Insights In Automation

Insights In Automation Our mission is to educate the world on Industrial Automation Products and Technologies

Insights In Automation creates affordable, high quality Industrial Automation (IA) courses online & in-person, as well as offers one-on-one mentoring, at TheAutomationSchool.com. We also publish Vendor Interviews, IA Product How-Tos, and IA News at TheAutomationBlog.com

11/26/2025

Here are my top five products from the Innovation Summit North America, hosted in Las Vegas:

First is the , which is an Advanced IPC with Integrated Motion Control programmed through ’s Motion Module.

Product link: https://www.se.com/us/en/product-range/274563785-modicon-m660/

Second is the Distributed IO platform, billed as a system, and built from the ground up with security and flexibility in mind.

Product Link: https://www.se.com/us/en/product-range/223435768-modicon-edge-i-o-nts/

Third is a Nema 4X, Machine Mount Drive with Built-In and shown with optional Motor Controls mounted directly on the drive.

Product Link: https://www.se.com/us/en/work/products/master-ranges/altivar/

Fourth is the ePAC, a high-end integrated controller built to be open, flexible, and reliable, and shown here with redundant controllers, power supplies and networking.

Product Link: https://www.se.com/us/en/product-range/62098-modicon-m580-pac-controller/

And tied for Fifth are two products not yet available:

The first is 's , which is part of their EcoStuxure Automation Expert Platform.

Platform Link: https://www.se.com/us/en/product-range/23643079-ecostruxure-automation-expert/

The second is 's next generation of Drives, which is due out sometime next year.

HVAC Drives for Buildings Link: https://www.se.com/us/en/product-subcategory/2945-hvac-drives-for-buildings/

To find out more about these and other products and technologies shown at this year’s Innovation Summit, please visit their website here: https://www.se.com/us/en/?utm_source=influencer&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=2025_nov_us_allbu_impact_influencer_awareness_paid-social_local_isna-2025-brand-program&campaign_objective=awareness&mcl_name=impact

11/22/2025

There were so many interesting facts in the keynote presentation at Schneider Electric's , that I decided to share them in this short video slideshow ;-)

Note: All the pictures were taken "ad hoc" using my cell phone, and obviously are not the efforts of a professional photographer, but I do think some of you may enjoy seeing the slides I found the most interesting, so I put together this slideshow ;-)

11/21/2025

At this week’s Schneider Electric , I attended a session with the intriguing name, “Igniting Industrial Competitiveness with Open, Software Automation” to learn more about what’s happening in this space.

The session kicked off with ’s Senior VP, Hany Fouda, explaining how his company has invested heavily into open, software-defined automation platforms based on IEC-61499, and managed by the Universal Automation organization. And as I later learned, two of the foundational pillars of are and .

To drive home the importance of automation solutions that support hardware independence, ExxonMobil panelist Whit McConnell discussed how today’s “hardware centric” approach makes migrating from legacy control systems an expensive “rip, replace, and re-engineer” exercise. And due to the fact that in the Petrochem space these migrations have to be accomplished with zero downtime, the costs of migrating legacy “hardware centric” solutions can run into the hundreds of millions of dollars.
So from ExxonMobil’s perspective, open software-defined automation has the potential to make future migrations much less expensive and time consuming, and more on par with how migrations are handled in the IT world. But bringing this type of innovation and openness to the industrial automation space not only requires an industry wide paradigm shift, it’s also something no single company can achieve by itself.

That’s why ExxonMobil has partnered with Schneider Electric to deploy a live, full plant-scale system running on ’s next generation of products that utilizes the IEC-61499 approach, as implemented in their platform. By supporting Schneider Electric’s open, software defined automation solutions, ExxonMobil aims to not only substantially reduce the CapEx required for future legacy migrations, but also hopes to accelerate the adoption of this new approach that offers hardware independence as well as flexible and scalable automation built for agility and allows companies to achieve truly open, software-defined automation.

To find out more about this and the other products and technologies that I learned about at this year’s , please visit their website here: https://www.se.com/us/en/?utm_source=influencer&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=2025_nov_us_allbu_impact_influencer_awareness_paid-social_local_isna-2025-brand-program&campaign_objective=awareness&mcl_name=impact
, , ,

11/20/2025

How do real companies use the latest technologies to innovate and drive success? That’s one question I asked yesterday at Schneider Electric’s . Now I’m sure many of you have seen “smart speaker” like A.I. demos, but most of that technology is still in its early days, and not yet making a change in the way things are being done in real production sites (yet.)
The real way companies are driving success through innovation is by using the latest proven technologies, like the drive and , to solve today's tough applications by utilizing innovative products to onboard, operate and optimize their systems. And for , this can soon include deploying their own AI Assistant as part of Schneider Electric's platform.

So while many of us are looking forward to the day when those “smart speaker” A.I. features come to the plant floor, what I learned at yesterday’s Schneider Electric event is that Schneider is a company that helps customers succeed through their innovative products. And while Schneider is a global company, they also have American roots going back over 135 years, and make thousands of products in America for the American market. Schneider Electric is also an energy technology partner helping companies modernize, automate, and operate more efficiently.
To learn about what can do for your company, please visit this link: https://www.se.com/us/en/?utm_source=influencer&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=2025_nov_us_allbu_impact_influencer_awareness_paid-social_local_isna-2025-brand-program&campaign_objective=awareness&mcl_name=impact

Happy New Year! Thank you for making my content the in all of with well over 100K actual views (not impressions) per...
01/01/2025

Happy New Year! Thank you for making my content the in all of with well over 100K actual views (not impressions) per month, which is greater than the largest automation websites with dozens of employees and millions in revenue!

I have lots of exciting things planned for 2025, and invite you all to come see what I'm working on throughout 2025 at (https://theautomationblog.com/) and (https://theautomationschool.com/)

My God Bless You and Yours with Good Health and Happiness in 2025!!!

Sincerely,

Shawn Tierney

In this episode of , Shawn Tierney walks through migrating a project to both CORPORATION and , and then he compar...
11/21/2024

In this episode of , Shawn Tierney walks through migrating a project to both CORPORATION and , and then he compares the results:

Link to episode ->https://theautomationblog.com/slc-500-migrations-softplc-vs-studio-5000/

To learn more visit:

• Link to download software with import tool (email info @ softplc.com for password): https://softplc.com/ #/_updates

• Link with information about SoftPLC's A-B PLC Upgrade Options: https://softplc.com/ #/_a_b_plc_upgrades

• Link with info/video on SoftPLC's A-B Migration products/software: https://softplc.com/ #/_a_b_migrations

• Link to contact SoftPLC Corp for more info/questions/quotes: https://softplc.com/ #/_contact

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