Cytiva and Rockwell Automation launched the figurate supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system designed to remove digital bottlenecks during biopharmaceutical manufacturing. Working across multiple instrument vendors and modalities, Figurate SCADA provides the connectivity needed to enable digital integration to advance modern bioprocessing, according to Matt Weaver, vice president of global industry life sciences at Rockwell.
“Biopharma teams are under pressure to move more quickly, but their systems are often not built to keep up,” says Weaver. “This collaboration with Cytiva marks a pivotal step in our mission to democratize digital manufacturing, enabling biopharma innovators to deploy SCADA faster, smarter and more affordably.”
Many biopharma teams have long juggled proprietary systems that cannot communicate with one another, creating operational silos, manual workarounds, and data integrity risks. The new system directly addresses this roadblock by having an open architecture, allowing for third-party instrument integration, and real-time oversight of integration capable unit operations from a single interface, notes a Cytiva spokesperson, who explains that the platform features include:
- Native interoperability: The platform is natively integrated with Cytiva bioprocessing equipment and Rockwell Automation’s FactoryTalk software suite, enabling seamless interoperability across systems.
- Scalable growth: A single platform expands from process development to commercial manufacturing without system redesign.
- Cost-effective compliance: A streamlined digital manufacturing system reduces capital and operational costs and enables cGMP compliance.
- Rapid implementation: Pre-engineered templates and modular design shorten deployment and validation timelines.
- Enhanced operational insight: Centralized alarms, real-time monitoring, process intensification and batch reporting tailored to bioprocess workflows.
“This collaboration is designed to empower the next generation of biomanufacturers,” says Nicolas Pivet, manufacturing and digital solutions at Cytiva.
Industry data shows increasing demand for next generation process control systems as organizations transition toward data driven process intensification and continuous manufacturing. Equipment fragmentation remains one of the top pain points cited by biomanufacturers, particularly those advancing programs from R&D to clinical scale. By giving teams a unified digital control layer, the Figurate SCADA reduces the risk of human error, accelerates tech transfer, and supports reliable scaleup as workloads grow in complexity, points out the Cytiva spokesperson.
