attendees.)
The briefings provided insight into several areas of the company including cybersecurity, building new manufacturing “factory of the future” using Rockwell products and services, software defined architecture, and a bit more. All of this I will detail in my next post.
The big news…
I’m old enough to remember Rockwell Automation moving a lot of manufacturing, especially for control products, to Asia. Recently they’ve touted a new production line for OTTO AMRs in Milwaukee. Executives also pointed to work in progress upgrading production lines in Twinsburg, Ohio.
Following an established theme for 2025 manufacturing, Rockwell Automation has announced plans to build a new, 1 million square foot facility somewhere in southeastern Wisconsin. The project marks the next step in the company’s previously announced $2 billion investment in plants, digital infrastructure, and talent to grow share, build resilience, and expand margins over the next five years. The facility has the potential to be Rockwell’s largest manufacturing campus globally, with a significant footprint and the flexibility to scale operations.
Note that this is an announcement. Much work remains before anything physical happens. We were give a bit more detail here.
This new facility will span more than 1 million square feet of manufacturing and warehouse space and will be equipped with advanced automation, robotics, and digital systems that will showcase modern manufacturing and demonstrate Rockwell’s leadership in industrial automation.
And the obligatory quotes:
“Rockwell Automation has been leading the way with high-quality manufacturing and technology solutions for over a century. We’re incredibly proud of that tradition and how they’ve continued to exemplify the innovation and excellence that Wisconsin is known for, and we are excited to celebrate their continued growth and success in our state,” says Gov. Tony Evers. “I want to thank Rockwell Automation for their ongoing commitment to Wisconsin, our workforce, and our communities, and I look forward to seeing how this newest expansion will accelerate our statewide goals of building a 21st-century workforce and economy.”
“Designing a new facility presents the opportunity to create the future of industrial operations, with highly orchestrated production,” says Blake Moret, chairman and CEO at Rockwell Automation. “We are expanding our U.S. manufacturing footprint with advanced production capability that supports growth and performance with the latest Rockwell technologies and solutions.”
“It will integrate the latest in Rockwell’s production technologies, including AI and analytics tools, to increase efficiency and precision, while providing team members with access to advanced tools and training. I’m excited to see our highly skilled workforce maximize the potential of this site,” says Bob Buttermore, chief supply chain officer at Rockwell Automation. “This investment reflects our confidence in our teams that deliver excellence every day.”
Buttermore told us at the media briefing that his team’s work is to bring in some of the margins paid out to other companies through more vertical integration.
This reinforces Rockwell’s long-term commitment to American manufacturing and to the skilled workforce that drives production and innovation. The Southeastern Wisconsin location will be near the company’s global headquarters in Milwaukee.
Construction and site planning are in progress in concert with local and state officials. Additional details will be shared as the project advances.
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We met in a conference room at an office in Barrington, IL. A place where sometime later a couple guys thought they’d screw me in a business deal. I came out ahead in the end, but the place has mixed memories.
This meeting involved thinking about the future of asset data and systems interoperability. We had a system diagram. The idea was to solve a huge problem for owner/operators of process manufacturing enterprises—flowing engineering data into other software systems for operations, maintenance, and enterprise. The incumbent system was a morass of paper (or pdf documents which was much the same thing).
We did trademark searches and domain name searches and eventually settled on the Open Industrial Interoperability Ecosystem—OIIE.
I plot this history for context for the conference I attended recently—the 2nd ADIF Workshop at Texas A&M University dubbed Driving Asset Data and Systems Interoperability Toward an Open and Neutral Data Ecosystem.
This workshop brought together owner/operators, EPCs, System Integrators, university researchers, standards organizations, and software vendors. Each group conducted a panel discussion of its needs and successes. I was there for a short presentation and to moderate the standards panel.
Professor David Jeong from Texas A&M and the session leader previewed the discussions. One of his colleagues later presented research his team has performed to provide a method for taking P&ID documentation into a standard format usable by other software systems.
