The competition will take place over a day and a half, Monday and Tuesday of Automation Fair week, with the winning team announced on Wednesday at 2:30 PM on the Discovery Theater stage.

DMC’s team of experts will be competing against six other teams for honor and glory in a coding challenge that incorporates FactoryTalk Optix, FactoryTalk DataMosaix, FactoryTalk Analytics LogixAI, Studio 5000 Logix Designer, FactoryTalk Historian Site Edition, and Plex.

Good luck to all the teams competing!

Exploring the Expo? Visit us in Booth #752

Stop by our booth to connect with our team, explore our latest automation solutions, and see our custom-built “Drop Bot” in action.

Test your skills against Drop Bot in a life-sized game of Connect Four or challenge your colleagues to a game.

Will we see you at the show? Let us know!

Connect with Us

The post DMC is Competing in the 2025 ROKathon! appeared first on DMC, Inc..

Exploring the Expo? Visit us in Booth #752

Stop by our booth to connect with our team, explore our latest automation solutions, and see our custom-built “Drop Bot” in action.

Test your skills against Drop Bot in a life-sized game of Connect Four or challenge your colleagues to a game.

Will we see you at the show? Let us know!

Connect with Us

DMC is Competing in the 2025 ROKathon!

DMC is excited to be participating in the first-ever ROKathon coding competition at Rockwell’s Automation Fair 2025!

DMC’s team of experts will be competing against six other teams for honor and glory in a coding challenge that incorporates FactoryTalk Optix, FactoryTalk DataMosaix, FactoryTalk Analytics LogixAI, Studio 5000 Logix Designer, FactoryTalk Historian Site Edition, and Plex.

The competition will take place over a day and a half, Monday and Tuesday of Automation Fair week, with the winning team announced on Wednesday at 2:30 PM on the Discovery Theater stage.

Good luck to all the teams competing in this new challenge!

What to Expect at the Rockwell Automation Fair

Automation Fair 2025 offers attendees the chance to:

• Gain new insights from 400+ domain expert presenters.
• Explore 120+ interactive exhibits with new technology and solutions.
• Connect with 10,000+ professionals in industrial operations.
• 450+ hours of training opportunities and hundreds of solution showcases & more!

DMC and Rockwell Automation

As a Rockwell Automation Gold System Integrator, DMC is proud to demonstrate our expertise in advanced integration and custom engineering solutions. Our session highlights how we apply FactoryTalk Optix and C# to real-world customer challenges, delivering both innovation and measurable impact.

Don’t miss the chance to connect with the DMC team at Automation Fair 2025. Register today and meet us in Chicago at Booth #752.

The post Join DMC at the 2025 Rockwell Automation Fair appeared first on DMC, Inc..

Part Three: Operators Empowered

August 14, 2024 – 10:00 AM CT (5:00:00 PM CET)

Paul Haikal, Rockwell Automation Commercial Portfolio Manager and Mark Hobbs, Rockwell Automation Software Senior Product Manager, will close out the three-part series with a webinar on empowering operators. The session will include the following:

• Remote access tools allow the timely flagging of issues and the notification of maintenance.
• Out-of-box standardized content ensures consistency across machines and supports simplified operator training, safety, and troubleshooting as well as maintenance.
• Collect, contextualize, and deliver relevant data to operators to enable faster decision-making, minimize downtime, and maximize machine efficiency.

Previous Webinars

This goal of the three-part webinar series on the FactoryTalk Optix portfolio is to provide overview of how this end-to-end HMI solution can revitalize HMI operations across your equipment lifecycle. 

The series deep dives into how best to design and test your HMI projects directly from a web browser with collaborative workflows and version management, create your application once and deploy at scale to many devices, and empower operators with relevant data for faster decision-making.

• Part One: Design & Collaborate Webinar
• Part Two: Deploy Applications at Scale

Learn More About FactoryTalk Optix

Ready to learn more? DMC created a blog series on FactoryTalk Optix, the next generation of visualization software from Rockwell Automation.

• FactoryTalk Optix Series 1 – Getting Started with FactoryTalk Optix
• FactoryTalk Optix Series 2 – Variables, Attributes, Dynamic Links, and Converters
• FactoryTalk Optix Series 3 – NetLogic Overview and Examples

DMC and Rockwell

DMC is a Rockwell Gold System Integrator. We are proud to be recognized for our expertise in implementing the full suite of Rockwell Automation technologies for our customers.

