Digital transformation: continuously

optimizing manufacturing operations

Rockwell Automation has always

been at the forefront of innovation
No business can afford to sit How many manufacturers can say they’ve experienced
still. Least of all manufacturers. more than a century of continued success?
Rockwell Automation can. Established in 1903, what
Only those who stay a step began as the world’s first motor control company has
grown into a storied technology and manufacturing
ahead stand a chance. Read how powerhouse. Through transformative events from the
invention of the moving assembly line to the rise of
Rockwell Automation has pushed industrial robotics, Rockwell Automation has always
beyond the initial stages of digital remained an industrial leader. Rockwell Automation
has thrived for 117 years because they’ve stayed on the
transformation to reach a state of cutting edge for 117 years. Today, Rockwell Automation
is building what’s next by applying that same mindset of
continuous improvement—so they innovation.
can remain on the forefront of Rockwell Automation—both a global manufacturer and
whatever comes next. leading technology provider—is uniquely positioned to
drive their own digital transformation. As a manufacturer,
about one-third of their 23,000 employees work at
20 global manufacturing plants and manage a product
catalog of nearly 400,000 SKUs. And as the world’s
largest company dedicated to industrial automation and
digital transformation, they help companies
around the world improve processes, reduce
inefficiencies, and increase productivity.

Rockwell Automation • Case Study | 01

 Annual improvement in productivity by 4 – 5%

Reduced inventory days from 120 to 82

Captured annual capital avoidance of 30%

Cut lead times by 50%

Reduced recalls by 80%

Rockwell Automation is The key to success is

well into their own digital continuous improvement
transformation As Rockwell Automation has demonstrated throughout
their history, the ability to stay ahead of the curve
Given their heritage, the Rockwell Automation requires a commitment to continuous improvement. Not
manufacturing arm embraced digital transformation before only does it require solving for the needs of the present,
it became a buzzword. They started by combining multiple, but also anticipating those of the future. This means
disparate systems into one enterprise resource planning finding new ways to continually optimize operations
(ERP) system that could manage many others around the and enable better decision making throughout the
world. In parallel, they rolled out a manufacturing execution workforce—their greatest asset.
system (MES) as its centralized system of record—and
spent the next several years going plant by plant to connect Although well into their own digital transformation and
factories, processes, and people to a single MES. yielding significant improvements, Rockwell Automation
was not content to rest on their laurels. With their
These actions put Rockwell Automation at the forefront factories connected and a single connected system
of OT/IT convergence—unifying IT and OT systems to across the globe, Rockwell Automation asked the hard
provide new opportunities to access, monitor, and question: what’s next?
capitalize on operational, business, and transactional
data across the manufacturing enterprise. This gave Rockwell Automation wanted to ensure it was realizing
them the foundation to standardize workflows and the full benefits of their connectivity by driving
processes across all facilities. Rockwell Automation standardization across operations. To do this, a team
established a globally standardized approach for of connected enterprise specialists focused on key use
connecting their factories around the world and set the cases designed to further optimize factory assets and
stage for the next wave of digital transformation. empower their workforce with digital tools and resources.

The results were significant. Rockwell Automation

lowered their total cost of ownership, reducing inventory
days from 120 to 82 and capturing 30% in annual capital
avoidance. They have accelerated their time to market,
with supply chain deliveries now up to 96% and lead times
cut in half. Additionally, the company estimates it has
experienced a 4 - 5% annual improvement in productivity.

Rockwell Automation • Case Study | 02

Rockwell Automation accelerates
transformation with FactoryTalk®
InnovationSuite, powered by PTC
Rockwell Automation employed FactoryTalk InnovationSuite,
powered by PTC, to build and advance to the next stage of
their transformation. Across six global facilities, the suite
infused edge-to-enterprise analytics, machine learning,
internet of things (IoT), and augmented reality (AR) directly
into their industrial operations. This powerful suite makes
data more accessible, enables more informed business
decisions, and facilitates long-term growth and continuous
innovation. FactoryTalk InnovationSuite is the most
comprehensive and effective way for manufacturers to
optimize their people, products, and processes, and to
accelerate their industrial transformation.
The technology on its own has enormous potential—
but without specific use cases that can scale to multiple
scenarios and facilities, the value can be limited and never hit
the double-digit impact Rockwell Automation was looking for.
To ensure a successful global rollout, Rockwell Automation
identified use cases that would have the greatest benefit to
their global operations and employees. By piloting the use
cases in each location, they were able to facilitate a digital
culture shift and help employees develop the right skillsets.
At a high level, these use cases span from intelligent asset
optimization to workforce productivity and enterprise
operational intelligence.

