Smart Manufacturing Blog

Welcome to your source for all things smart manufacturing. Whether you’re looking for expert insights, hard data, or actionable tips for your plant floor, we’ve got you covered every week of the year.

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Plex Team

About the Author

Plex Systems, Inc., a Rockwell Automation company, is the leader in cloud-delivered smart manufacturing solutions, empowering the world’s manufacturers to make awesome products. Our platform gives manufacturers the ability to connect, automate, track and analyze every aspect of their business to drive transformation. The Plex Smart Manufacturing Platform includes solutions for manufacturing execution (MES), ERP, quality, supply chain planning and management, Industrial IoT and analytics to connect people, systems, machines, and supply chains, enabling them to lead with precision, efficiency and agility.

PowerPlex 2021 Key Takeaways Part 1: Smart Manufacturing for All

Plex Team May 26, 2021

The manufacturing conference of the year is off to a phenomenal start! Over 1,600 attendees from around the world enjoyed impactful sessions and were inspired by dynamic speakers during the first full day of PowerPlex. We miss seeing your faces in person, but it was incredible how engaging this year’s virtual setting turned out to be. There’s a lot of information to unpack, so let’s get right…

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Catch Plex Leaders and Special Guests During PowerPlex Main Stage Experiences

Plex Team May 20, 2021

Like headliners at a music festival, our Plex leaders are warmed up and ready to hit the main stage at PowerPlex 2021. They may not bring guitars or #1 songs, but Bill Berutti, Nathan Pieri, and Jerry Foster will bring the manufacturing insights you’ve been waiting for. They’ll each speak to what they’ve seen over the last year and invite other industry experts to the digital stage for…

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Get Inspired by Unstoppable Leaders at PowerPlex 2021

Plex Team May 17, 2021

What does the word unstoppable mean to you? For us at Plex, unstoppable is a way of life. It means breaking barriers. It means hearing the phrase “that’s impossible” and responding with “just watch us.” It means never backing down, no matter the odds....

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The 3 PowerPlex Sessions You Just Can’t Miss

Plex Team May 10, 2021

It’s spring. The birds are chirping, the flowers are blooming, and the premier event for unstoppable manufacturers is about to hit a screen in your home office. PowerPlex is back, which means it’s the time to dive into the latest industry insights, peek into the minds of experts, and uncover the future of manufacturing. But with over 90 sessions, how will you choose which to attend?...

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How to Speed Up Your Recall Response—and Transform Your Entire Business

Plex Team December 16, 2020

Can your food and beverage manufacturing company run a mock recall in 20 minutes or less? If you said no, you’re far from alone. In a recent online poll conducted by Plex during a webinar, 38 percent of respondents said “no” to this question. All other respondents said “not sure.” Not one webinar participant said “yes.”...

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Food and Beverage Manufacturer Shows Off Benefit of an Agile Manufacturing Process

Plex Team November 3, 2020

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit manufacturing, it quickly became clear the companies that would succeed would be companies that could pivot on a dime. One of those companies is Plex customer Olde Thompson. Headquartered in Oxnard, California, the company is the world’s largest manufacturer of salt and pepper mills and a leading manufacturer of private label and branded dry spices and seasonings.…

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Want to Frighten a Manufacturer this Halloween? Start Here.

Plex Team October 27, 2020

For manufacturers, scary things lurking around the corner aren’t limited to Halloween. Here are a few things fueling manufacturers’ nightmares all year long....

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3 Reasons Why Traceability is Key to Reducing Errors on Your Plant Floor

Plex Team September 15, 2020

High profile recalls have increased in recent years and manufacturers have paid steeply not just in money but also the impact on their reputation. Paper based records are prone to errors, difficult to manage, and may be impossible to find which means days of delays in responding to a recall. A clear way to reduce errors on your plant floor and to avoid a recall, is implementing a system that…

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How to Error-Proof Your Plant Floor

Plex Team August 28, 2020

There’s a better way to protect your company from costly errors that take place on the plant floor. COVID-19 has raised the stakes higher than ever – making visibility and control a must-have, not a nice-to-have. In our Ebook, “6 Ways Error-Proofing Protects Your Manufacturing Business,” we outline the leading ways smart manufacturers can leverage technology to drive the following outcomes....

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The Hatch Stamping Transformation Story: From Humble Beginnings to Global Leadership

Plex Team June 16, 2020

In 1952, brothers Raymond, Walter and Joseph Hatch launched a small family business. Their first job: stamping parts for model trains. Little did they know, this basement-based operation would become a global, leading manufacturer of highly engineered metal stampings and assemblies for the automotive industry. Talk about transformation....

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