Start Small. Stay Practical. Get Results.

Inside Mike Brooks’ Breakout Session at the Automation, Maintenance & Reliability Summit

At our January Automation, Maintenance & Reliability Summit, Mike Brooks from Phoenix Contact delivered a breakout session that felt refreshingly real—no buzzwords, no “boil the ocean” strategies, just practical ways to use digital tools to improve uptime, quality, and energy efficiency.

Mike started by introducing Phoenix Contact and why many people recognize the products even if they don’t recognize the name. Phoenix Contact is a 100-year-old, family-owned German manufacturer with a global footprint, and their components often live “behind the scenes” inside control cabinets on the factory floor. The big takeaway from his intro was simple, you don’t have to be flashy to be essential.

Digital tools should solve real problems—not create new ones

Mike framed digitalization the way most manufacturers wish it was framed, with clarity and purpose. Instead of starting with massive data projects, he encouraged everyone to start with the problem first. One of his best points was that many Industry 4.0 efforts fail because teams jump in without defining what success looks like.

“Many… do an Industry 4.0 without really defining what they want to try to accomplish… and many of them unfortunately fail because they don’t have a defined outcome.”

From there, he made the conversation feel a lot less overwhelming by explaining that most use cases fall into three categories:

• Improving machine utilization / OEE

• Improving quality / traceability

• Improving energy efficiency

When you know which bucket you’re in, it becomes much easier to choose the right tool and the right data. You don’t need “all the data” to make an impact

A major theme of Mike’s session was pushing back on the idea that you need to send everything to the cloud to get value. He shared stories of companies sitting on massive piles of data—and still not getting results—because access and clarity are the real issues.

“Many times it’s only three or four pieces of data that we need to really get better insights into a defined problem.”

That message mattered because it gives manufacturers permission to start small, test, learn, and scale—without feeling like they need a full-blown digital factory project to begin.

Why “Edge” matters

Mike explained how Phoenix Contact helps teams pull data without shutting down production or reprogramming equipment—using edge devices that extract data from machines and sensors while letting operations keep running. This approach is designed to be:

• Non-intrusive (no stopping the machine)

• Localized (solve problems right at the point of use)

• Budget-friendly (small investments that show ROI fast)

He also cautioned against collecting everything “just because,” especially when cloud storage bills start piling up years later.

“Do it on the edge… you’re not pushing all this data up… and only the result… send it up if it needs to go to some other enterprise.”

Real-world examples that made it click.

Predictive maintenance on high-impact equipment

Mike brought the session to life with several examples that proved how small data + simple tools can create measurable results. In one example, Phoenix Contact helped monitor massive motors on a transfer press line using energy monitoring plus vibration sensors—creating a “signature” to catch drift before failure. The key point: predictive maintenance doesn’t have to be expensive, and you don’t need a mountain of data to start seeing patterns.

Start with energy

Mike also shared why he recommends starting with energy monitoring if you’re trying to justify budget. It’s easier to calculate ROI—and it often reveals utilization issues you didn’t know you had. At Phoenix Contact’s Harrisburg facility, monitoring energy led to operational changes that delivered a tangible result:

“We saved almost 30% energy savings…”

Even better, energy monitoring uncovered that one machine’s utilization was only around 50%, which forced the team to look upstream, find the bottleneck, and improve the whole flow. One small project turned into multiple wins.

Improving precision by measuring the environment

Another example involved high-precision manufacturing where parts were being falsely rejected. Instead of rewriting machine code (and shutting the line down), they used edge data collection plus a simple weather station (pressure, humidity, temperature) to visualize what was really happening—then used a lightweight algorithm to adapt set points. Mike’s point, the team didn’t need a massive system—just the right insight to prove what they already suspected.

The big takeaway

Mike’s session was a reminder that digital transformation doesn’t have to be intimidating. When manufacturers define the problem, choose a few meaningful data points, and start with a practical use case, they can improve reliability and efficiency quickly—without disrupting production or blowing up the budget.

And his final theme tied it all together: start small, prove value, then scale with confidence.