Like other automation supplier events in 2020, the annual Rockwell Automation conference adapted to coronavirus pandemic restrictions to go virtual this year. Known as Automation Fair at Home 2020 , the event presentations highlighted the company’s evolution “beyond being a traditional hardware supplier,” as Chairman and CEO Blake Moret described it. “I have heard from a number of our big customers who have known us for a very long time who have said we are moving beyond our traditional role and playing a bigger role in their digital transformation,” he said. Since the launch of Rockwell Automation Lifecycle Services last year, the company has emphasized this evolution by redefining its business into three segments: Intelligent Devices, Lifecycle Services and Software & Control.
FY2020 sales were announced as:
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Intelligent Devices - $2.9 billion
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Lifecycle Services - $1.7 billion
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Software & Control - $1.7 billion
Lifecycle Services , in particular, is big part of Rockwell Automation’s strategy to grow annual recurring revenue (ARR). Steve Etzel , Senior VP and CFO, described a 2021 Lifecycle Services sales goal of double digit growth and said the organization is stimulating this with a sales-performance incentive. This segment, which encompasses system integration, engineering consulting, and maintenance contracts, offers:
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Consulting & Integration
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Commissioning and startup
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Project & Program Management
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Calibration
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OT Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
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Remote & On-site Technical Support
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OT Cybersecurity
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Safety Assessments and Remediation
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Asset Management
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Managed Services
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Predictive and Prescriptive Analytics
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Modernization
In addition, Rockwell Automation has been broadening its system integration and services capabilities internally through acquisitions. Recent ones include:
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Maverick Technologies
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Sensia
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Kalypso
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AVNET
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OYLO
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Fiix
Accenture, Rockwell Automation pursue IT/OT integration
The Accenture and Rockwell Automation partnership announced last year was showcased at year’s event. This partnership acknowledges that digitalization requires an integration of IT and OT with digitalization initiated by high-level manufacturing executives. “Forty to 50 of the most common use cases in manufacturing are things we can tackle,” noted Jonatham Baugh, senior manager with Accenture Industry X.0. Accenture has significant strength, with a global team of 505,000 employees worldwide serving clients in more than 120 countries.
Accenture Industry X.0 helps businesses master the digital reinvention of industry when they use advanced digital technologies to transform core operations and unlock new revenue streams and business models. Accenture capabilities support every aspect of a clients’ multi-phase transformation, including workforce, customer experience, R&D, engineering, manufacturing, business support, and ecosystems. “Industrial companies that want to grow need faster and more efficient production and operations processes. These processes also need to allow them to develop new types of products and services,” said Mike Sutcliff, group chief executive of Accenture Digital.
“Our collaboration with Rockwell Automation will offer digital solutions and services that will go a long way in helping our clients achieve this enterprise transformation.”
Digitalization, design and PLM
The $1 billon investment in and relationship with PTC has certainly been an important part in this journey providing Rockwell Automation a broader number of solutions to sell including ThingWorx , Design (3D CAD/CAM/CAE), and Product lifecycle Management (PLM) software. PTC is considered one of the industry leaders in PLM and design software which are a fundamental element for manufacturing digitalization. The scope of PLM reaches throughout the entire product lifecycle including ideation, design, digital twin, manufacture, customer service and product and of life disposal managing sustainability. Rockwell automation has experienced double-digit order growth with the PTC partnership. Moret noted that 50% of the sales wins with PTC were on top of competitive automation platforms.
Logix architecture concentric focus
Rockwell Automation continues to believe and promote industrial manufacturing digitalization be accomplished by connecting all manufacturing and process plant devices to the company’s Logix architecture including non-Rockwell devices (PLCs, controller, drives, etc.) and normalizing all information to Rockwell Automation data models. I asked about Rockwell Automation digital transformation philosophy and Tessa Myers, vice president of Product Management responded in writing about the company’s OEM/machine builder focus, OPC UA support and the benefits of integrating edge-to-cloud technology. The following are her responses:
OEMs / machine builders focus
Each OEM and component supplier is working on developing predictive maintenance / remote expert-based solutions to create new revenue streams. These solutions depend on end users providing each OEM access to machine data. Hence, the end user sees several of these offerings as security and IP risks (too many holes in the firewall). Our solution is to provide a secure managed service offering from edge-to-cloud. The end user has full control of and access to the data from the system and receives the support they need, while securing the plant network.
When it comes to machines from different vendors, our solution is two-fold:
- Contextualized data from Rockwell Automation smart devices/PLCs through our secured edge gateway solution that maps into the customer’s information systems.
- We realize the plant floor has a diverse set of equipment (heterogeneous environment).
Our Kepware suite allows us to connect with those devices and map that information into our solution.
The combined capability through our central, secured FactoryTalk Edge Gateway software enables contextualized, secured connectivity from edge to cloud.
OPC UA Support
Regarding OPC UA support, Myers said, “We have built our control system and communication software to support OPC UA specifications. Additionally, if a customer chooses the OPC UA approach, our data will map into their model natively. Our data model is not based on a standard like OPC UA, but we've done this purposely. Our model is more generic.
The gateway can take the model we build and put it in whatever format needed to meet the needs of the egress endpoint. So, when we send to OPC, it would egress in that standard. And, when we also send to ThingWorx or Azure - which require different egress formats – it would egress to those standards. This is how we are making OT/IT integration easier, and we plan to support multiple egress standards as we release future versions of this product.” Myers added: “Our FactoryTalk Edge Gateway software with collaboration from Microsoft (Azure IoT Edge, Azure IoT Hub) enables us to deliver an edge-to-cloud integrated platform.
As a result, our partner ecosystem (OEM, SI, ISVs) and customers can focus on business outcomes that can scale across the industrial supply chain to deliver long-term value on top of our platform.”
Thoughts & observations
Rockwell Automation is changing the company scope and directions pursuing more system integration, consulting, and lifecycle maintenance services. I still believe the PTC investment, relationship, and partnering was an enlightening decision. PTC really understands the world of manufacturing digitalization, Industry 4.0, and Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). The biggest disappointment is Rockwell Automation’s fixation on connecting everything including other vendor systems in a manufacturing or process plant into the Rockwell architecture and normalizing to their data models.
AsTessa Myers, Vice President of Product Management said, “Our data model is not based on a standard like OPC UA, but we’ve done this purposely. Our model is more generic.” This is in contrast to the digitalization of industrial & process automation systems that embrace open architecture. Maybe the current Rockwell Automation recommendations are a temporary situation, since the company is participating in some of the major industrial and process automation open-architecture industry initiatives. In an editorial last year I explored this question: Can Manufacturers Compete When Trapped in Existing Automation Architectures? At times of great technological change, it is important to be careful when considering infrastructure investments to avoid throwing good money after bad.
Investment in industrial automation technology should be a strategic business decision to maximize competitiveness within the framework of world manufacturing competition, not based on existing sunk costs.
