Industrial Automation Special Focus April/May 2026 www.pwemag.co.uk Plant & Works Engineering | 39 Building the foundation for open automation Open SDA can help businesses respond to market changes, skills shortages, and sustainability pressures. Most notably, open platforms present an opportunity for digitalisation without disruption, changing open architecture from a technical feature to a complete mindset shift. Once in place, open, interoperable architectures act as the building blocks for future transformation, empowering businesses to reach the speed and agility they need to be truly competitive. EcoStruxure Automation Expert is built in line with the Universal Automation standards and vision to give industrial businesses freedom to adapt, scale, and innovate at a steady pace. The totally integrated automation solution decouples software from hardware, allowing control applications to be developed, reused, and deployed independently of hardware. This removes the costly constraints outlined in the Omdia report, enabling changes to be made without re-engineering or disruption to operations. Download the Omdia study at: https://cloud.go.se.com/WW_202511_EAE AccelerationSDAOmdiaEbook_MULTI_NO NE_EAE_IAOPS_ALLSEG_ACQ_NA-LP unlock agility, intelligence, and sustainable performance at scale”. A competitiveness opportunity For manufacturers in the UK and Ireland, where operational pressures remain particularly high, the ability to modernise production systems quickly and efficiently is becoming increasingly important. Kristin Baker, VP Industrial & Process Automation for UK & Ireland, Schneider Electric, added: “UK manufacturers are facing real pressures, from high energy costs to legacy systems, but the opportunity to boost competitiveness exists today. With Open, Software-Defined Automation, we can modernise production at speed and unlock the agility and efficiency our industries need to compete globally.” Enabling agility As manufacturers are being tasked with doing more with less Open, SoftwareDefined Automation is already delivering value in the CPG sector where agility is critical to success. Neil Smith, Global CPG President, Schneider Electric explained: “CPG manufacturers producing essential food, beverage and pharmaceutical products share many of the same challenges as other industrial companies. Our focus is simple: deliver choice. Legacy systems would only allow manufacturers to advance and innovate at the pace of their vendors for locked-in solutions Open, SoftwareDefined Automation separates software from hardware in manufacturing production cycles much the same way the music industry digitalised to enable portable, anytime, crossdevice playlists. It allows manufacturers to use the best tools for their specific business challenges, integrate new capabilities quickly, and evolve at ‘software speed’ rather than being bound by legacy systems.” The benefits of open automation are already being realised by manufacturers adopting these approaches in practice. Giuseppe Zichittella, IT Solutions Manager, Zicaffè, explained: “As a fourth-generation family-run company, investing in Open, Software-Defined Automation gives us greater control over our processes and raw materials. This assures the future of the business by allowing us to adapt quickly and stay competitive. Once we introduced EcoStruxure Automation Expert to our process, not only were we free to digitalise at our own rate, we gained access to vendor-agnostic industrial orchestration capabilities, as well as objective, data-based evidence of volumes and quality. We achieved ROI within the first year and have not looked back since.”
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