Industrial accidents resulting from human errors make shocking headlines far too often—whether it’s a faulty valve leaking toxins at a chemical plant or a minor programming mistake that causes assembly line robots to malfunction and damage products or equipment. These errors can always be traced to mistakes in the control logic or instrumentation that runs the plant. The fallout of such events is extensive—putting employee safety at risk, generating costly downtime and repair bills, damaging an organization’s reputation, and sometimes permanently shutting down facilities.

Rockwell Automation Technology Prevents Accidents Before They Happen

Thankfully, such dangerous errors can become a thing of the past by implementing modern automation technology from leaders like Rockwell Automation, combined with the expertise of an experienced controls systems integrator.

Most plant mishaps are due to flaws in the programming or calibration of the programmable logic controllers (PLCs) running operations. PLC errors happen frequently and often go unnoticed until an accident comes to light and forces expensive troubleshooting efforts. Beyond PLCs directly, mistakes can creep in through operators making adjustments without realizing second-order effects, instruments falling out of calibration, and a general lack of oversight into automated processes.

Rockwell Automation’s PlantPAx System Greatly Reduces Errors

Rockwell Automation’s PLC PlantPAx system provides a state-of-the-art platform for plant-wide control and monitoring, allowing easy centralized programming and the ability to embed sophisticated error-proofing capabilities. The control logic language used in PlantPAx systems clearly expresses programming sequences in plain language. This enables easier review and troubleshooting versus trying to decipher lines of ladder logic.

Built-in diagnostics continually check for inconsistent data or instruments that may be out of calibration. Warnings and alerts are immediately displayed to operators any time a fault is detected.

Additional features like advanced predictive modeling and performance analytics functions allow PlantPAx systems to detect early signs of problems and forecast how processes may react to various changes or failures. This heads off accidents before they have a chance to happen. For particularly sensitive or dangerous operations, automatic and physical safety functions can be integrated to automatically take emergency actions independent of the control logic, such as shutting valves in the event of leaks or stopping robotic movement when an obstruction is detected.

Experienced Systems Integrators Successfully Deploy Rockwell Automation PLC Solutions

As cutting-edge as automation platforms have become, successfully deploying them in an industrial setting remains incredibly complex. No company can simply plug in a Rockwell Automation PLC system and expect it to holistically manage processes across departments, particularly facilities with unique equipment or workflows. There are countless choices involving instruments, networking protocols, redundancy requirements, cybersecurity provisions, dashboard layouts, and many more factors.

This is where an experienced controls system integrator is essential—seamlessly handling the transition to next-generation automation without disrupting operations. A skilled integrator carefully maps out all the plant processes and data flows, universalizes connectivity between old and new devices, thoroughly tests control programs for flaws, trains teams on updated systems, and provides ongoing technical expertise after deployment.

Working with Rockwell Automation Systems Integrators

As innovative as automation technology has become, successfully deploying and integrating these complex solutions across facilities requires specialized expertise. Rockwell Automation recognizes that no system stands alone.

Pacific Blue Engineering has the expertise and experience to ensure quality controls system engineering using Rockwell Automations solutions. Having guided countless enterprises through technology transitions, the Pacific Blue team offers time-tested methodologies, tools, and support resources to accelerate success during deployment, as well as ongoing optimization.

The integration process typically involves comprehensively assessing the environment and business objectives, strategically planning system architecture and components, flawlessly executing physical installation and cutover, thoroughly testing and validating configurations, providing operational training to users, and delivering ongoing post-launch maintenance and analytics services.

The experts at Pacific Blue Engineering handle the heavy lifting across the entire lifecycle, allowing your team to focus on core operations. Pacific Blue’s involvement alleviates the IT burden, mitigates implementation disruptions, and ensures continuity of institutional knowledge around the new automated workflows. The strength of these cooperative partnerships de-risks technology integrations to set up these modernization efforts for long-term, sustainable value.

Safer, Smoother, and More Optimized Operations

Ultimately, a dramatic reduction in errors across the plant or enterprise allows safer, smoother, and more optimized operations. This leads to greater throughput and quality as well as improved cost savings.

Need help with your Rockwell automations? Contact Pacific Blue Engineering today at (657) 201-8603 or request a consultation online.