Whether through strategic supplier partnerships or custom-built AI web applications, speakers at Rockwell Automation's Automation Fair Monday in Chicago, Ill., shared how they're thinking outside the box to find operational advantages. Here are three highlights from the day's sessions.
Digital twins support design, deployment, and improvements
Digital twins can bring value for OEMs just as much as their end users with the right implementation.
Robb Struck of Kalypso (left) and Dwayne Negron of Rockwell Automation (right)OEM Magazine
“One of the beauties of a digital twin is that it allows you to do offline modeling, or predictive modeling. You’re turning inputs into outputs to predict the future and enable experimentation,” Skruck said. “You can allow end user clients to play with their operations before they actually implement it, which is very powerful for them,” Skruck said.
Digital twins can also streamline the commissioning process, building confidence in the project timeline and supporting vertical startups.
“If you’re not leveraging a twin to do virtual commissioning, typically we see OEMs are going over the startup time by 20 to 40%,” Skruck said. “The benefit of [digital twins for commissioning] is you’re not going over, you’re not incurring cost that you potentially won’t be reimbursed for, and you’re not affecting your own timeline for your startup and service engineers.”
These systems bring benefits well after the startup as well. End users can use digital twins to continuously monitor and improve their operations, Negron explained.
“We’re able to do continuous improvement using digital twins. We provide virtual testing time, which allows us to test the asset, line, or facility, without ever having to stop the physical process,” said Negron. “Using a digital twin, you can 10X the number of tests you do and never touch a physical line.”
The power of smart collaboration
Equipment suppliers can provide useful automation alone, but they can unlock truly powerful solutions with a bit of collaboration.
Sean Mulherrin, product manager, EplanOEM Magazine
One new example is with Emulate3D, a tool that allows users to build a virtual machine design to validate workflows, both for full simulation and emulation with a pre-programmed PLC. Mulherrin noted that one common roadblock with simulation models is the time required to build it, especially when mapping connections between sensors and IO points.
“This information has to be manually entered in the simulation model, and it can take days depending on how many IO points you have. In Eplan, I know exactly which IO point is connected to what sensor. So, why not take the information from Eplan and export it to Emulate3D, so I don’t have to recreate that entire wiring diagram manually. This is what we did,” Mulherrin said. “We are launching a new interface that allows you to take the data form your schematics, and with the click of a button, export it in the .xml file format, and import it into Emulate3D to create all your wiring diagrams. Instead of going from days to create the wiring diagrams, you go down to minutes. That’s huge when you’re taking about creating a simulation model.”
Why ProMach built its own AI web application
Sometimes finding the perfect solution means creating it yourself.
Robert Cartia, VP of business process, ProMachOEM Magazine
PAIRIS is made with open architecture, including a full-stack AI web application and a backend API server that implements business functions and AI agents.
“It gives us flexibility to do this in-house. You can build the application around your business processes versus working with a vendor and buying an off-the-shelf black box, because now you’ve lost that flexibility.” said Cartia.
He noted that ProMach has worked with off-the-shelf products for sales and aftermarket functions, but “I will tell you that we’ve had to modify our business process around that tool,” he said. “This gave us the flexibility to build the tool around our business processes.”
