Todd Walden is a seasoned public relations consultant, technical writer, and industry blogger specializing in industrial automation, AI integration, digital transformation, and process optimization for the manufacturing sector. With a robust background in information technology, control systems, sustainable energy solutions, and reliability engineering, With more than 20 years of technology expertise, Todd contributes insights to Emerson Automation Experts on topics like edge-based AI, zero-trust cybersecurity in OT environments, and modernizing power generation and life sciences/biotechnology. Based in the Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul Area, he currently helps drive innovation in automation and operational excellence.
Driving the reliability necessary to compete in the modern process manufacturing marketplace is more challenging than ever. Once upon a time, reliability teams could rely on expert personnel to regularly walk the plant and keep an eye and ear out for where machines...
Maximizing productivity and reducing waste is a never-ending challenge. Though manufacturers have been taking steps to accomplish these goals for decades, the intensity has risen in recent years as competition from global competitors has dramatically increased. There...
Supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) software has long been a staple in process manufacturing to help companies control and monitor equipment as well as manage alarms, reports, and process adjustments. Through most of those years, the assumption has been...
The most obvious value from a digital twin comes in the project phase. Project teams often use digital twin simulation software to dramatically reduce the design and testing phases for new control solutions. Then, when the design and testing are done, forward-thinking...
Continuous manufacturing was a game-changer for the ability to deliver life-improving and life-saving biopharmaceutical treatments to patients as quickly as possible. Automation made it possible to make manufacturing significantly more efficient, helping teams to...
To say we don’t know exactly what the future holds as AI continues to grow and evolve on a daily basis is, quite frankly, an understatement. AI is positioned to upend nearly everything we do, and process manufacturing is no exception. Yet, while it seems like there is...
The industrial edge is changing. For years—maybe decades—the industrial edge has been defined as the site where operations happen. The hardware and computing systems closest to assets are critical, but they are not everything the edge can be. As Claudio Fayad explains...
As more and more generative AI (GenAI) engines seem to emerge every day, it is easy to forget that GenAI isn’t the only artificial intelligence people and companies are using to drive efficiency and reliability. It’s true that GenAI is opening up new vistas of...
Much of the focus on green energy is centered around solar and wind generation. However, there are many different potential sources of green energy, and one of the most exciting, if not the most well-known, is green hydrogen (GH2). From pilot programs testing GH2...
In the last couple of years, software-defined control has rapidly gained a lot of attention in the marketplace. That’s no surprise. It’s set to upend the way we see and use automation in the years ahead. In a recent interview in Control Design, Emerson’s Sean Saul...
Control technologies have changed greatly over the years. Many of today’s modern industrial controllers would be almost unrecognizable when set side-by-side with controllers from decades ago. A key contributor to this shift has been digitalization. Digital...
As technology progresses, it opens up new opportunities for streamlining processes to drive increased reliability and operational excellence. This trend is as true in the life sciences as it is in any other process manufacturing industry. In fact, it might be more...
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