Rockwell Automation • Case Study | 03

Intelligent asset THROUGHPUTS

optimization
Rockwell Automation leveraged powerful real-time
monitoring and analytics tools to both increase the
Too many manufacturers take a reactionary approach quantity of output and decrease the labor cost per unit
to managing production and performance issues. They produced. With detailed data analysis of the production
depend on manual monitoring processes to assess process—specifically around time between units and
machine health and utilization, or simply don’t have the time per step—Rockwell Automation was able to optimize
ability to see critical information that could help them throughput for a new product in high demand. At one
optimize operations. The resulting downtime and poor facility, double-digit results include a 33% increase in
asset utilization are often costly and time consuming labor efficiency, a 70% increase in outputs, and a 50%
to fix. And as machines and operations become more reduction in training time.
complex, the impacts only become greater.
To overcome these challenges, the Operations team
undertook strategic use cases with the goal of creating
an intelligent approach to asset optimization. They

At one facility,
leveraged real-time monitoring, diagnostics, and
predictive and prescriptive analytics to gain valuable
visibility and better understand the health and
diagnostics of their machines. Equipped with these double-digit results include
powerful monitoring tools, they were able to avoid
unplanned downtime and maximize asset utilization.
a 33% increase in labor
The team implemented three use cases in this area:
efficiency, a 70% increase
in outputs, and a 50%
reduction in training time.

PREDICTIVE MAINTENANCE
Rockwell Automation uses 35 injection molding machines
of varying complexity and age, which made it difficult for
them to efficiently determine machine status and prevent
downtime. Leveraging IoT technology to collect vital, real-
time information across legacy machines, they created
a unified view of their factory floor, and achieved an 8%
improvement in productivity. This enables them to enhance
quality control, improve machine uptime, and ensure
maintenance needs are met based on machine utilization.

Rockwell Automation • Case Study | 04

ANALYTICS Solving these problems wasn’t just about improving the
bottom line. The team sought to empower their workforce
In order to reduce long production times on ball grid
with digital tools—not only improving productivity but
arrays, the team piloted a new machine learning test for
also creating an environment where employees feel
good and bad ball grid connections. They created a 3D
valued for their accomplishments, day in and day out.
profile of the paste applied to boards, which would enable
They implemented four targeted use cases to better
them to quickly determine whether there was a bad paste
empower their workforce:
profile. As a result, they were able to detect issues earlier
in assembly, reduce time to fix from hours to minutes, WORK QUEUE VISIBILITY
provide better quality assurance, and reduce paste
The lack of visibility into available work queues in highly
related defects by 51%.
automated and critical lines and assets often resulted
Through each of these use cases, Rockwell Automation in lines running out of material for processing—causing
was able to optimize asset efficiency, reduce machine costly unscheduled line downtimes. By combining data
downtime, and increase throughput to satisfy customer from IT and OT sources and visualizing it together,
demand. And this is just the beginning. “Now we have Rockwell Automation realized a 75% reduction in line
data sources connected and identified, and we can starved-condition downtime due to lack of materials,
create new models to further improve our processes,” which enabled operators to optimize their work.
says Lion Moeliono, IT Manager, Global Plant Systems at
Rockwell Automation.

Digital workforce Rockwell Automation

productivity realized a 75% reduction
Like many manufacturers, Rockwell Automation
understood that managing a digital workforce could be in line starved-condition
downtime due to lack of
difficult. Without a clear view into machine performance,
supervisors often struggled to separate worker issues
from machine issues and ensure the best output.
Furthermore, as skillsets like wiring rose in demand, the materials, which enabled
team had no systematic way to ensure employees were
properly trained. In combination with high turnover, this
operators to optimize
posed significant risks to quality and safety.
their work.

