As many companies wrestle to extract full value from their digital transformation efforts, the limitations of today’s automation architecture are being realized. Technology stacks built around each functional department – production, reliability, safety and most recently sustainability – have resulted in islands of fragmented data, which are proving difficult to integrate or use. As a result, new business insights promised by digital transformation remain elusive.
To address this challenge and help customers achieve their operational improvements, Emerson is introducing a vision and actionable strategy to push more computing power closer to where it’s needed and establish the blueprint for a modern industrial computing environment. This environment includes flexibility to deploy software across the intelligent field; a modern, software-defined edge; and the cloud. All three domains will be connected through a unifying data fabric, helping to maintain data context, improve its usability and increase security.
“After decades of implementing evolving automation strategies, manufacturers recognize the need to extract greater value from data that is locked in a rigid and now outdated automation architecture,” said Emerson President and CEO Lal Karsanbhai. “The proliferation of data and the development of advanced software are moving us to an era of unprecedented productivity. Rich data and advanced software are converging to form the next major inflection point in the industry.”
Karsanbhai addressed industry leaders in Düsseldorf at Emerson Exchange EMEA 2024, a conference for customers in chemical, life sciences, metals and mining, power, hydrogen, biofuels, carbon capture and energy industries. Emerson’s modern, software-defined automation architecture will break down hierarchical networks, securely democratizing and contextualizing data for both people and the artificial intelligence (AI) engines that depend on a continuous flow of information. Emerson continues to innovate its broad portfolio of technologies in development to serve as the foundation for the future of Boundless Automation.
“With an industry-leading technology stack and decades of proven expertise, Emerson is uniquely positioned to engineer and deploy automation to maximize customers’ technology investments and deliver measurable performance improvements,” Karsanbhai said.
Emerson’s Boundless Automation architecture will break down barriers and data silos across the intelligent field, edge and cloud. Integrating these disparate systems with a unifying data fabric will offer new insights and help companies optimize operations across production, reliability, safety, sustainability and its workforce.
