In today’s increasingly complex manufacturing space, machine builders, panel builders, and systems integrators are constantly being asked to accomplish more with less. As such, end-to-end process optimization for industrial enclosure modification and control panel manufacturing has emerged as a mission-critical element for automation architects across a variety of industry applications to reduce costs, increase efficiency, and create a more stable supply chain.
Industry 4.0 and IIoT have revolutionized the tools that manufacturers have at their disposal to address these challenges, but a crucial question still lingers: How do automation architects put these automation tools to use while producing results?
The answer is an industrial automation partner with the global knowledge, expertise, and reach to help automation stakeholders create an automated enclosure modification and industrial control panel manufacturing framework that meets their needs. With more than four decades of state-of-the-art, field-proven expertise in the industrial automation space, Rittal can help machine builders, panel builders, and system integrators just like you drive growth and profitability through simplified solutions to help get the job done.
Top Challenges For Machine Builders, Panel Builders, and Systems Integrators
> How to Identify the Right Industrial Enclosure for Superior Flexibility and Scalability
> How to Create End-to-End Design and Engineering Visibility
> How to Optimize Climate Control Systems For A Pathway Toward Efficiency
> How to Source Fast, Accurate Enclosure and Control Panel Modifications
> How to Enhance Your Industrial Enclosure and Control Panel Solutions
How to Identify the Right Industrial Enclosure for Superior Flexibility and Scalability
The challenges today’s manufacturers face are numerous: shifts in customer demand, labor shortages, supply chain complications, compliance with governmental or industry regulations, and more. Yet at the core of the solution to each of these hurdles is a single unifying element: Flexibility.
Machine builders, panel builders, and systems integrators need superior levels of flexibility to scale production sequences based on demand, labor or supply chain shortages, and compliance to standards. In an environment where agility is king, Rittal’s modular and unibody enclosures are designed and engineered for seamless system integration and Industry 4.0/IIoT capability to help manufacturers and their automation partners pivot where necessary to accommodate the complexities of a variety of industries such as:
- The automotive industry with its need to streamline production programs in facilities around the world
- The food and beverage industry with its regulatory standards for hygienic production
- The retail and logistics industry and its pressure for an increasingly fast speed to market, keeping pace with the evolution of e-commerce
Whether you’re trying to solve for durability and protection, space constraints, simplified integration, or flexibility in control panel design and manufacturing, Rittal’s industrial enclosures solutions provide automation architects with the power to create a proactive strategy for unparalleled levels of productivity and growth.
Not sure which kind of industrial enclosure is best for a particular application? Modular vs.Unibody: A Choose Your Own Enclosure Guide is a step-by-step look at the best applications for both modular and unibody enclosures.
How to Create End-to-End Design and Engineering Visibility
When it comes to the design and engineering phase of the ideal automation system, one of the biggest challenges automation architects face is creating end-to-end visibility and insight into each step of the control panel production sequence.
Too often this stems from digital design platforms that operate one-dimensionally, which opens the door for costly data-sharing or schematic errors that require significant manual intervention to correct.
The Rittal and EPLAN partnership helps panel builders, machine builders, and systems integrators simplify this layer of complexity via a complete digitalization of the design process. EPLAN’s engineering platform creates digital bridges between each stage for a holistic, unified process built on real-time data sharing and fast, simple schematic alterations complete with digital twins.
Additionally, our state-of-the-art Rittal Automation Systems modification tools will help to eliminate the guesswork in control panel design, control panel manufacturing, and control panel wiring for a superbly engineered panel or enclosure solution.
Rittal at Work: Electro-Matic Streamlines Production via a Standardized Power Distribution Panel Solution
Today’s automotive manufacturing industry is a constantly changing space. Companies must facilitate multiple production programs in disparate parts of the world with component parts coming from a variety of suppliers.
This is the exact situation a major North American automotive manufacturer found itself in when attempting to coordinate production at facilities around the globe. The need was for a standardized power distribution panel that could be adapted to production programs and regulations without experiencing long lead times or disruptions in production at manufacturing facilities worldwide. A global partnership with Rittal and EPLAN paved the way for Electro-Matic to design and produce a standardized, single-part PDP. The end result unlocked exciting possibilities for Electro-Matic and its North American automotive manufacturing partner alike.
