Rockwell Automation has appointed Twain Drewett as Managing Director for Australia and New Zealand.
Drewett has returned to Melbourne after spending nearly three years in Hong Kong as the company’s Asia Pacific director for Manufacturing & Process Solutions, and replaces Don Werner in the commercial leadership role.
According to Drewett, his key focus will be to grow Rockwell Automation’s value-based solutions offering, with customer intimacy as the primary goal.
“Rockwell Automation is all about forging close relationships,” he said. “Not too many automation companies offer the breadth of end-to-end plant floor to MES solutions that we do. Add to that our emphasis on partnering with local system integrators and distributors–essentially an extension of our team on the ground–and you have all the tools in place to deliver bundled solutions that are based on a true understanding of a particular business.”
Drewett cited environmental sustainability and price-point competition with the greater Asia Pacific region as two key issues faced by Australian and New Zealand industry today.
“The energy issue is of particular interest in the current climate,” he said. “Not only are there environmental benefits to using less energy, but there are significant cost benefits as well. As a result, plant energy audits are going to become more and more commonplace, with more and more businesses opting to prioritise power and energy management. Building this into the total automation and information system design is just one example of how Rockwell Automation can add value beyond merely selling a control system.”
Helping companies to optimise productivity throughout their total operations should be the goal of any well-designed plant automation and information system, said Drewett. It is essential to take a holistic approach to control design, taking into consideration plant availability and overall equipment effectiveness (OEE), production quality, machine safety and integrated safety control, and information transparency through tailored manufacturing execution systems (MES) and plant visualisation software.
“Improving production efficiency from every perspective is the path to greater profitability and will help Australian and New Zealand businesses compete with those of the rest of the Asia Pacific region,” Drewett said. “Rockwell Automation is committed to working closely with businesses to help achieve this.”