Sensible Trade, a number one analysis and media agency overlaying a wide selection of business sectors, simply launched its 2026 Sensible Trade Industrial Transformation Awards (ITAs), with Cisco serving as a proud sponsor. The 9 honorees—Keurig Dr Pepper (KDP), Rivian, The Walt Disney Firm, Alabama DOT, Arkansas DOT, Texas DOT, Duke Vitality, Nationwide Grid, and NorthWestern Vitality —span manufacturing, transportationand utilities. Their award-winning tasks differ from reversible site visitors lanes to grid modernization to amusement-park monitoring. However right here’s what caught our consideration: beneath these floor variations are three shared patterns.
At Rivianthe IT, OT, and manufacturing engineering groups constructed standardized community architectures that integrated beforehand remoted operational networks. Now the electrical car producer has end-to-end visibility throughout manufacturing gear, automation techniques, and analytics platforms, contributing to 99.99% community uptime and 0 unplanned community downtime. “The community—as soon as our weakest hyperlink—is now probably the most dependable and trusted part of Rivian’s manufacturing ecosystem,” mentioned Rohini Mor, Rivian’s senior supervisor of community engineering.
Reliability additionally rose at Duke Vitality. After mergers left the corporate with disjointed networks, the utility’s telecom group labored with the transmission, distribution, and gasoline groups emigrate grid automation management and communications throughout amenities and circuits. “Transitioning to IP and updating the community infrastructure, operational headend functions, and distant gear… contributed to improved community reliability above 99.7%,” reported Bryan Fullenkamp, IT community architect. Higher community up time can have an effect on grid uptime, actually holding the lights on.
Keurig Dr Pepper (KDP) re-imagined its manufacturing community basis to extend visibility and resilience. “Shut collaboration between manufacturing engineering, IT, and our strategic companions supplied a way of shared possession, (making the community) a resilient, compliant spine for sensible manufacturing development,” mentioned Arno Thijssen, course of and automation engineer at KDP.
The 2026 ITA winners additionally showcase the significance of OT and IT collaborationparticularly for safety and visibility. Nationwide Grid was acknowledged for its initiative to digitize and increase the grid to arrange for excessive climate situations and rising cyberattacks. “Eradicating silos inside OT and IT groups and getting the groups to have interaction and belief the collaboration course of… is the largest problem,” famous Adriano Antiquera, Nationwide Grid’s platform director.
Disney fosters IT/OT collaboration by ensuring that each groups are represented in each design, vendor, and structure dialogue. The corporate invested in joint coaching, together with Cisco certifications for OT engineers, and ISA/ICS safety coaching for IT employees. “All of a sudden, groups may see challenges from the opposite perspective, which accelerated collaboration and problem-solving,” mentioned Dan Mastropietro, a technical fellow with Disney’s international community engineering and choices.
Arkansas DOT introduced its IT and OT groups collectively to construct a reversible lane to alleviate congestion on a closely trafficked bridge. The challenge required a fault-tolerant community spine for OT techniques like real-time lane management, automated signage updates, and incident response coordination. “This structure fostered real-time information change, permitting IT and OT groups to collaborate extra successfully,” mentioned Jeremy Hill, community administrator for the Arkansas DOT. The reversible lane has helped to lower commute instances by as a lot as 30% throughout rush hours.
Simply throughout the state line, Alabama DOT built-in its IT community and OT-based clever transportation techniques (ITS) to enhance roadway security. Chris Wilson, IT specialist, collaborated with OT groups to deploy site visitors sign controllers, digital message techniques, and cameras at exits alongside main interstate highways.
A 3rd frequent theme heard from this 12 months’s ITA winners is making the most of the industrial community to detect points earlier than they turn into issues. NorthWestern Vitality identifies issues prone to trigger outages by utilizing superior metering expertise (AMI). “Enhanced monitoring permits us to detect points earlier and enhance response throughout our operations,” mentioned Kelly Ferriter, community supervisor at NorthWestern Vitality. Now the utility is extending its proactive method to wildfire threat mitigation by utilizing AI-enabled cameras and climate stations for earlier consciousness. This all takes a dependable, versatile, industrial community.
AI additionally figures into the plans of different ITA winners. For instance, Texas DOT makes use of AI-based incident detection in Austin. “With quicker notifications for roadway incidents, TxDOT can cut back response instances and clear the street of crashes, stalled automobiles, or particles extra shortly,” mentioned Anh Selissen, CIO for Texas DOT. “Faster clearance has decreased the prevalence of secondary crashes by 29%, enhancing general street security for the touring public.”
As a proud sponsor of the ITAs, Cisco is happy to see our prospects main the best way in industrial innovation. Congratulations to the winners!
Learn extra in regards to the ITA winners right here
Study extra about Cisco Industrial Web of Issues (IoT) options right here
About Sensible Trade
Sensible Trade is devoted to delivering the very newest data on expertise traits in manufacturing verticals of each form, from automotive to medical to aerospace to heavy equipment to electronics, and so forth. The Sensible Trade Awards is a Cisco-sponsored third-party program that gives public recognition for innovation management.
