Rockwell Automation

The steel industry has faced a whirlwind of challenges—a hiatus in construction projects, worldwide pandemic, supply chain disruptions, and market fluctuations—but increased demand for domestically produced steel is creating opportunities for U.S.-based manufacturers. The steel mills driving this growth are enhancing and developing their complex operations and processes to run more efficiently.

Several high-profile cyber attacks in recent years have put a spotlight on growing levels of cybersecurity risk in the automotive sector. The industry needs to quickly increase awareness of the current attack surface, which is often through the installed base of network assets, including machines and devices on plant floors. Successful attacks create not only financial risks in terms of ransomware shutdowns, data loss and expensive recovery processes.

Manufacturing organizations know that unplanned downtime is costly. What may be less clear is the impact that cyberattacks, like ransomware, have on downtime. Simply put: successful attacks on manufacturing mean downtime – not measured in hours or days, but often weeks or longer.

Predictive maintenance (PdM) is transforming manufacturing operations and growth with technology that includes the Internet of Things (Iot), the Cloud, mobile applications, AI/ML to analyze and predict insights using data, and web applications to share entire operations data in one place. The tools and technology of Industry 4.0 have turned PdM from an abstract concept into a practical solution.

Zero Trust is everywhere. It’s covered in industry trade publications and events, it’s a topic of conversation at board meetings, and it’s on the minds of CISOs, CIOs, and even the President. What is Zero Trust, and why is it important? Zero Trust isn’t a cybersecurity solution in and of itself, but implementing a Zero Trust architecture will help mitigate and ultimately lower the number of successful cybersecurity attacks your organization might otherwise endure, greatly reducing operational and financial risk.

The term “safety lifecycle” refers to a formalized engineering process that helps create a safety system that can work effectively throughout its lifespan. For example, industrial and manufacturing facilities use safety lifecycles to keep their functional systems operating smoothly. The safety lifecycle is described in international standards set by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC).

The test of global change has exposed the brittle nature of systems, processes, and supply chain solutions that had historically measured as “good enough.” A recent global survey of 321 manufacturers has shed light on the biggest industry obstacles and punctuated the need for agility, technology adoption, and improved processes to respond to market adversity. The results of this survey make up the 7th Annual State of Smart Manufacturing Report – the most robust edition yet.