A recent recipient of the 2024 Rockwell System Integrator Award, DMC is always eager to stay updated on Rockwell’s latest developments and technologies, including FactoryTalk Optix.

The post Join Rockwell Automation’s FactoryTalk Optix Webinar on August 14 appeared first on DMC, Inc..

Webinar Details

“Learn how the FactoryTalk Optix end-to-end HMI solution can revitalize HMI operations across the equipment lifecycle.

This three-part webinar series on the FactoryTalk Optix portfolio will give you an overview of how this end-to-end HMI solution can revitalize HMI operations across your equipment lifecycle.

The series deep dives into how best to design and test your HMI projects directly from a web browser with collaborative workflows and version management, create your application once and deploy at scale to many devices, and empower operators with relevant data for faster decision-making.”

Part One: Design & Collaborate Webinar

Today’s digital landscape is evolving rapidly. HMI design engineers need new tools to quickly create intuitive visualization so operators can leverage plant floor data to enable the enterprise. This is where a modern HMI software platform with collaboration tools comes into play. These tools offer comprehensive project visibility within a collaborative design environment so designers can work in teams to maximize productivity.

Speakers:
Paul Haikal – Commercial Portfolio Manager, Rockwell Automation
Chad Dale – Technology Consultant, Rockwell Automation

Date & Time:
On Demand – Register and watch it now

Part Two: Deploy Applications at Scale

Once FactoryTalk Optix users have leveraged its powerful features to build their applications, the next step is to deploy them out to the field devices. This can be done locally via USB drive or through a LAN, but with FactoryTalk Remote Access you can also connect to Rockwell Automation’s cloud infrastructure to deploy your application remotely and securely via VPN anywhere in the world.

In this webinar, we’ll provide you with a detailed coverage of FactoryTalk Remote Access and our seamless continuum of deployment options, including ASEM 6300 industrial PCs, OptixPanel HMI terminals, and Embedded Edge Compute modules. We’ll also talk about how FactoryTalk Optix’s flexible runtime licensing containerized deployment gives you a real competitive advantage.

Speakers:
Al Letourneau – Product and Marketing Manager, Rockwell Automation
Jessica Morell – Remote Access Product Manager, Rockwell Automation

Date & Time:
May 8, 2024 – 10:00 AM CT (5:00:00 PM CET)

Part Three: Operators Empowered

• Remote access tools allow the timely flagging of issues and the notification of maintenance.
• Out-of-box standardized content ensures consistency across machines and supports simplified operator training, safety, and troubleshooting as well as maintenance.
• Collect, contextualize, and deliver relevant data to operators to enable faster decision-making, minimize downtime, and maximize machine efficiency.

Speakers:
Paul Haikal – Commercial Portfolio Manager, Rockwell Automation
Mark Hobbs – Software Senior Product Manager, Rockwell Automation

Date & Time:

August 14, 2024 – 10:00 AM CT (5:00:00 PM CET)

DMC and Rockwell

DMC is a Rockwell Gold System Integrator. We are proud to be recognized for our expertise in implementing the full suite of Rockwell Automation technologies for our customers.

A recent recipient of the 2024 Rockwell System Integrator Award, DMC is always eager to stay updated on Rockwell’s latest developments and technologies, including FactoryTalk Optix.

The post Rockwell Webinar Series – Revitalize Your HMI Operations appeared first on DMC, Inc..

Rockwell Automation is a global leader in the industrial automation industry. Their solutions optimize productivity, efficiency, and sustainability for manufacturing and industrial operations, employing robotics, control systems, analytics, and the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT).

DMC's Gold System Integrator status recognizes our demonstrated expertise in implementing Rockwell technologies including ControlLogix, CompactLogix, FactoryTalk View, Magnemotion, Kinetix Motion Controllers, PowerFlex VFD Drives, and PanelView for manufacturing automation solutions.

We have been working closely with Rockwell Automation on some of our most impactful projects over the last several years. These projects touch nearly every industry imaginable, including advanced semiconductor tech and Covid fighting life sciences projects. DMC’s elevation to Gold Tier Partner status is an acknowledgement of the work done on both sides in building this relationship and sets DMC and Rockwell up to work together in continuing to provided world class solutions for our clients.

DMC is proud to be recognized for our expertise with Rockwell Automation. We look forward to continuing our partnership and providing exceptional solutions with Rockwell technology. 

Learn more about DMC's Rockwell Automation expertise. 

The post DMC Achieves Rockwell Automation Gold System Integrator Status appeared first on DMC, Inc..

