How single-controller systems drive manufacturing quality gains

Single-controller solutions are becoming a critical tool for manufacturers seeking higher quality and efficiency in increasingly complex production environments.

Complexity on the factory floor

Manufacturers have long faced challenges arising from the use of multiple discrete control systems across their operations, often leading to inefficiencies and quality issues.

This fragmentation can result in delays when systems attempt to communicate, contributing to problems identifying the source of faults and inconsistencies.

Dennis Wylie, Principal Product Manager at Rockwell Automation, explained the situation succinctly: "Most of these operations have three or four different control systems that, historically, barely talk to each other. It's like trying to conduct an orchestra where the violin, brass, and percussion sections all have different sheet music. Maybe it works most of the time, but when quality issues crop up? Good luck figuring out what went wrong and where."

In response to increasingly complex customer demands for customised products, many manufacturing sites have accumulated dedicated controllers for specific functions-such as motion control, safety monitoring, and process control-further compounding the integration challenge.

Industry challenges

Recent industry research confirms the scale of the data integration hurdle. According to the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), "an overwhelming majority of manufacturers (86%) believe that the effective use of manufacturing data will be 'essential' to their competitiveness. But to realise data's potential, manufacturers must figure out how to organise and analyse their data effectively, ensure that their data is trustworthy and align their business strategy closely with their data strategy."

The NAM report also highlighted the key data integration challenges: "data that comes from different systems or in different formats (53%), data that is not easy to access (28%) and the lack of internal skills to analyse data effectively (28%)."

These concerns are echoed in Australia.

The AI Group's Technology Adoption in Australian Industry survey found that while a majority of manufacturers are embracing new technologies, significant constraints remain, including financial risk, interoperability worries, and regulatory uncertainty. Rockwell's own research in the 2025 State of Smart Manufacturing Report found that "deploying and integrating new technology (21%) and balancing quality and profitability (21%) are the biggest internal obstacles to growth in the next 12 months."

Single-controller advantages

"New controllers are incredibly fast. We're talking scan times that will make older systems look like they're in slow motion. And they can handle large applications while still maintaining safety functions at pace even when everything else is maxed out."

The shift to unified controllers brings a number of operational and business benefits. Modern single-controller systems house multiple processor cores, allowing simultaneous handling of motion control, diagnostics, communications, and other tasks, reducing bottlenecks and ensuring more precise synchronisation. They also integrate safety, security, and communications in a single architecture, eliminating the need to link disparate systems.

Wylie described the impact: "So, one core would be handling your motion control, another one would be running diagnostics, and a third one would be handling communications. No more waiting in line, no more bottlenecks that degrade your quality. But the real game-changer? It's all integrated from the ground up. Safety, security, communications - it's all in there. No longer will you wrestle with trying to get discrete systems to play nicely together."

Compliance and ESG

Compliance requirements around safety, cybersecurity, and environmental regulations are evolving rapidly, posing additional pressures on manufacturers. Integrated control systems offer data-driven Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) insights that make it easier to comply with standards and provide accurate reporting.

"Single-controller solutions help businesses stay ahead by providing data-driven ESG insights on energy use, emissions and materials. This makes it easier to meet emerging regulations and show a real commitment to responsible operations," Wylie said.

For Australian businesses in particular, unified control systems can simplify adherence to national workplace safety, cybersecurity, and sustainability frameworks by generating reliable, auditable records.

Production line value

Wylie provided several practical advantages from single-controller deployment: the ability to coordinate hundreds of motion axes in semiconductor factories, connecting more than 600 Ethernet devices to a single controller, and integrating quality and safety response for immediate action and reduced redundant processes. He noted, "Real-time statistical process control calculations are performed right at the controller level, so you can make adjustments before issues of minor variation become major problems."

Redundancy also shifts from being managed by isolated systems with varying backup methods to a coordinated, centralised model, which improves predictive failover and health monitoring, and eliminates the cascading failures sometimes seen with multiple redundant systems.

Business case and trade-offs

Wylie argued the case for consolidation: "Smart Quality Decisions in Real-Time - These controllers can run AI and analytics right on the factory floor. Pattern recognition, predictive analytics, adaptive control - things that would have otherwise meant sending data to the cloud and waiting for feedback. For apps where you're measuring quality in milliseconds, this is huge."

He cited reduced complexity, improved trust in data, faster troubleshooting, and enhanced cybersecurity as compelling justifications. However, there are trade-offs; certain specialised controllers can deliver marginally higher performance for specific narrow uses, but Wylie maintained that "integration's quality benefits almost always overshadow these small performance differences."

Legacy systems present a notable challenge: "You can't just rip everything out and start from scratch. Would that it was that easy, right? But you can chart a phased migration that maintains quality while progressively upgrading capabilities."

Looking ahead

Industries with acute quality requirements-such as pharmaceuticals, aerospace, and medical devices-stand to benefit considerably from consolidation. Wylie noted, "The more demanding your quality requirements, the more you'll benefit from consolidation. Also, if you're confronted with legacy systems that are becoming maintenance nightmares or can't handle new quality requirements, controller consolidation often provides features simply not available before."

He also pointed to the future of software-defined automation, in which "seamless expansion of disciplines without modifying hardware" becomes possible, and a greater convergence of IT and operational technology enables real-time dashboards, analytics, and traceability to become standard features.

Summing up the direction for the industry, Wylie stated, "If you're thinking about control architectures, start with your quality requirements. Work your way backward from there. Unified controllers in this day and age offer quality that multi-controller setups simply can't match."

He concluded, "The question isn't whether or not dedicated controllers can be matched by these new systems - generally, they're exceeded. The question is whether or not you can afford the quality compromises of fragmented architectures. Manufacturing quality demands just keep increasing, and single-controller systems are not just keeping up - they're setting new benchmarks. It's not a question of choosing a control architecture; it's a question of choosing a platform for long-term quality excellence."

Wylie added, "We are rapidly moving toward a future where you choose the functions, features and the capacity you want, and the appropriate package will be put together. The proof is, as they say, in the pudding, and once you see what integrated control can do to your quality figures, you'll wonder how we ever thought multiple controllers were a good idea in the first place."