Connectivity is a form of currency

Transcript

Stan Miller:  Hello everyone and welcome to ROK Studios.  I’m Stan Miller, I’m the PR and Analyst Relations Manager for Rockwell Automation, in the EMEA Region.  And I’m here with Susan Schaubhut, she is the Strategic Account Manager for Softing.  Susan, welcome to the studio.

Susan Schaubhut:  Thanks Stan.  I’m really happy to be here.  Thanks for having me.

Stan Miller:  Absolutely.  So, Susan, we’re here to talk about connectivity and specifically connectivity as a form of currency.  But before we get into that theme, could you just give us a little bit of background about what Softing is?

Susan Schaubhut:  Softing is really good at building digital bridges.  We’re really good at getting connected – helping you get connected and stay connected.  So, if you have a project where you need to push data from one place to another, Softing is the company to do it.

Stan Miller:  Okay.  Well, let’s talk about connectivity.  Let’s – why is connectivity so important to modern manufacturers and how can they effectively connect OT and IT?

Susan Schaubhut:  With existing plant floors, a lot of your data is still just in the OT, just at the operational level and slowly, everybody wants it and needs it in the IT level.  So, the question is, how do you do that?  You don’t want to rip out your existing manufacturing, your existing plant floor, in order to do this, but you need a way to push that data to where it should be, and Softing’s really good at that.  We work with different protocols and different devices in order to get your – your data out of those – those manufacturing level and push it into the OT level.

Stan Miller:  How does this help generate actionable data?

Susan Schaubhut:  Stan, it’s all about cost saving – you know, if I – if I’m able to get my – read out my stuff from a computer, it’s a lot easier than having ten engineers on the plant floor, rooting out different – different measurements, and also, when I need to change a recipe, when I have my manufacturing in a certain way and I need to change it a little bit, it’s a lot easier to change it at the IT – IT level instead of the OT level, because with a couple clicks, you’re done and you’re ready to go, and your production can very quickly move forward.

Stan Miller:  Where does this connectivity fit when we talk about the Cloud?

Susan Schaubhut:  Stan, everybody wants to be in the Cloud, and I think that’s the interesting thing moving forward, hey, how can I best have IT and OT converge and how can I best have the data where it needs to be.  You know, when – when we talk about the Cloud, we talk about – you know, cost saving, total cost of energy, total cost of operations, how the best – the best way to really run your plant floor, and I think moving forward, it’s going to be more and more technologies of getting the data that is needed in order to – to ensure that there’s no shut-downs, to ensure that hey, if a product fails, which one it is, and I think moving forward, it’s how everything’s going to be.

Stan Miller:  What about legacy for existing solutions?  Can these be connected to new solutions?

Susan Schaubhut:  Yeah. And as I’ve already mentioned, this is one huge advantage of the technology of how this technology’s improving today, is – years ago, you couldn’t connect things very easily, and now – you know, we’re talking about a lot of different topics these days, including something 5G.  You know, when we talk about 5G, we talk about 5G in our cellphones, but you can also have 5G in manufacturing, how to best get that data as quickly as possible, as you already mentioned, to the Cloud.

Stan Miller:  Got it.  So, Rockwell Automation and Softing, we collaborate to help companies get connected.  How do you see us working in the future to keep those companies?

Susan Schaubhut:  Stan, it’s all about communication.  It’s all about collaboration.  And I think that’s what’s really interesting about Rockwell and Softing.  We’ve been partners with you guys for over 30 years, and we’ve collaborated on a lot of different projects, and Softing is happy to continue that collaboration, and continue being a strong partner of Rockwell, in order to ensure that customers, distributors, system integrators really get the best out of Rockwell and the best out of Softing.

Stan Miller:  Susan, thank you for visiting us in the studio today, it’s been a pleasure.

Susan Schaubhut:  And thank you for having me, Stan.

Stan Miller:  And thank you for watching.  If you’d like to learn more about how Rockwell Automation and Softing collaborate, visit www.rockwellautomation.com.