Each of these options has its own considerations. That’s why OMAC created a working group on remote access cybersecurity for OT systems. I was pleased to be a part of this working group and the final guide has been published here.

The document is broken down into four main segments.

Threats

Where do threats come from? The paper discusses some of the major vectors:

• Insiders
• Hacktivists
• Cybercriminals
• Terrorists
• Enthusiasts
• Nation-states

Each type of threat actor is discussed in the guide. While we generally think of hackers trying to steal IP or money, the threats could just as easily be accidental operations by employees. A technician accidentally causing a loopback on a switch can take a line down just as effectively as a hacker can. The types of threat and who you’re going to be worried about is very dependent on your situation.

External Connections 

The External Connections section focuses on some of the common connection methods in use today:

• Cell modems – Generally some form of direct connection into a machine over a cellular network. This could be a direct cellular gateway or a technician tethering their maintenance laptop to their cellphone.
• VPN – Virtual Private Network is a tunnel through the plant firewall. This requires some kind of account with the factory VPN system.
• Converged networks – VPN with a second secure switch that requires additional permissions to be granted to access the desired network. This is effectively a more secure version of VPN.
• Black boxes – Vendor/OEM provided box that provides a VPN tunnel through the factory network to the machine.
• External managed networks – Similar to a black box but works with the remote access device vendor’s cloud service. An example of this is Ewon or Tosibox.

These are all viable ways to handle remote access. They vary by ease of use, cost, scalability, and security. What makes sense for you is dependent on your IT/OT infrastructure and staff’s ability to handle the administrative and security tasks inherent to the remote access method.

Challenges Inside the OT Network

Now that you’ve opened your network for remote access, there are risks to be considered:

• Can an external user accidentally introduce malware to your system?
• What if they access and download to the wrong equipment or, worse, download a dangerous change that could injure someone?
• HMI devices have been running variants of Windows for 20+ years. It is almost certain that opening your network can allow access to vulnerabilities that cannot be patched.

Just opening access is the first step but, once you’ve done that you need to pay attention to the attendant risks and develop policies and procedures to minimize that risk.

Policies and Procedures

This section covers some of the ways you can mitigate the challenges in the previous section. This covers the following concepts and more:

• Zero trust – Every point of access must require authentication. There is no more leaving the barn door open as soon as you’ve entered the one shared password that gets you into the network.
• Limit accessibility – The access should be for the system being maintained and not the entire OT network. This helps both with target validation but also helps limit spillover to other systems.
• Time-limited access – There should be no opportunity for someone to log in on Saturday night and make changes without your knowledge.
• Log activity – Being able to trace a problem that occurred from a remote access event involves knowing that remote access happened in the first place.
• Know what’s in your facility – It’s hard to protect a facility when you don’t actually know what’s on the network!

I pulled out a subset of key concepts from the paper but each of the items in this section should be considered to help make a workable system that is both as secure as (reasonably) possible while still being usable.

Summary

There is no one right way to go about remote access, much less, cybersecurity as a whole. The methodology for your organization might be obvious to you and your team. Even obvious solutions can be difficult to implement, and DMC can help you improve your remote access capabilities and processes.

Learn more about DMC's cybersecurity expertise.

The post Security Considerations for Remote Access appeared first on DMC, Inc..

Fortunately for you, it is not necessary to jump into the deepest depths of the dark web to get started. I wrote an article for Control Engineering magazine that covers some basics that anyone can do to dramatically reduce risk before ever jumping into network security monitoring, honeypots, or even basic multi-factor authentication.

You can read my full article, “Securing Your Facility," on Control Engineering.

Learn more about DMC's cybersecurity expertise. 

The post Cybersecurity Guide Featured in Control Engineering appeared first on DMC, Inc..

It’s no secret that DMC’s 25^th anniversary is this Thursday. We’ve had interviews with Ken Brey, Myself, and Tim Jager.

Since this anniversary is coming up this week, I spent a good chunk of my weekend setting up my CNC to cut aluminum and made a commemorative plaque.

Rather than awkwardly try to track down Frank and awkwardly present this bauble to him while we’re trying to celebrate as a company, I decided to take a different tactic.

The plaque is now hidden, in plain sight, on the shelf of our executive conference room. There’s no note or other identifying markers. The only way that anyone will know that it’s there is by reading this blog or seeing it on the shelf. The only way they’ll know where it came from is by reading this blog (which I’m not announcing).

I’m hoping someone notices but, until then, it’s our little secret!

