OT and IT were designed not to meet
Machines, historians, and MES speak different clocks and protocols. Forcing them onto the office network is not a strategy.
Plant reality, not a dashboard fantasy
Manufacturing data is generated on the floor, in suppliers, and in finance. We help organisations connect those worlds without pretending a single platform will replace every controller and ERP module.
Written as a sector briefing. No implied plant-floor certifications or named manufacturers.
Challenges
Operating challenges
Traceability that only exists in paper
Quality events, batch genealogy, and supplier lots are hard to reconstruct when a recall or audit arrives.
Planning numbers that finance does not recognise
Capacity, yield, and WIP live in spreadsheets beside the ERP. S&OP becomes a negotiation.
Patterns
Solution patterns we discuss
A controlled integration edge
Plant data leaves through a broker or historian export with explicit security, not ad-hoc USB and email.
Genealogy as a first-class model
Lots, serials, and process steps stored so quality and service can answer “what shipped with this?”
Shared planning facts
A curated layer for demand, inventory, and yield that both operations and finance query.
CRM connected to the ERP
Quotes, orders, and dealer or distributor accounts in a CRM that reads availability and order status from the ERP instead of re-keying it.
Maintenance knowledge at the line
Retrieval over manuals, work orders, and shift notes, so technicians get cited answers with the source document one step away.
Business considerations
- Downtime windows are scarce. Change is sequenced around production, not the other way around.
- Safety and quality systems are out of scope unless explicitly commissioned by specialists.
- Supplier portals often matter as much as internal MES.
Services
Related services
Let’s build something that lasts.
Tell us what you are working on, where the current systems fall short, or what you want to make possible. We will help you identify the next practical step.