Rockwell Automation has released its FactoryTalk AssetCentre v7.0 software for automating discovery and tracking the status of devices, network switches and software on workstation computers across an entire facility or production operation. The software streamlines life-cycle management and helps decrease unplanned downtime, according to the company.
The software’s asset-inventory agent scans a network to discover hardware, firmware and software information for assets active in the facility. The devices are then tracked in an active asset inventory. The asset-inventory agent can be scheduled to scan at regular intervals or run on demand.
The agent increases efficiency for a number of operational tasks and streamlined life-cycle management improves how a project scope is developed, according to the company. If an engineer needs to know how many devices are running in production during a firmware update, the asset-inventory agent will automatically discover all of the current firmware, IP address and additional data that will help define the project.