Production data you can actually decide on: real OEE, not end-of-shift estimates.
Discrete manufacturing runs on multi-station lines, machines of different ages and brands, and decisions too often made from memory. We connect the field to the production systems and turn machine signals into real OEE, lot traceability, and shared numbers — so the production meeting starts from data, not impressions.
Four recurring knots in discrete multi-station manufacturing. They usually coexist in the same plant.
OEE nobody actually measures
OEE is an end-of-shift spreadsheet and stops get aggregated as "generic setup". Without an MES that truly measures availability, performance, and quality from line data, no improvement initiative starts from real numbers.
Data fragmented across different machines
Every machine has its own panel and data format. No single line view, root-causes always approximate, and comparing stations or plants becomes an exercise in trust rather than data.
PLCs and ERP that don't talk
Production orders and consumption re-keyed by hand between field and ERP: double entry and transcription errors. Production numbers only line up at month-end, by which point they're useless for deciding.
Legacy plants to modernize without stopping everything
A multi-brand, multi-age machine fleet, often without a modern interface. Modernizing without scrapping the cabinets and without stopping production needs a phased approach, not a big-bang.
One team from PLC to plant dashboard, on new plants and on those already running.
Automation and non-destructive retrofit
Siemens PLC programming (S7-1200, S7-1500), motion control, retrofit of obsolete PLCs planned within production stops. New lines or modernization of running plants, without scrapping what's there.
ARIA MES/SCADA: real OEE and traceability
OEE computed from line data with automatic loss breakdown (changeover, micro-stops, quality, speed), lot traceability, Andon console, and alarms with escalation over email, SMS, and webhooks.
IT/OT integration: PLC ↔ MES ↔ ERP
We connect field and ERP via OPC UA and S7: orders and recipes come down to the line, production consumption goes back up. One source of truth from floor to office, no double entry or parallel spreadsheets.
Multi-line, multi-site, and OT cybersecurity
A factory view aggregating OEE, health, and alarms across every line; standards and configurations replicable between plants. OT networks segmented per IEC 62443 and NIS2 readiness for those in scope.
We build automation with the standards quality, safety, and energy require.
- ISO 9001 (quality)
- ISO 50001 (energy management)
- ISO 13849 / IEC 62061 (safety)
- IEC 62443 (OT cybersecurity)
- NIS2
- Industry 4.0 (interconnection)
- Italy's 2026 hyper-depreciation (former Transizione 5.0)
Recurring situations we get called in for, and how we approach them. These are not specific projects: our real cases, with the clients who authorized us to name them, are in the portfolio.
- Typical situation
- Lines that grew through successive additions, with PLCs from different generations and no layer that makes them reason together. Production gets tallied at the end of each shift on spreadsheets, stops are explained from memory, and every new product calls for an automation intervention.
- How we work
- We start with an inventory of what's already there and a supervision layer that reads the existing PLCs via OPC UA, without replacing them. On top of that, recipe management moves out of the PLC code, with automatic collection of stops and their causes. Where a controller is end-of-life, the replacement is planned station by station rather than for the whole line.
- Expected outcome
- Line status visible in real time, stop causes logged instead of reconstructed from memory, and a new product introduced as a configuration rather than an automation project.
- Typical situation
- Stops get dealt with as they happen, with no history showing which ones recur. Diagnosis depends on who's on shift, and recovery time ranges from minutes to hours depending on who's available.
- How we work
- Instrumenting the signals already present on the PLCs, historizing process parameters, and standardizing alarms with an explicit cause. The dashboard exposes MTBF and MTTR per machine and per failure mode, and remote access allows diagnosis before anyone has to travel to the plant.
- Expected outcome
- Recurring stops identified by frequency rather than impression, diagnosis time independent of shift, and maintenance priorities decided from data.
What teams ask before we kick off.
What does it take to measure "real" OEE?
Does it integrate with the ERP I already run (SAP, Dynamics, others)?
Does it work with PLCs of different brands?
Can I start with a single line?
Does it qualify for the 2026 incentives?
Do you modernize old plants without stopping production?
Pages usually opened after this one.
Guide · Calculating OEE
How OEE is actually calculated, what the six losses are, and how to move from an estimate to automatic data collection.
Read the guide →ARIA Suite
MES/SCADA, HMI, Warehouse, and Mobile as a single platform. Already in production on multi-station lines.
Explore ARIA →PLC programming
Siemens S7-1500, motion control, safety. The layer underneath every MES and SCADA we build.
Go to PLC programming →Got a project in mind?
Describe the line and the problem on a 30-minute technical call: we tell you straight away whether it's in our wheelhouse. We typically reply within 24 hours. From the first call to commissioning, you speak to the same person.