Manufacturing Leadership Awards for digitalisation projects announced
Aaron Blutstein 12 April 2022 
Jessica Spurlock (for a project with Rubberlite, Inc.) and Synthomer, have been recognised as winners in the Manufacturing Leadership Awards 2022, in the Individual Digital Transformation Leadership and Operational Excellence categories, respectively.
The Manufacturing Leadership Awards, which are selected based on benefit of technology and use in manufacturing, recognise operational and leadership excellence from world-class manufacturing organisations and individual leaders.
Rubberlite and Synthomer implemented Stratus Edge Computing platforms as a foundation to simplify IT maintenance, ensure continuous application availability, and enable manufacturing visibility to operate more efficiently:
Rubberlite eliminates downtime
Jessica Spurlock, process automation engineer, was honoured for Individual Digital Transformation Leadership, where she designed, configured, implemented, and maintained electrical systems, instrumentation, controls and HMIs for the foam rubber products supplier Rubberlite, in Huntington, West Virginia, USA. In support of the company’s commitment to growth and innovation, Spurlock both led and implemented the Supervisory Control System project that leveraged Stratus ftServer to eliminate downtime and lower IT costs by 50%. Due to the increased availability of data and equipment resources, this project resulted in an 80% reduction of non-sellable material, and a 25% increase in sales.
Synthomer modernises compute infrastructure
While Synthomer, headquartered in London, digitally transformed its plant in Sant’Albano Stura, Italy by replacing all existing multi-branded PLCs with Rockwell Automation Allen-Bradley ControlLogix Programmable Automation Controllers (PAC). To protect its modernised operation, Synthomer chose Stratus ftServer to consolidate software workloads with virtualisation and to run Rockwell PlantPAx DCS for plant-wide control and operations. With Stratus, Synthomer achieved 99.999% uptime and increased production by 30%. Synthomer leveraged powerful analytics capabilities to streamline operations and real-time data to make decisions. The project was delivered with Rockwell Partner Progecta.
David Laurello, President and CEO at Stratu, commented: “Edge Computing is a foundation for digital transformation and operational excellence across a wide range of industries, notably manufacturing. These achievements by Rubberlite and Synthomer demonstrate the power of automation and zero-touch Edge Computing. The success and recognition of our customers motivates us to continue innovating, and we thank them for the trust they place in us to support their critical processes and data.”
For the 2022 Manufacturing Leadership Awards, there were a record number of submissions from global companies of various sizes in many different industries. Winners will be recognised at the Manufacturing Leadership Awards Gala, which will take place on June 29, 2022, at the JW Marriott in Marco Island, Florida, USA. Details about the awards are available at: https://www.manufacturingleadershipcouncil.com/leadership-awards/
