Topical Roundup: August/September 2025

Summary

This month’s topical roundup will teach you the best way to keep your manufacturing equipment in great shape, explain how operational maturity bolsters cybersecurity and show how modern alarm design and management strategies are reshaping operational safety and efficiency. Get the news delivered straight to your inbox by subscribing to Automation.com.

Process Automation & Control

Open Process Automation Systems Advance: Automation.com publisher Rick Zabel discusses how the Open Process Automation (OPA) initiative will impact the future of industrial automation systems. As an example, he mentions ExxonMobil’s Lighthouse Project, demonstrating OPA’s visibility when used as the design basis for automating a resin plant near Baton Rouge, LA.
 
Can Europe’s Domestic Lithium-Ion Battery Manufacturers Gain Firm Foothold in the 800 GWh Race?: In early August, the European Union announced an investment of €852 million ($1 billion) in six lithium-ion battery factories. This is part of the EU’s Battery Value Chain Enhancement Plan, with a total budget of €30 billion ($35 billion). 
 

IIoT & Digital Transformation

Industrial Foundation Models Are Transforming Engineering and Manufacturing: AI helps bridge the gap between human expertise and machine efficiency, but traditional AI models don’t always meet the complexity, precision and safety benchmarks of manufacturing environments. Industrial Foundation Models can help.
 
How AI Improves Signal Processing in Industrial IoT: Signal processing automation experts have long fought interference and disruptions. AI promises to bolster the sector and make transmissions faster and clearer. AI will help through noise reduction, signal enhancement, anomaly detection and more.
 

 Industrial Cybersecurity & Safety

Operational Maturity: The Missing Link in Cybersecurity Success: The biggest risk to organizations isn’t the sophistication of cybercriminals—it’s the absence of mature, repeatable processes. Aligning security processes with business objectives can transform reactive security postures into resilient, strategic programs.

Rethinking Industrial Alarms for a Safer, Smarter Plant: This article examines the evolving role of alarms—from basic notifications to intelligent safeguards—and discusses how modern alarm design, integration and management strategies are reshaping operational safety and efficiency.
 

Operations and Management

Digital Twin or Digital Flop? Why Companies Need Document Control Before 3D Models: Despite the investment and buzz around photorealistic 3D twins and visually rich models, the real challenges are more fundamental. Some barriers to digital twin success include digitizing documents, data disorganization, lack of governance and a lack of alignment of purpose with operational needs.
 
What Tariffs Reveal: A Wake-Up Call to Strengthen Manufacturing Skills: As manufacturers grapple with the uncertainty of tariffs and their potential impact, many are speculating whether digital manufacturing technologies–such as additive manufacturing–might be key to overcoming these challenges. Tariffs and their continued impact also highlight the need to invest in workforce skills.
 

Factory Automation & Control

Modernization or Migration—Which One Is Right for You?: Managing aging technology and infrastructure is a big challenge for many manufacturers. According to industry findings from TWI Institute, 80% of all unplanned downtime in the manufacturing environment can be linked to equipment failure. How do you determine whether you should update equipment or fully replace it?
 
New A3 Report Signals Steady Automation Investment in First Half of 2025: The Association for Advancing Automation (A3) released a report indicating robot orders increased by 4.3%, and revenue rose 7.5% in the first half of 2025 compared with the first half of 2024. North American companies ordered 17,635 robots valued at $1.094 billion in the first six months of 2025.
 

Product updates

Siemens Offers Virtual Product Expert for CNC: Siemens CNC community members will be able to interact with a product expert and get answers to programming and operations questions on demand.

ABB’s Global NEMA Motor Meets Needs of Industrial Applications Worldwide: The U.S. Department of Energy reports that HVACR systems account for as much as 40% of energy use in commercial buildings, with space heating, cooling and ventilation driving most of the consumption. This makes energy efficiency a top priority. ABB, a NEMA motor manufacturer, engineered the Baldor-Reliance GNEM motor solution to answer this need.

_{This column originally appeared in the August/September issue of Automation.com Monthly.}