Smart Industry, a leading research and media firm covering a wide array of industrial sectors, just launched its 2026 Smart Industry Industrial Transformation Awards (ITAs), with Cisco serving as a proud sponsor. The nine honorees—Keurig Dr Pepper (KDP), Rivian, The Walt Disney Company, Alabama DOT, Arkansas DOT, Texas DOT, Duke Energy, National Grid, and NorthWestern Energy —span manufacturing, transportation, and utilities. Their award-winning projects vary from reversible traffic lanes to grid modernization to amusement-park monitoring. But here’s what caught our attention: beneath those surface differences are three shared patterns.

Theme 1: Standardizing the operational network architecture

At Rivian, the IT, OT, and manufacturing engineering teams built standardized network architectures that incorporated previously isolated operational networks. Now the electric vehicle manufacturer has end-to-end visibility across production equipment, automation systems, and analytics platforms, contributing to 99.99% network uptime and zero unplanned network downtime. “The network—once our weakest link—is now the most reliable and trusted component of Rivian’s manufacturing ecosystem,” said Rohini Mor, Rivian’s senior manager of network engineering.

Reliability also rose at Duke Energy. After mergers left the company with disjointed networks, the utility’s telecom team worked with the transmission, distribution, and gas teams to migrate grid automation control and communications across facilities and circuits. “Transitioning to IP and updating the network infrastructure, operational headend applications, and remote equipment… contributed to improved network reliability above 99.7%,” reported Bryan Fullenkamp, IT network architect. Better network up time can affect grid uptime, literally keeping the lights on.

Keurig Dr Pepper (KDP) re-imagined its manufacturing network foundation to increase visibility and resilience. “Close collaboration between manufacturing engineering, IT, and our strategic partners provided a sense of shared ownership, [making the network] a resilient, compliant backbone for smart manufacturing growth,” said Arno Thijssen, process and automation engineer at KDP.

Theme 2: Aligning OT and IT

The 2026 ITA winners also showcase the importance of OT and IT collaboration, especially for security and visibility. National Grid was recognized for its initiative to digitize and expand the grid to prepare for extreme weather conditions and rising cyberattacks. “Removing silos within OT and IT teams and getting the teams to engage and trust the collaboration process… is the biggest challenge,” noted Adriano Antiquera, National Grid’s platform director.

Disney fosters IT/OT collaboration by making sure that both teams are represented in every design, vendor, and architecture discussion. The company invested in joint training, including Cisco certifications for OT engineers, and ISA/ICS security training for IT staff. “Suddenly, teams could see challenges from the other perspective, which accelerated collaboration and problem-solving,” said Dan Mastropietro, a technical fellow with Disney’s global network engineering and options.

Arkansas DOT brought its IT and OT teams together to build a reversible lane to relieve congestion on a heavily trafficked bridge. The project required a fault-tolerant network backbone for OT systems like real-time lane control, automated signage updates, and incident response coordination. “This architecture fostered real-time data exchange, allowing IT and OT teams to collaborate more effectively,” said Jeremy Hill, network administrator for the Arkansas DOT. The reversible lane has helped to decrease commute times by as much as 30% during rush hours.

Just across the state line, Alabama DOT integrated its IT network and OT-based intelligent transportation systems (ITS) to improve roadway safety. Chris Wilson, IT specialist, collaborated with OT teams to deploy traffic signal controllers, digital message systems, and cameras at exits along major interstate highways.

Theme 3: Anticipating rather than reacting to issues

A third common theme heard from this year’s ITA winners is taking advantage of the industrial network to detect issues before they become problems. NorthWestern Energy identifies problems likely to cause outages by using advanced metering technology (AMI). “Enhanced monitoring allows us to detect issues earlier and improve response across our operations,” said Kelly Ferriter, network manager at NorthWestern Energy. Now the utility is extending its proactive approach to wildfire risk mitigation by using AI-enabled cameras and weather stations for earlier awareness. This all takes a reliable, flexible, industrial network.

AI also figures into the plans of other ITA winners. For example, Texas DOT uses AI-based incident detection in Austin. “With faster notifications for roadway incidents, TxDOT can reduce response times and clear the road of crashes, stalled vehicles, or debris more quickly,” said Anh Selissen, CIO for Texas DOT. “Quicker clearance has reduced the occurrence of secondary crashes by 29%, enhancing overall road safety for the traveling public.”

As a proud sponsor of the ITAs, Cisco is excited to see our customers leading the way in industrial innovation. Congratulations to the winners!

Read more about the ITA winners here

Learn more about Cisco Industrial Internet of Things (IoT) solutions here

About Smart Industry

Smart Industry is dedicated to delivering the very latest information on technology trends in manufacturing verticals of every kind, from automotive to medical to aerospace to heavy machinery to electronics, etc. The Smart Industry Awards is a Cisco-sponsored third-party program that provides public recognition for innovation leadership.

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