The message that came to me from the panel of owner/operators (grossly summarized, as will be all the discussions) included two key words—collaborate and operationalize. They are impatient about solving this data interoperability problem. One panelist quipped, “We know the project is finished when the large van backs into the loading dock and disgorges mountains of paper.”
What blows my mind is that I was moved to a position called Data Manager in 1977 to tackle the (much smaller) mountain of paper our product engineering department provided to operations, accounting, and inventory management. I led a digitalization effort in 1978 to tackle the problem. The problem not only remains, but it is immensely more complicated and critical.
The EPCs basically said that their hands were tied by the owner/operators mandating which design and engineering software to use and the inflexibility of the vendors of said design and engineering software. When owner/operators had requested digital documentation, they had responded with pdfs. Hardly interoperable data.
Our standards panel included the leader of DEXPI, whose organization has developed a method of changing P&ID data into an xlsx (Excel) format. That, of course, is a good start.
An organization called CFIHOS (see-foss) presented their take on standards. I’m afraid I got a bit lost in the slides (note: more research needed). What I gathered was that they were attempting one overriding standard—and that that work was years away. Interesting that I listened to Benedict Evans’ podcast this morning. He is a long-time tech industry analyst. He remarked in another context, “It seems that where there are 10 standards and someone comes along with a standard to encompass them all, you wind up with 11 standards.”
The ISA-95 was presented. This messaging (and more) standard is incorporated with the OIIE, which was presented next. Dr. Markus Stumptner of the University of South Australia presented his research work on proof of concept of the OIIE.
If we can get enough momentum focusing on this area and find some SIs willing to take the OIIE to an owner/operator, perhaps we can finally prove the business case of asset data and systems interoperability.
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I’ve had the opportunity to talk with many CEOs and SVPs following acquisitions that, to me, seemed out of place. Perhaps a distraction to core business. Perhaps just an ego play to build a larger business/division. Two ranking executives told me that the acquired company and the acquiring company’s software were build with object-oriented programming. Therefore, they said, they could just combine the objects into a new, stronger software offering.
Neither succeeded.
It so happened that the PTC CEO and I were attending the same conference not long after the acquisition of ThingWorx and Kepware. Both acquisitions were beneficial to the owners of the acquired companies. I couldn’t see how entering a new market could help PTC’s business.
“Gary,” I was assured, “we will integrate all the software into a unified and comprehensive industrial software offering.”
I didn’t believe it then. Subsequent events proved me correct. PTC has unloaded the two companies to TPG, a company that seems (foolishly?) trying to grow into a market that I think is dominated (at least in terms of innovation) by Inductive Automation. TPG previously acquired the industrial software business (former Cimplicity, Intellution, iFix) from GE Vernova. I bet they think they can integrate the three (and perhaps others?) into a competitive offering.
Meanwhile, PTC states that the “sale of Kepware and ThingWorx businesses enables PTC to increase focus on Intelligent Product Lifecycle vision.”
PTC further says, “Transaction will provide the Kepware and ThingWorx businesses with additional resources for growth.” I guess that means that PTC had ceased providing sufficient resources for that said growth. TPG is one of those private equity firms. Think it will fatten them up for eventual sale?
Here’s a bit about the businesses, in case you’ve forgotten about them.
Kepware facilitates connectivity between industrial automation devices and applications, acting as a communication platform that enables data exchange and integration across a diverse range of industries including manufacturing, oil and gas, and utilities to simplify the process of collecting, monitoring, and controlling data from multiple sources. ThingWorx is a comprehensive IoT platform for industrial enterprises that connects systems, analyzes data, and enables the remote management of devices through a secure and scalable architecture.
The transaction is expected to close in the first half of calendar year 2026, subject to the satisfaction of regulatory approvals and other closing conditions.
