Competition is intensifying among operational technology (OT) companies, which specialise in industrial automation alongside IT, over manufacturing digitalisation.

IT companies are rapidly expanding into OT on the back of digital capabilities. OT companies are countering by highlighting their understanding of production sites and pressing IT rivals.

Rockwell Automation, known for industrial automation solutions such as PLCs (programmable logic controllers), is seen as one of the OT companies accelerating efforts to strengthen digital capabilities. It is focusing on internalising those capabilities rather than outsourcing them, and integrating them with its core industrial automation solutions.

Rockwell Automation has its reasons for speeding up internalisation of digital capabilities.

Byung-jun Park (박병준), a director at Rockwell Automation Korea, said manufacturing digitalisation cannot be covered simply by knowing IT well and needs deep understanding of OT to be effective. He stressed that expanding into IT based on OT expertise is a high-probability bet. Knowing OT can reduce the scope for problems during digitalisation, he said. Without OT, it is difficult to know properly what impact changes in inputs will have on equipment.

Park said Rockwell Automation’s digital strategy can be summed up in three keywords: digital twin, data analytics and security.

The core of the digital twin approach is to first create factory-floor equipment controlled by PLCs in a virtual environment and use simulation to check for abnormalities.

Park said Emulate3D, secured through an acquisition, is an industrial automation digital twin solution that supports products from other companies as well as Rockwell Automation PLCs. It can cover both simulation and emulation, he said. Simulation enables testing in a virtual environment, while emulation also includes the process of actually running equipment. It can take longer but is relatively accurate, he said.

Park also highlighted that Emulate3D is not a product specialised for the company’s own equipment but an independent digital twin platform. He said many companies using other firms’ PLCs have also adopted Emulate3D.

Emulate3D can also be used beyond equipment digitalisation. Park said information secured through a digital twin solution can be used for maintenance and employee training. He said it can be applied to maintenance by linking virtual screens and real sites via augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) devices, beyond simply implementing equipment in a digital twin.

Data collection and analysis is another area where Rockwell Automation has recently increased investment. Park said manufacturing-site equipment has not been connected to each other so far, but the spread of manufacturing execution systems (MES) is increasing the need for connectivity between machines. Related industries are also moving faster to support collecting data from connected equipment and running AI for analysis, he said.

Rockwell Automation is also expanding a lineup of data solutions under the FactoryTalk brand in addition to MES. It provides FactoryTalk Historian for data storage, View for screen configuration, AssetCentre to support asset management, and Mosaic as an analytics tool.

Park said MES requires equipment to be connected so that data can be collected and analysed. He said factories have multiple data sources, including data in Historian and data in ERP and third-party software. Mosaic supports mapping such data and extracting meaning, he said.

Rockwell Automation is also strengthening AI aimed at OT. In addition to Atlas AI, which can use large language models (LLMs) by training on site data like ChatGPT, it provides a machine vision solution; GuardianAI, an AI-based predictive maintenance solution that detects and prevents factory automation and manufacturing equipment failures in advance; and LogixAI, an industrial AI solution built into control systems that automatically generates machine-learning models based on controller data. Park said customers can apply LogixAI, Vision and GuardianAI directly on site without help from external vendors.

As equipment becomes connected, security is increasingly emerging as a strategic strongpoint on the manufacturing digital front. Reflecting this, Rockwell Automation is also actively targeting the OT security market by setting up security platforms such as SecureOT.

It recently also introduced an OT cybersecurity assessment suite, a managed service for the SecureOT platform, and a managed secure remote access service (Managed Secure Remote Access, MSRA). On security as well, Rockwell Automation emphasises a strategy based on OT expertise.

Park said Rockwell Automation has talked about OT security since 2008 and provides built-in security functions in hardware and software. SecureOS provides patch management, he said. PCs on site are used for 10 or 20 years once deployed, and the strength is that, based on understanding of OT, patch upgrades do not affect production, he said.

The company said South Korean firms have recently shown interest in Rockwell Automation’s energy monitoring system. Park said Rockwell Automation solutions provide monitoring for five energy sources: electricity, gas, compressed air, water and steam. He said it is also related to ESG and can receive state funding, and the number of South Korean companies showing interest is increasing.