“ Now we have data sources

connected and indentified,
and we can create new
models to further improve
our processes.”
Lion Moeliono
IT Manager, Global Plant Systems at
Rockwell Automation

Rockwell Automation • Case Study | 05

 30%. In just one day, the operations team in Switzerland
built a library of 80 videos and was able to deliver
training to the Polish team before the plant was even up
and running.
Rockwell Automation provided workers with actionable,
augmented information they can use to improve
productivity, safety, and employee satisfaction—not just
on one line, but across the enterprise. “We’re trying to get
to where they work with the issue for about five minutes
and if they can’t resolve it in that time, they escalate
to support groups. If they’re having trouble, we want
them to reach out to support so they can more quickly
resolve the issue,” says Moeliono. Through each use case,
Rockwell Automation was able to help connect people
with technology to deliver the best results for their
employees and customers.

STANDARDIZED PERFORMANCE REPORTING

The team needed a clearer way to see the impact of
downtimes on hourly performance, so they developed
a common KPI dashboard for use across all plants.
Combining disparate information from scheduling
systems, SAP, MES, and other sources, the configurable
and modular dashboard enabled workers to better
visualize performance trends, make data-informed
decisions and increase labor efficiency by 13%.

AR-GUIDED WIRING TRAINING & QUIZ

Ensuring employees could wire effectively had become
an increasing challenge due to turnover. Additionally,
there was no objective means to measure success,
resulting in risks to quality and safety. Using AR
technology to deliver a better training experience in an
engaging way, Rockwell Automation was able to train
employees and simultaneously measure competency to
identify skill gaps.

AR-GUIDED STANDARDIZED WORK

INSTRUCTION PRODUCT TRANSFER
Relocating plants between Switzerland and Poland
required teams to transfer critical and detailed knowledge
across countries and languages. The team in Switzerland
began recording work instructions using AR technology,
breaking down tasks into step-by-step instructions with
pictures, video, and voiceover and reduced training time by

Rockwell Automation • Case Study | 06

Enterprise
operational intelligence
The above use cases are only the beginning, as they
continue to look for new innovations and ways to infuse
intelligence into their operations. Now, they aim to
create enterprise-wide operational intelligence to
improve performance across all factories—through
continuous bottleneck identification, actionable KPIs,
loss prioritization, and tracking the value deliverable. For
example, because they had standardized workflows and
unified OT and IT systems, Rockwell Automation had a
blueprint for a connected supply chain—allowing them to
track and trace quality issues. These benefits will increase
exponentially as they add more data and use cases.

ENSURING TRACEABILITY
IN THE SUPPLY CHAIN
When Rockwell Automation experienced a jump in
demand for component parts for electronic assembly
and had to procure material from an external source,
they quickly discovered that non-conforming parts had
been introduced into their supply chain. Leveraging the
intelligence from FactoryTalk MES, unified IT and OT
systems, and standardized processes, they were able to
identify the issue and trace it throughout their supply
chain to prevent any more problems in the future. This
capability can reduce recalls by 80% or more, in any
given situation.
The quality issue is just one example of how a seemingly
narrow use case can scale to global application by
leveraging a flexible and intelligent solution. “We could
pivot and avoid problems while not disrupting current
production. It made the whole effort so much easier,”
says Brian McCaffrey, Production MES Operations
Manager at Rockwell Automation. “In our business, it
saved us a lot of extra effort.”

Rockwell Automation
reduced recalls by
80% or more.

Rockwell Automation • Case Study | 07

Next steps
As Rockwell Automation continues to optimize operations and
increase workforce opportunities, it will rely on its connected
systems and flexible technology to accommodate new innovations.
As a proven leader in manufacturing, Rockwell Automation
is living proof of the business imperative to transform, with
evidence across their operations of how technology can support
improvements in large and small ways, inspiring people to deliver
their best work every day.

Looking forward, Rockwell Automation is building off these recent

learnings. They’re challenging themselves on how they can drive
further improvements for workers, equipment, and processes, with
the goal of creating even more customer and employee value.

They’re arming employees with better training by leveraging

breakthrough AR technology and providing opportunities
for higher-level responsibility as more manual tasks become
automated. They’re protecting their assets by turning tons of data
into improved prediction and prescription capabilities, to manage
machine performance and maintenance at a new level of precision.

Every day, they’re learning more about the capabilities of their own
technology, only limited by their imaginations and the time it takes
to continuously improve and transform, one step at a time.

Expanding
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possibility FactoryTalk,
is a registered FactoryTalk
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