Factory Automation & Control

What is Factory Automation & Control?

In today’s competitive world, it is crucial for manufacturers to be dynamic, to innovate and to continuously monitor their production processes. Factory Automation & Control (A&C) solutions cover the automation of an entire manufacturing facility via the design and construction of a fully integrated and intelligent control system, requiring sensors, instruments, computers and the application of data processing.

Industrial automation deals primarily with the automation of manufacturing, quality control and material handling processes. Industrial automation solutions aim to reduce the reliance of companies on unreliable and error-prone manual processes on the production floor and replace them with command-response activities executed by mechanized equipment and logical programming commands. General purpose controllers for industrial processes include Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs), stand-alone I/O modules and computers.

Automation & Control Competence Center

Engineering's leading Automation & Control Competence Center boasts a group of over 350 technology experts in locations across Italy, North America and South America, all specialized in the design, implementation, launch and support of A&C systems for both the manufacturing and non-manufacturing contexts. Our proven portfolio of solutions enables them to deliver integrated, comprehensive and specialized connectivity solutions, networks and digital ecosystems to customers worldwide. Our A&C offering supports the automation of tasks belonging to all level systems aligned to the international standards for the integration of enterprise IT and control systems (ANSI/ISA-95 and IEC/ISO 62264):

Level 1: Automation layer, PLCs, process operations, sequencing, robotics;
Level 2: Monitoring and controlling physical processes;
Level 3: Manufacturing Operations Management (MOM).

Our industry expertise in the A&C space includes solutions for:

Automotive welding, painting and assembly plants;
Food, beverage and pharmaceutical plants (both production and packaging/bottling);
Durable goods;
Metals and textiles;
Smart transportation and underground;
Building automation and energy.

Solutions for Automation & Control

Integration of shop floor control systems to manufacturing process systems
Integration of systems to hardware covering a wide variety of sensors, line HMI systems, intelligent valves, Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs) and central Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems
Integration of systems to robotics and Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs)
Plant line supervision and performance monitoring systems
Real-time machine data collection systems, reporting of analytics and customized shop floor user displays
Configurable alarms, notifications and corrective actions
Integration with other enterprise and production systems (MES, ERP, PLM, etc.)
Integration with enabling technologies (AI, IoT, IIoT, AR, VR, wearables, etc.)

Benefits of Automation & Control Systems

Reduce labor and costs involved in manual operation of complex shop floor equipment
Drive more reliable shop floor processes
Improve process transparency and control
Optimize productivity of people and machines
Ensure equipment is operating at peak performance
Enable faster reaction to production changes
Optimize processes with minimized product variation
Reduce lead times
Facilitate continuous manufacturing workflow
Improve real-time visibility on the manufacturing floor

Engineering’s Expertise

Factory Automation & Control is critical to manufacturing enterprises that aim to reduce production costs, increase throughput and maintain profitable and efficient operations. In order to achieve the continuous connectivity that Industry 4.0 demands, companies must leverage communication and control technologies to connect and synchronize all the moving parts within a factory – the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), all software and all hardware – in a way that enhances and improves the manufacturing process as a whole. This is the niche expertise of Engineering's world-class Automation & Control team.