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More acquisitions in the market. Another cybersecurity company acquired. This one by Yokogawa. A lot of consolidation in the cybersecurity market. Among other things, Yokogawa cites this acquisition as creating a Digital Hub for Renewable Energy and Decarbonization.
Yokogawa Electric Corp. announced that it has acquired Intellisync, a provider of cybersecurity and digital transformation solutions, and WiSNAM, a developer of advanced grid control and energy management solutions. Both companies will be integrated into BaxEnergy, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Yokogawa that provides renewable energy management solutions. This will allow Yokogawa to expand its cybersecurity capabilities and advanced grid control products, and elevate its presence in the renewable energy sector through the creation of a digital hub.
Some background of the acquired companies.
Established in 2017, Intellisync’s expertise lies in cybersecurity as a service, defending customer assets against external threats and internal intrusions. It operates a dedicated 24/7 network and security operations center. Intellisync also offers vulnerability assessment, security testing, and consulting services covering digital transformation, data analytics, and artificial intelligence. By ensuring cybersecurity compliance across information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT) layers, this acquisition will accelerate Yokogawa’s ability to deliver robust cybersecurity solutions.
Established in 2010, WiSNAM specializes in hardware and software for controlling renewable and distributed energy resources. As one of WiSNAM’s flagship offerings, Power Plant Controller maximizes performance and yield in photovoltaic and hybrid plants by providing quick and precise data collection. It supports international grid codes* and offers high scalability, ranging from medium to large-scale installations, while ensuring the steady provision of grid-compliant power for medium and high-voltage systems.
Simone Massaro, CEO of BaxEnergy, said, “With these acquisitions, Yokogawa will accelerate the development of a new generation of software offerings that extend beyond renewable energy, delivering secure, high-performance solutions for decarbonization of energy-intensive industries.”
Koji Nakaoka, Yokogawa Electric executive vice president, executive officer, and head of the company’s Energy & Sustainability Business Headquarters, said, “By combining Intellisync’s 24/7 security operation and WiSNAM’s grid compliant Power Plant Controller, Yokogawa can offer end to end solutions that bridge IT and OT. The acquisition also strengthens Yokogawa’s software as a service (SaaS) and recurring revenue portfolio and accelerates the company’s shift toward digital transformation and autonomous operations.”
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Greg Hale, writing in his newsletter from ISS Source:
While the cloud does not dominate the everyday mechanisms of the manufacturing automation sector, this week’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) outage shows a clear dependance on any one of the three main providers is something every organization needs to review. Only three cloud providers dominate the global market, and when any of them experience outages, the ripple effects are massive,” said Dewan Chowdhury, chief executive and founder of security provider, malcrawler. “Universities lose access to online portals. Restaurants cannot process digital orders. Critical infrastructure operators lose visibility into their devices. This concentration of control has created a fragile ecosystem where one failure can disrupt entire sectors.” Amazon said this week’s outage which occurred Monday was likely caused by issues related to its domain name system, or DNS, which converts website addresses into numeric ones, allowing websites and apps to load on Internet-connected devices.
I’m with the supposed root cause. I’ve recently had two major issues due to WPMU Dev dinking around with my DNS and IP addresses. One little change, and my website is down—and it’s up to me to trace the problem.
David Heinemeier-Hansen, CTO and co-founder of 37 Signals, recently reviewed the risk and costs involved with the company’s reliance on these cloud services. He concluded that for a company of their size, they were better off financially and with risk by building their own.
I’ve been in the midst of discussions in another arena with the same idea—risk management. These discussions have focused on data interoperability. A company allowing multiple proprietary data silos invites a higher risk profile from the inability to find and act on data prudently and promptly.
What are you doing to mitigate risk?
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Kevin Meyer, Evolving Excellence, traces unanticipated consequences of tariffs and protections afforded to an industry by government. Much as Trump has discovered, penalizing a country for one industry segment comes back to bite an American market segment. Things are never as simple as we think when dealing with many variables with many people and conflicting interests.
I recommend reading carefully.
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