The Rockwell/PTC roadmap is a leader in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for MES.
Can PTC be counted as one of the top contenders among the PLM developers competing in the factory automation and manufacturing space with connections to domains such as Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) and Manufacturing Operation Management (MOM)? The question was brought up in my earlier article on Gartner’s latest Magic Quadrant for MES—in my view, the answer was yes.

Though the basic premise of the earlier article asks: How are the big three in PLM—Siemens, PTC and Dassault Systèmes— doing with respect to MES and MOM, it mostly focused on Siemens. This article, however, extends the conversation by focusing on the PTC/Rockwell combination, and where Rockwell is positioned in the “Leaders Quadrant.”
Gartner’s evaluation mainly treats Rockwell as a stand-alone MES/MOM developer, and only mentions the connections to PTC and PLM in passing. But in this respect, there are good reasons to consider the two jointly.
A Recap of the Gartner Magic Quadrant on MES
Before we dig into this idea, let’s look again at Gartner’s latest MES quadrant:

As can be seen from the graphic above, some specialist solutions hold top positions according to Gartner. The strongest of which include Critical Manufacturing, followed by GE Digital with their Proficy Smart Factory product, and Körber’s Werum PAS-X.
Among the three major PLM developers, in the Leader Quadrant you will find Siemens Digital Industries Software’s Opcenter Execution MES solution as well as PTC, in a sense, because Rockwell Automation’s FactoryTalk software is tied to PTC’s technology.
The third of the three major PLM players, Dassault Systèmes and its DELMIA Apriso solution for MES, as well as SAP’s Manufacturing Suite, have fallen outside the Leaders Quadrant into the Challenger and Visionary quadrants, respectively.
The Partnership That Created a Win-Win Situation
When it comes to PTC and Rockwell, why should we judge them together?
From a holistic perspective, one of several proactive moves by PTC’s CEO, Jim Heppelmann, is to deepen the connections between the company’s PLM applications and the manufacturing area. To this end, in 2018 PTC announced a partnership with one of the world’s three dominant automation companies, Rockwell Automation.
PTC already had several shop floor solutions such as ThingWorx (IIoT), Vuforia (augmented reality) and Kepware (connections to automation devices for data control), but the broader and deeper automation push towards success-critical production domains, such as MES and MOM, were missing as fixed program modules.
However, Rockwell did have MES and MOM capabilities, but did not have the same PLM-related capabilities that PTC could offer. Bringing these pieces together would not only sharpen the joint capabilities of both companies, but would also create a possible path to successfully challenge the clear leaders on end-to-end PLM and automation solutions, such as Siemens Digital Industries. In this sense, the partnership between PTC and Rockwell is a win-win situation for both companies.
To get the work off the ground and demonstrate its deep commitment to the partnership, Rockwell bought into PTC with $1 billion.
The Best of Both Worlds
This was six years ago; how does the collaboration look today?
I asked Jim Heppelmann.
“PTC and Rockwell Automation entered into a partnership in 2018 that was designed to marry PTC’s IOT and AR innovations with Rockwell’s manufacturing focus and footprint,” he says. “PTC helped Rockwell create ‘Factory Talk Innovation Suite’ by marrying PTC’s ThingWorx and Vuforia solutions with Rockwell’s FactoryTalk MES, MOM and Analytics capabilities. This partnership was recently extended, as PTC and Rockwell see a great opportunity to continue to create value for each other and our mutual customers going forward.”

This makes for a good and productive relationship. But other things have happened that primarily affect Rockwell, but which also affect what PTC can put on the table, such as the purchase of Plex in 2021.
“With the addition of Plex, Rockwell now has a world-class, full-scale FactoryTalk Operations Hub that offers Production & Performance Management, Production Scheduling, Inventory Management, Quality Management Systems, Supply Chain Planning, Enterprise Resource Planning and Shop Floor Integration,” Rockwell’s Stanley Miller says to engineering.com.
Miller believes the Plex acquisition has advanced Rockwell’s capabilities within MES and added several new functions.
“Exactly. Among sharp new product enhancements, I see things like expanded use of machine learning and AI, new supply chain planning solution for Finite Scheduling to be launched in January 2024 and expanded global reach through the Microsoft Azure partnership.”
They have also started work on uniting the two Rockwell solutions, Factory Talk and Plex.
“Following the acquisition of Plex, cross-functional product teams have been launched to identify key product enhancements and cross-learnings that can be applied across both platforms,” says Miller. “To serve our customer needs, we’re planning to align technology capabilities from Plex and FactoryTalk MES in a hybrid ecosystem, and a best of both worlds approach.”
These improvements will also benefit PTC.
Analyst Gartner’s View
So, what do the Gartner analysts think in their evaluation of Rockwell Automation’s MES solutions?

Generally speaking, good—so good that they have placed Rockwell among the leaders in the latest Magic Quadrant. This evaluation considers the new merged organization with both Factory Talk and Plex.
About Rockwell’s FactoryTalk, Gartner states that it “is highly customizable and focuses on high-volume manufacturing, with specific application modules tailored to auto OEM, tire, consumer goods and pharmaceuticals.”
This is because Rockwell’s Plex MES is mostly used by discrete and batch/process manufacturers in automotive, industrial and food and beverage industries.
Gartner further noted that Rockwell works to harmonize the solutions’ UIs based on the company’s joint UX center of excellence (COE), but raises a warning flag: “FactoryTalk AutoSuite and CPGSuite still offer more opportunities for overlap with Plex. Rockwell needs to make directional decisions on how to overcome the potential conflict.”
What Are Rockwell’s Strengths and Challenges?
Regarding Rockwell’s program portfolio, Gartner pointed out that it “provides a choice between highly customizable on-premises solutions and a configurable public cloud solution, but for core MES, it is either one or the other.”
Moreover, on the industry-strategic side, it is believed that “the combination of Plex and Rockwell capabilities and vertical expertise is showing initial benefits to common customers in multiple industries. First customers report joint deployments of FactoryTalk and Plex MES (i.e., by using Plex’s quality management capabilities with FactoryTalk).”
This while the go-to-market strategy is praised based on the values that the Plex organization adds. “The addition (and promotion) of Plex software industry veterans to executive positions in Rockwell has helped to turn last year’s weakness into a strength. Its go-to-market and product strategy are clear and focused.”
Some cautions also belong to this type of evaluation. In Rockwell’s case, it is pointed out that, “Plex multi-tenant SaaS architecture does not provide all of the services required of a PaaS, which would be necessary to be a unified platform for all of Rockwell’s future development.” This is interesting, of course, especially related to PTC’s heavy investment in SaaS.
In the area of “product convergence” it is claimed that, “Rockwell’s prospects will need to be careful not to get confused about overlapping products in the Rockwell portfolio.” This is something that must be looked at and weighed in the company’s roadmap.
Finally, Rockwell has a global presence centered on North America. In Europe and Asia, PTC and Rockwell are not nearly as present, but instead Siemens Digital Industries is larger in these regions. The observation is that “More international expansion has yet to materialize.”
I think that PTC can play an increasingly important role in channeling this growth.