Learn more about DMC's company culture. 

The post Shhh… It’s a secret appeared first on DMC, Inc..

The demo implements Siemens PL (Teamcenter) and MES (OpCenter) software into the DCS system as well as integrating mobile worker concepts that are being developed as Industry 4.0 matures. Augmented Reality capabilities for the demo are in development and will be finalized in July 2021. DMC was one of the first to implement PCS neo, the successor to Siemens PCS 7. The demo provides the rare opportunity to experience an integrated stack of Siemens' most advanced software in a hands-on environment, allowing visitors to experience the latest in cutting-edge technologies.

The Digital Twin Testbed for Process Manufacturing

Digital Twin Testbed for Process Manufacturing 
The digital twin is a testbed for connectivity strategies and thought applications in future Industry 4.0 implementations. The digital is a combination of 3D CAD models and physics-based simulation. This representation of processes can be used for offline testing, commissioning, training, and validating process changes before implementation. 

The demo requirements were to provide something aesthetically pleasing, that allowed approximation of a real process, and had no dangerous elements like elevated temperature or pressure. We developed an oil/water separation system with holding tanks and multiple flow paths. This allows changing tank levels, fluid management, and a variety of different control scenarios useful for demonstrating the software stack installed on the system. 

Process and Instrumentation Diagram

The physical skid uses Siemens hardware, transmitters, positioners, and VFDs. 

Software packages include: COMOS, SIMIT, PCS neo, XHQ, Skid Hardware, Teamcenter, SimCenter, Siemens NX, 3D Model, WalkInside, RE'FLEKT EWI with augmented reality electronic work instructions, OpCenter, OpCenter Intelligence, OpCenter Execution Process, OCcenter Reporting, OpCenter Formulation.  

The testbed is designed to allow both demonstration of and research opportunities in developing the future of mobile workers, operators, or technicians who can take all the tools they need with them in the field. Rather than being tied to a desk, workers of the future will be able to have access to HMI interfaces, 3Dmodels, transmitter device info, cut sheets, or vendor documentation with them at all times. Additionally, the augmented reality components using Microsoft HoloLens technology will allow for enhanced electronic work instructions and field visibility of the internal workings of devices attached to the test skid.

Testbed software stack

About MxD
DMC delivered the Digital Twin Testbed to MxD, a state-of-the-art innovation center in Chicago. It’s 22,000-square-foot research factory features some of the world’s most advanced manufacturing equipment. The equipment is used to test and demonstrate new technology, training workers on new tools and demonstrating the importance of cybersecurity. 

Siemens’ partnership with MxD includes a demonstration space on the factory floor and a grant to train the industry’s cybersecurity workforce of the future. By leveraging a holistic digital twin integrating software and automation, Siemens aims to drive digital manufacturing transformation. 

DMC and Siemens
DMC has comprehensive experience with a wide range of Siemens technologies and hundreds of successful project implementations for customers around the world. Our expertise includes recognition as a MindSphere partner, a SIMATIC IT Partner, a member of the Siemens MEAC (MOM Expertise Alliance Center) Alliance Partner Network, Siemens Solution Partner certifications in WinCC SCADA, Industrial Communications, and Advanced Factory Automation, and having a very large number of Siemens S7 certified engineers in North America.

Learn more about DMC's partnership with Siemens and contact us for your next project.

The post DMC Partners with Siemens to Build Digital Twin Testbed for Process Manufacturing appeared first on DMC, Inc..

Rockwell Automation is a leader in automation. Their expertise is built off the understanding of the factory floor and business models that will make it the most productive. This partnership level recognizes and rewards DMC for the commitment we have made to deliver expert solutions with a variety of different technologies and industries. 

They have created an unmatched partner network that stretches around the globe and expands daily. Customers value the PartnerNetwork as it provides exceptional support whenever and wherever. DMC is proud to recognize our expertise with Rockwell Automation technologies and platforms such as ControlLogix, CompactLogix, FactoryTalk View, Magnemotion, Kinetix Motion Controllers, PowerFlex VFD Drives, PanelView, and more. 

The PartnerNetwork will help DMC serve customers more effectively while working towards a thriving future for industrial automation. This certification identifies DMC as a company that offers knowledge and experience in design, implementation, project management, and maintenance of Rockwell Automation industrial control systems.

Learn more about DMC's Rockwell Automation expertise. 

The post DMC Achieves Rockwell Automation Recognized System Integrator Certification appeared first on DMC, Inc..