Industrial IoT

How Eddie Kohler Manages 900+ Coating Recipes

For custom coaters and some OEM manufacturers, finishing recipe flexibility is not a luxury. It is a core operational requirement. Managing a wide range of part numbers, substrates, and customer specifications means that coating systems must be configurable enough to handle significant variation whi

What is SCADA?

SCADA, or supervisory control and data acquisition, is a foundational technology for plant managers and operations teams that need real-time visibility and control over industrial processes. Despite how widely it is deployed across manufacturing and process industries, the term still draws blank sta

What is a friction driven conveyor used in finishing?

In finishing environments, conveyor selection has a direct impact on cleanliness, noise levels, maintenance costs, and overall operational efficiency. One technology that draws consistent attention from facility managers and finishing professionals is the friction-driven conveyor, a system built aro

Prince Hydraulics Finally Gets The SCADA System They Wanted

For Prince Hydraulics, the road to a functioning SCADA system was more than a decade in the making. As far back as 2011, a group of plant employees presented to corporate leadership with a clear ask: find a way to bring all the information operators need into one place and make it easy to apply to t

Industrial automation's mid-2026 moment: AI picking, superhumanoids, and the safety certification push

From AI-based grippers to ISO 27001-certified robot makers, industrial automation's summer 2026 wave carries concrete operational implications.

Agentic automation hits enterprise scale: Automation Anywhere, Yaskawa, and KUKA signal a new operating model for industrial AI

From billion-request IT service desks to robots that write their own work orders, agentic AI is moving from pilot to production across manufacturing and operati

Roland Berger forecasts 6-9% annual growth as industrial automation shifts from traditional systems to intelligent platforms

Industrial automation is entering a five-year growth cycle, but humanoid hype at Automate 2026 is outpacing what factory floors can actually deploy today.

Industrial manufacturing M&A hits $173 billion as convergence deals crowd out single-theme bets

PwC's 2026 midyear outlook finds industrial M&A up 28% year-over-year, with mega-deals and strategic buyers driving the surge.

Most mid-sized manufacturers are stuck in AI pilot purgatory, Kaufman Rossin research finds

73% of manufacturing companies remain in AI testing phases, and not one has reached full operational deployment, per Kaufman Rossin research.

ABB Robotics launches AI-powered visual platform as manufacturers push physical AI and data governance to the front of the automation agenda

ABB Robotics' new AI visual platform, physical AI for mid-market plants, and a data-governance push are converging into a practical 2026 automation agenda.

Technology in manufacturing: the operational trends shaping factory floors in mid-2026

From physical AI to an 80% automation gap, here are the manufacturing technology shifts ops leaders need to act on right now.

73% of mid-market manufacturers are still testing AI, with zero at full deployment

New Kaufman Rossin survey data reveals most mid-market manufacturers are stuck in AI experimentation, held back by siloed data and legacy ERP systems.

Analog Devices maps the semiconductor case for physical intelligence in industrial automation

ADI's Fiona Treacy lays out how AI-driven physical intelligence and humanoid robotics are reshaping factory systems and semiconductor demand.

IMA Group positions "Cognitive Manufacturing" as the next operating model for industrial production

IMA Group's Cognitive Manufacturing framework, debuted at Interpack 2026, combines cloud AI, edge AI, and robotics to help production teams cut downtime and imp

80% of U.S. factories have no automation. Here's what's changing in 2026.

Eight in ten U.S. factories still run without any automation, even as AI vendor activity hits a peak. Here's what's actually moving on the floor.

Automation adoption is surging at trade shows. Most US factories still haven't started.

Record attendance at Automate 2026 and new AI-lab deals signal industry momentum, but 80% of US manufacturing facilities still run zero automation.

Rockwell Automation report: 93% of manufacturers have MES, but only 23% have fully integrated it

A Rockwell Automation survey of 1,560 manufacturers finds MES adoption is nearly universal, but enterprise-wide integration remains the defining gap.

Robotics, AI accountability, and autonomous forklifts: automation's operational priorities this week

From ABB's new Visual SLAM forklift to a 70% AI accountability gap, this week's automation developments carry direct implications for ops and procurement teams.

The automation visibility gap: why FactoryOps is becoming the missing layer in manufacturing stacks

Heavily automated plants still lose margin to blind spots. A new operations layer called FactoryOps is closing the gap without replacing existing PLCs or SCADA.

93% of manufacturers have MES, but only 28% have deployed it enterprise-wide

Rockwell Automation's 2026 survey of 1,560 manufacturers finds near-universal MES adoption masking a deep integration gap that caps AI and operational value.

Robotics industry surges in mid-2026: AMRs, physical AI, and lab automation headline a busy fortnight

ABB, NVIDIA, Hugging Face, and a wave of startups push robotics deeper into warehouses, labs, farms, and data centers.

Most mid-market manufacturers are stuck in AI pilot mode, and their data infrastructure is why

No manufacturer has reached full AI operation, per Kaufman Rossin's survey. Legacy ERP and siloed data are the core blockers to scale.

Industrial automation's mid-2026 inflection: safety standards, physical AI, and intralogistics consolidation

From ISO 27001 certifications to safety-rated ultrasonic sensors, industrial automation's latest moves carry direct compliance and procurement implications.

Robotics in manufacturing: five shifts defining factory floors in mid-2026

Physical AI, a massive automation gap, and a wave of new industrial partnerships are reshaping how manufacturers buy and deploy robotics in 2026.

Four in five U.S. manufacturing facilities have zero automation, here's what's actually blocking AI adoption

Most U.S. plants run with no automation at all, yet executives plan AI expansion. The real barrier isn't budget, it's data hygiene and cybersecurity.

Siemens and IFS partner to close the engineering-to-operations gap with industrial AI

Siemens and IFS announced a strategic partnership to connect design, manufacturing execution, and asset lifecycle data in a closed-loop industrial AI platform.

End-of-line automation is the next deployment frontier for manufacturers

Nearly half of manufacturers plan end-of-line automation within 24 months, per IndustryWeek. Here's what operations leaders need to evaluate now.

Metalgear Engineering's assembly line overhaul pushed one manufacturer from 10 to 100 units a day

Custom PLC automation and single-piece flow redesign cut labor costs 40% and multiplied output tenfold for a manufacturer capped by a legacy line.

Behind every robot: why component supply chains are the real bottleneck in robotics scale-up

Automate 2026 spotlighted a hard truth: AI and software aren't the limiting factor in robotics adoption. Components and supply chains are.

Industrial automation's AI gap: why 80% of U.S. factories still run with zero automation

80% of U.S. factories have zero automation, even as Honeywell, ABB, and others push AI-driven tools to close the gap.