About the Author
Plex Systems, Inc., a Rockwell Automation company, is the leader in cloud-delivered smart manufacturing solutions, empowering the world’s manufacturers to make awesome products. Our platform gives manufacturers the ability to connect, automate, track and analyze every aspect of their business to drive transformation. The Plex Smart Manufacturing Platform includes solutions for manufacturing execution (MES), ERP, quality, supply chain planning and management, Industrial IoT and analytics to connect people, systems, machines, and supply chains, enabling them to lead with precision, efficiency and agility.
What Can Manufacturers Learn from Brass Aluminum’s Quest for Visibility and Automation?
Running a multi-operational business is an impressive feat, but that hasn’t always been the case for Brass Aluminum Forging Enterprises (BAFE). The company specializes in the production of brass, copper, and aluminum forgings and was originally comprised of only two forging presses, one trim press, and an eight-operator workforce. Over the years, the company has grown both in size and in…
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How Smarter Manufacturing Helped These Companies Beat 2023’s Biggest Challenges
As we look back on 2023, the ripple effects of the pandemic continued to shape manufacturing as businesses reassessed, adapted, and innovated in response to the many challenges the year brought. Businesses are rethinking their manufacturing strategies, leveraging cutting-edge tools to navigate unprecedented roadblocks. From enhancing visibility and agility to embracing automation not only to…
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Contents May Settle, But You Don't Have To
Everyone has experienced the disappointment of opening a bag of chips or crackers and looking inside only to see half-empty space. Often, the product contains the cryptic warning "Caution: Contents May Have Settled."Visually, this isn't very pleasant, but everyone knows the content volume is the same. It's just the space between the products affected by the journey from factory to retail shelf.…
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Digital Building Blocks for Quality
Automotive manufacturers operate in a hyper-competitive industry, producing complex pieces of equipment that have, on average, over 30,000 parts. Manufacturing them comes with substantial uncertainty due to quickly shifting consumer tastes—and the unwavering expectation for high quality....
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Looking Beyond Your Horizons in 2024
Put yourself in the mindset of settlers from long ago exploring a new landscape. As they started each new day, their effort to understand what was beyond the horizon faced a manual and labor-intensive process. Several scouts would head off in different directions, hoping it was the right path to answers. They had to endure harsh conditions, uneven terrain, obstacles like rivers and mountains,…
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The 2023 Innovator Impact Award Winner: The Shyft Group Electrifies and Pursues Innovative, Sustainable Excellence
Steering the commercial vehicle industry into the future requires not only creativity but innovation. The Shyft Group is fearlessly up for the task, leveraging smart manufacturing technology to aid in their quest to reinvent the wheel. Since implementing Plex in 2021, The Shyft Group has acted with precision and speed to develop commercial-grade electric delivery vehicles....
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The Top 5 Moments of Automation Fair® 2023: Relive the Excitement
In early November, many of us gathered in Boston for the industrial automation event of the year: Rockwell’s Automation Fair®. This is a time for industry members—from customers and partners to Rockwell team members—to connect and learn about the future of manufacturing together. This year’s event was no exception, and it was an especially exciting opportunity for Plex community members to gather…
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Inflation: Saying the "I" Word Out Loud
Inflation - it’s the dreaded “I” word. After decades of historically low rates, it came back with a vengeance and continues to disrupt operations everywhere.There are virtually no sectors of the economy nor any industry untouched as prices have risen across every category. Most of these categories, like energy, transportation, raw materials, labor, and others, impact manufacturing directly,…
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The Journey from Process Improvement to Continuous Improvement
Improving production processes is a priority for every manufacturer. For decades, companies have devoted enormous resources in the form of teams, training, and methods to focus on processes and make them more efficient and profitable.However, continuous improvement and process improvement are not the same thing. And despite the difference, it is how data is collected and utilized that impacts the…
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