You’ve probably had the experience of visiting a contemporary factory floor and being amazed by all the incredible robots, sensors, and machines working like a finely choreographed dance. It’s quite remarkable—until there’s a malfunction. And that’s something which has frustrated quality engineers for decades.

Here’s the situation: 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.

The real problem we’re all wrestling with is that manufacturing has become so complex because, well, it had to. Customers want customized products delivered faster than ever, with zero defects.

However, this is where chaos can start.

Most organizations have been managing this complexity by piling on more systems. Need motion control? There’s a controller for that. Safety monitoring? Another controller. Process control? Yep, another one. It’s like having several project managers for the same project—chaos waiting to happen.

Whenever those systems need to share information, there’s a delay. And in manufacturing, delays equal quality problems. If your motion controller is on one clock, and your safety system is on another, tiny timing differences can create big quality problems.

Think of it in terms of buying an iPhone. Say you chose the 128 GB model. At first, it works great, but over time as you download more apps and take more family photos, you run out of space.  Your phone is slower, more RAM is used, and you might have to offload apps to regain acceptable functionality. Then you really wish you had planned ahead and bought the 256 or even the 512 GB version.

Another analogy: If you’re trying to fill bottles on a high-speed line, and your filling system isn’t precisely synchronized with your capping system because they’re on different controllers, you’re in trouble. Some of the bottles will be overfilled, others underfilled, and some won’t be capped correctly at all.

Too many cooks in the kitchen, and all with different recipe books.

The industry has recognized the problems. In 2024, the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) reported that “an overwhelming majority of manufacturers (86%) believe that the effective use of manufacturing data will be essential to their competitiveness. But to realize data’s potential, manufacturers must figure out how to organize and analyze their data effectively, ensure that their data are trustworthy, and align their business strategy closely with their data strategy.”

Furthermore, the NAM report also identified the main data integration challenges for manufacturers: data that come from different systems or in different formats (53%), data that aren’t easy to access (28%), and the lack of internal skills to analyze data effectively (28%).

Rockwell’s 2025 “State of Smart Manufacturing Report” also found that deploying and integrating new technology (21%) and balancing quality and profitability (21%) will be the biggest internal obstacles to growth during the next 12 months.

Why everything’s changing now

The good news? The control systems world has finally caught up with what we actually need. We’re not talking about incremental improvements here, but fundamental performance and efficiency improvements.

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

Here’s what gets me really excited: These newer controllers have multiple processor cores that can do different things simultaneously. 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.

Future-proofing      

In today’s industrial landscape, compliance is a moving target with rules for safety, cybersecurity, and the environment constantly evolving. 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.

What this really means for your production line

Here are some concrete examples of why this is important.

Precision at scale: Do you recall when 500-plus axes of motion control used to be unimaginable? Now it’s the norm. I was at a semiconductor factory last month, and they’re performing hundreds of highly coordinated moves in parallel. The positional precision that they are realizing would have been impossible with several controllers attempting to coordinate via a network.

Real-time everything: You can now connect more than 600 Ethernet devices to a single controller without batting an eye. That gives you the ability to deploy quality sensors everywhere—and I mean everywhere—without slowing your system down. Real-time statistical process control (SPC) calculations are performed right at the controller level, so you can make adjustments before issues of minor variation become major problems.

Safety that actually helps quality: When safety and quality systems are integrated, they can work together instead of against each other. If a quality sensor detects something wrong, the safety system can shut things down immediately—no communication delays, no “Wait, let me check with the other controller” nonsense.

Reduced redundancy: Moving to one integrated system converts redundancy from a decentralized, less efficient model to a centralized, intelligent one. Instead of redundant functionality being duplicated across numerous stand-alone controllers with redundant backup facilities, communication links, and failover mechanisms, an integrated system can have smart coordinated redundancy with shared backup facilities and failover enabled by full system knowledge. This consolidation eliminates the overcomplication when coping with multiple schemes of redundancy that compete or interfere with each other, but permits more advanced redundancy mechanisms such as dynamic load balancing, predictive failover, and centralized health monitoring. The coordinated approach also eliminates the risk of cascade failures that can occur when multiple independent systems with independent redundancy logic attempt to coordinate on fault incidents. It enables more cost-effective redundancy because redundant resources can be dynamically allocated according to real-time priority rather than statically reserved for independent controllers.

The business case that actually makes sense

From a quality management perspective, consolidation has tangible benefits far greater than the upfront cost considerations. Here’s why.

Smart quality decisions in real time: These controllers can run AI and analytics right on the factory floor. Pattern recognition, predictive analytics, and adaptive control are 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.

Less complexity, fewer headaches: Managing one system instead of four isn’t just easier—it’s much more reliable. Your techs gain expertise on one stage instead of struggling to manage multiple specialized systems. Training is easier, troubleshooting is faster, and your team can focus on actually improving processes instead of just trying to get systems to talk to each other.

Data you can actually trust: When all your quality data come from one place, you can be certain that they’re all correctly time-stamped and correlated. That’s especially important in regulated industries where audit trails and traceability aren’t just nice-to-have features—they’re essential.

Faster problem solving: When there’s an issue (and let’s be real, there’s always an issue), you have only one place to look instead of four. Modern diagnostics give you an overview of what’s going on in your whole system. Root cause analysis is straightforward instead of an exercise in detective work.

Better security: Cybersecurity risks are real, and increasingly, quality systems are targets because compromising them will have an immediate business effect. One controller means one security perimeter to protect instead of four. Much simpler, much safer.

The trade-offs (because nothing’s perfect)

For all the benefits, there are trade-offs. Specialized controllers can squeeze a little more performance out of narrow uses. But here’s the thing: Integration’s quality benefits almost always overshadow these small performance differences.

The biggest challenge is usually dealing with legacy systems. You can’t just rip everything out and start from scratch. Would that it were that easy, right? But you can chart a phased migration that maintains quality while progressively upgrading capabilities.

Where this is all heading

If you’re in pharma production, aerospace, medical devices, or any other industry where quality failures are catastrophic, this technology is a game-changer. 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.

The future is very promising. Software-defined automation enables seamless expansion of disciplines without modifying hardware. Imagine upgrading or patching independently from control systems, much like adding new apps to a smartphone.

We’re also seeing IT and operational technology converging, so real-time quality dashboards, predictive analytics, and automated reporting are becoming standard. With all the new sustainability and traceability requirements coming down the pike, having integrated data capture isn’t just a nicety—it’s more a necessity.

The bottom line

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 multicontroller setups simply can’t match.

The question isn’t whether dedicated controllers can be matched by these new systems—generally, they’re exceeded. The question is whether you can afford the quality compromises of fragmented architectures.

Manufacturing quality demands just keep increasing, and single-controller systems aren’t 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.

We’re rapidly moving toward a future where you choose the functions, features, and the capacity you want, and the appropriate package will be put together. 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.