OMRON Corporation and Cognizant have made a strategic tie-up to join information technology (IT) with operational technology (OT) for driving digitalization in the manufacturing industry. Based on this association, Cognizant is to be OMRON's Industrial Automation Business (IAB) solutions engineering partner.
The partnership combines OMRON's automation solutions such as sensors, controllers, servo motors, safety devices, and robots with Cognizant's cloud, AI, Internet of Things (IoT), and digital twin technology skills. The strong synergistic effect will deliver end-to-end solutions in many such critical industries such as automotive, semiconductor, electronics, industrial manufacturing, life sciences, and consumer goods.
“OMRON is the only manufacturer of control equipment in the world that owns all the equipment used in the production line. Cognizant, on the other hand, is one of the world’s leading global IT services companies supporting the digital transformation of a wide range of industries with advanced digital technologies such as AI, IoT, and cloud,” said Junta Tsujinaga, CEO of OMRON Corporation.
The combined platform created out of this collaboration will cater to consultancy, site implementation, operation, and maintenance—facilitating a transition towards sustainable production. The solution aims to improve productivity, improve employees' efficiency, and minimize greenhouse gas emissions.
Ravi Kumar S, CEO of Cognizant, emphasized the demand for holistic transformation in the industry. “Clients are looking for a strategic partner with deep industry and domain expertise, end-to-end capabilities, and the ability to manage complex technologies at various layers of a digital factory,” he said.
In addition, the alliance will leverage the large product portfolio of OMRON, with more than 200,000 SKUs, to collect high-quality field data for Cognizant's Asset Performance Excellence (APEx) platform and its Industry 4.0/5.0 maturity assessment tool, OnePlant™. The data-oriented strategy will facilitate improved examination of IT-related problems, enable the prioritization of improvement, and propel improvements in both on-site activities and top-level management.
Through this collaboration, OMRON and Cognizant are establishing a new standard for digital-first, sustainable production in the Industry 4.0 and beyond.