Mexico factory digitalization and robotics productivity, Digi Mart USA News (Mexico): Obsolete equipment and fragmented data are limiting the efficiency of industrial plants in Mexico, according to Víctor Fuentes, managing director of Mitsubishi Electric for Latin America. In many factories, production and consumption are recorded in systems that do not communicate with one another, making it difficult to know exactly what was made, on which shift, on which machine and under whose responsibility.
A mature segment of the equipment installed in Mexican factories is obsolete, and a significant share of companies operate production controls that are isolated from one another. Fuentes said this fragmentation limits the link between what is produced and what is consumed.
In response, the company offers digitalization, robotics and network protection solutions for production plants.
For these plants, Mitsubishi Electric offers GENESIS64, its supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) software. The platform works alongside control devices from other brands, allowing companies to consolidate their information into a single system while keeping equipment they already have installed.
Maisart, the artificial intelligence built into the company’s hardware, collects plant data and learns from it as equipment is interconnected. Predictive and corrective diagnostic algorithms are also being tested on the SCADA system.
These tests are conducted in simulated facility management systems that project consumption, atypical demand peaks and automatic load segregation. Fuentes said the urgency reflects local conditions: “Unfortunately, energy in the country is neither the most reliable nor the most continuous.
That is why we are testing systems that allow the customer to decide which areas stay in operation and which are shut down safely.”
Fuentes said the company also provides low-voltage electrical protection, including contactors, air and molded-case distribution, motor control centers and distribution columns, under IEC and NEMA standards. One electricity provider in the country uses GENESIS64 to control its substations and cogeneration equipment.
To strengthen these systems, the company incorporated cybersecurity from Nozomi Networks, a firm specializing in operational technology (OT) security, following its acquisition in 2025. The solution maps the industrial network and detects vulnerabilities at each node.
“Previously, cybersecurity was thought of specifically for information technologies, such as a computer or a server,” Fuentes said. “But now, with systems connected to control equipment from other brands, vulnerabilities can exist.” With this approach, cybersecurity moves from the office into plant operations.
Fuentes identified industrial robotics as the technology with the greatest potential impact on productivity. “What industry is demanding today is continuous, faster and much more precise production, and robotics plays a very important role there.” He said imports of robotic arms, autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) and automated guided vehicles (AGVs) continue to grow, with their use extending from the automotive and electronics sectors to food and beverages.
Fuentes cited a Mexican manufacturer of adhesives and stucco that automated the palletizing of its bags with robots and a conveyor line. The company increased production by about 40% and now operates at nearly 100% of its capacity.
The automation also resolved the bottleneck between production and packaging, eased working conditions, reduced the legal weight limits each worker must carry, and lowered workers’ exposure to micro-dust that harms the respiratory system.
Fuentes said the challenge is one of perception. “Unfortunately, robotics is still seen as a technology exclusive to highly developed technology companies, when it can be implemented in any business, from agro-industry to food and beverages.”
To illustrate the investment, Fuentes said projects quoted by the company through its business partners recover the amount invested within two to two and a half years. In its factories in Japan, advanced manufacturing systems reduced electricity consumption by 35% and raise production between 12% and 15% each year.
In the electricity service sector, Fuentes expects artificial intelligence to correlate data and perform regression analysis to generate reports. “Artificial intelligence helps solve many things, but the decision of which button to press, or how to use the report it generates, remains with people,” he said.
These developments come from the company’s four research and development centers, which invest more than $2 billion. Each development is tested for about two years in the company’s own manufacturing plants before launch.
Mitsubishi Electric’s priorities in Mexico are project conceptualization, robotics and broader digitalization, with the aim of expanding its share of the Mexican market. Its products are manufactured in Japan, but the company invests in local talent through programs for universities, integrators, machinery manufacturers and partners, because it sees the country as a growing market.
Fuentes said, “Mexico remains a strategic partner for the United States and, for that same reason, we remain one of the countries with a growth focus, regardless of economic turbulence that may exist between governments.”
For Mexican plants, Fuentes said the starting point is measuring what they already produce. When production, consumption and quality are recorded by shift and by machine, companies can identify where to automate, which equipment to upgrade and how to protect their networks before expanding connectivity.
That sequence will shape the path of industrial digitalization in the country in the coming years.
