Rockwell Automation has reached a definitive agreement to acquire Incuity Software Inc., a privately held company and supplier of enterprise manufacturing intelligence (EMI) software. Incuity’s software provides real-time intelligence for business decision support. The Incuity Software management team and its employees will become part of Rockwell Automation’s Architecture & Software operating segment. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Kevin Roach, vice president of Rockwell Software, said, “This acquisition is a key milestone in the continued expansion of our FactoryTalk software suite. Incuity’s newest software, IncuityEMI 2.6, integrates many disparate information sources from production operations and other enterprise systems, delivering insights into enterprise performance and key operational metrics, and empowering personnel to drill down and analyze the root causes associated with manufacturing problems.”

According to Greg Gorbach, ARC Advisory Group, EMI real-time visibility and performance management software is part of the fastest-growing segment of production management software. By collecting real-time data on the plant floor, establishing operational context, and revealing manufacturing information to the rest of the enterprise, it enables a higher level of performance at the plant level and throughout the distributed manufacturing enterprise and supply network.

Rockwell and Incuity claim that the IncuityEMI software coexists with existing control systems and business applications and makes data in these systems visible and actionable by presenting a coherent picture of a company’s manufacturing business through familiar Internet browser and Microsoft Office interfaces. IncuityEMI is said to provide the foundation for a range of manufacturing analytics, including real-time executive dashboards; automated production reports; key performance indicator (KPI) monitoring and alerts; downtime analysis and reports; and process verification and optimization. These analytics have a wide range of applications from facility production to campus energy management.