Rittal at Work: Prime WSI Enhanced Efficiency with Rittal and EPLAN
Texas-based Prime Well Service Instrumentation (WSI) was constantly battling long lead times for enclosure modification, imprecise cutouts and holes, and lack of visibility into the panel production process for its line of pump control boxes for the frac, coil, and well service industry. This lack of end-to-end efficiency resulted in longer lead times, disruption in workflows, and more manual tasks for Prime technicians when it came to industrial control panel design, manufacturing, panel wiring, and troubleshooting.
The use of cutting-edge 3D panel design software from EPLAN put the power in the hands of Prime’s technicians to make design alterations in real time and communicate those alterations in a way that enhanced communication and collaboration throughout the value chain. EPLAN’s software allows Prime to leverage database-driven engineering, meaning data-rich components can be used to drive all design variations and can be used to standardize industrial control panel manufacturing and assembly.
Industry 4.0 and IIoT have transformed the industrial automation space and unlocked new pathways in optimizing workflows to help automation architects achieve more with less. Taking full advantage of the possibilities opened up by the convergence of our physical and digital worlds means harnessing new ideas and technologies including the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) in order to implement flexibly organized production systems. With our white paper, Going Up the Value Chain, you'll learn how smart value chain applications are made possible by moving from manually-intensive CAD-based drafting packages to modern computer-aided engineering (CAE) software
Download the white paper to learn more
How to Optimize Climate Control Systems For A Pathway Toward Efficiency
Efficiency is the name of the game for climate control architects, and the road to superior efficiency begins with an in-depth understanding of where consistent, targeted cooling needs to be directed to reduce energy usage and costs. Coupled with the movement toward sustainable manufacturing practices and the need for IIoT-enabled systems for remote monitoring, manufacturers face layers of complexity in optimizing climate control systems, but automation experts are well-positioned to help their customers navigate these challenges by designing for efficient, effective climate control.
With state-of-the-art climate control solutions like Blue e+, Blue e+ S, and roof mounted and wall mounted TopTherm cooling units, automation architects can engineer targeted cooling outputs where cooling is needed most with an eye toward reducing energy costs, decreasing your carbon footprint, and extending service life by protecting sensitive components.
The Climate Control QuickFinder from Rittal is a fast and easy tool to help you determine the most suitable climate control solution for your retail & logistics application. You just need to answer three simple questions.
Our team of expert climate specialists can also help you understand the health and viability of your existing climate framework with a climate efficiency analysis, and our climate inventory webinar provides a behind-the-scenes look at what our climate experts look for when conducting an efficiency analysis to help you better understand the process from start to finish.
Climate control systems in industrial manufacturing operations can be a complex web. What’s more, it’s difficult to fully realize just how much energy is consumed and greenhouse emissions emitted every day for companies operating multiple facilities on a nationwide or global scale. However, the good news is it’s possible to design and build automated systems and power distribution solutions that reduce overall energy consumption, cut carbon emissions, and lower energy costs. With Rittal, not only is this possible, but it’s just a click away!
View our on-demand webinar
How to Source Fast, Accurate Enclosure and Control Panel Modifications
Relying on a complex, global supply chain for panel and enclosure modification is not only expensive, but labor shortages, material shortages, and shipping delays add unnecessary complexity to the modification process. Meanwhile, doing manual modification tasks in-house can result in costly errors and downtime.
Automated enclosure and industrial control panel modification solutions remove the potential for errors while also allowing for more precise and complex modification work without the need for a large labor force. Faster, more efficient modification services result in reduced turnaround time and cost reduction, which further simplifies your value chain and helps ensure production programs are not tethered to the fluctuations of a large, global supply chain.
Tour our Modification Center
Rittal’s network of U.S.-based modification and distribution centers provide coast-to-coast coverage to help ensure your control panels and enclosures go from the modification center floor to your door with speed and accuracy. Our modification centers in Sparks, Nevada; Houston, Texas; and Urbana, Ohio house machines from our Rittal Automation Systems (RAS) line of modification tools designed for a high degree of panel customization with superior precision and quality. Our regional network of distribution centers stocks component parts to help ensure you have the right part at the right place at the right time. Learn more about our modification centers.
Rittal Automation Systems state-of-the-art machinery enables you to complete modifications in a fraction of the time. By automating every step of industrial control panel machining, assembly, and panel wiring process, RAS will optimize your entire panel building and control manufacturing sequence. Book a consultation to learn how we can help you increase your panel building efficiency by 85%.