Making confident decisions from good data was difficult to do.
—Rockwell Automation's Bob Murphy on the company's need for improved supply chain visibility.
With all the performance-boosting technology solutions that Rockwell Automation brings to bear on behalf of its industrial customers, it's sometimes easy to forget that Rockwell Automation is a global manufacturer in its own right. As such, it shares many of the same challenges that its customers around the world face—and benefits from those same technology solutions.
At the welcome keynote address at this week's RSTechED conference in Orlando, Florida, Rockwell Automation executives shared with nearly 2,000 conference attendees from 39 countries the company's ongoing journey to realize its vision of a "Connected Enterprise," in which increasingly intelligent devices and assets, together with secure and ubiquitous network connectivity, enable individuals to make better decisions more quickly than ever before.
387,000 SKUs
Over the 35 years that Bob Murphy, vice president, operations, has worked for Rockwell Automation, the company's product catalog has grown to 387,000 stock-keeping units (SKUs) ranging from $100 configurable stacks of tower lights delivered in two or three days to $500,000 medium-voltage drives with a lead time of several months. "Average life of our products is 20 years, and the average order is 200 line items," Murphy said, explaining how several years ago the company found that growth had simply outrun its systems' ability to keep up, necessitating a thorough restructuring of the company's supply chain.
"Making confident decisions from good data was difficult to do," Murphy confessed. "We had as many as five different ERP systems in some of our plants, countless software applications, and that middle layer of manufacturing execution was missing."
To improve visibility across its global operations, the company embarked on a corporate-wide SAP implementation at the enterprise level, together with an extensive standardization of manufacturing execution system (MES) workflow processes based on the company's own FactoryTalk ProductionCentre platform. Meanwhile, the company committed to maintaining or improving the service level its customers had come to expect, Murphy explained. "At times it felt like changing a tire at 60 mph," he said.
People, Processes, Technology
The effort directly involved some 45 engineers and project managers from across the company, and the changes implemented involved many more people, processes and technologies. On the personnel side, the company formed a new APOS group, for advanced process operations support, that now includes subject matter experts in various disciplines from across the company. A small but dedicated group of MES specialists was also created. They standardized workflow processes on core designs, which required that they overcome local loyalties to legacy applications and build new respect for a global standard, Murphy explained. "We deployed a centrally managed toolkit with configuration tied to plant metrics."
Since embarking on its own journey, Rockwell Automation already has realized 4 to 5% annual productivity gains, but hasn't rested on its laurels. "As we've improved, we've set new sights," Murphy said. "And FactoryTalk ProductionCentre is at the heart of what we do."
