Edge Computing & Inference
Microchip to acquire edge-AI chipmaker Hailo, close expected this quarter
Microchip Technology has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Hailo, a provider of accelerated edge AI processors, advanced vision processing solutions, robotics processors and AI software flows. The transaction is expected to close toward the end of the current quarter.
Edge-AI silicon keeps consolidating into the big MCU vendors — good for long-term supply, worth confirming roadmap continuity with your distributor.
Automation & Controls
Siemens launches SIMATIC AX WinCC Unified Elements
Siemens has launched SIMATIC AX WinCC Unified Elements, an IT-style engineering tool for automation application development. Siemens positions it as reducing the time required to bring industrial projects to market.
If your controls team is drifting toward version-controlled, text-based engineering, this is Siemens meeting you there — worth a pilot project.
Automation & Controls
S4x26 case: fix OT supply-chain security in the PO, not after install
Most OT security spending goes to defending networks after equipment is installed. Presentations at S4x26 in Miami argued the highest-impact moment is before the purchase order is signed — attaching cybersecurity acceptance testing to existing procurement instruments such as retainage.
Your next equipment PO is cheaper security leverage than any firewall. Put cyber acceptance testing in the spec and tie it to retainage.
IIoT & Connected Manufacturing
PPG runs Proficy MES across 140-150 plants using reusable blueprints
At GE Vernova Accelerate 2026, PPG detailed how it deploys Proficy MES across a network of 140 to 150 facilities in more than 50 countries. The coatings and specialty materials company, with $15.9 billion in 2025 sales, built product technology blueprints to standardize the rollout.
Blueprint-then-replicate beats site-by-site MES projects. Even at two plants, standardize the template before the second deployment.
Smart Manufacturing & Digital Twin
Rockwell and Augury pair agentic AI with maintenance execution
Rockwell Automation and Augury have partnered on a joint offering connecting industrial AI insights, reliability recommendations, maintenance execution and production context. The stated aim is closing the gap between insight and action.
Condition monitoring only pays when the work order actually gets cut — check whether this closes that loop or just adds another system.
Robotics & Cobots
KUKA deploys its Automation Management Platform at an Ohio plant
KUKA has deployed its Automation Management Platform at KTPO, a major manufacturing facility in Ohio, as part of its push to serve North American automakers.
Robot fleet management is becoming a platform purchase, not a per-cell one — ask your integrator what it costs to manage 50 robots, not 5.
Process Technology
Telling real process changes from measurement noise (part 3 of 3)
The third instalment of a Control Global series on nonideal aberrations in noise tackles the practical question: how to distinguish measurement noise from a genuine process change, and which solutions to consider.
Worth forwarding to whoever tunes your loops — plenty of nuisance alarms are noise misread as process drift.
