Industrial automation services
From the logic on the controller to the data in the office. Each service below can be a project on its own, and most work touches more than one.
PLC & control systems
PLC programming and machine control
- The problem
- A machine needs new logic, a change to how it runs, or a controller nobody can read any more.
- What we do
- We write, modify and fault-find the logic that runs your equipment: sequences, interlocks, timers, recipes. Structured, commented and version-controlled.
- What it gives you
- Control logic your own engineers can read, change and own, rather than a black box.
Typical work
- New machine and line logic
- Changes to existing programs
- Fault-finding and logic review
- Controller upgrades and migrations
- Documentation of existing code
HMI & SCADA
Operator screens and alarms
- The problem
- Screens nobody trusts, displays that take a minute to read, and alarms that get acknowledged without being looked at.
- What we do
- We design operator displays that can be read at a glance on a long shift, and cut alarm lists down to the ones that need someone to act.
- What it gives you
- Operators see the state of the process quickly, and the alarms that matter stand out.
Typical work
- New HMI and SCADA screens
- Redesigning existing displays
- Alarm review and rationalisation
- Trends and operator reports
OEE & downtime tracking
Production monitoring
- The problem
- You find out what a shift produced the morning after it finished, and stop reasons are written on a clipboard.
- What we do
- We read counts, machine states and stop reasons straight from the equipment and put them on a screen supervisors can use during the shift.
- What it gives you
- Output and downtime counted by the machine, while there’s still time to act on it.
Typical work
- Live counts and machine states
- Downtime with reasons
- Shift and daily reports
- Line-side and office dashboards
Predictive maintenance
Condition monitoring
- The problem
- Critical equipment fails without warning, and the data that might have shown it coming is checked by hand, if at all.
- What we do
- We collect vibration, temperature and run data from the equipment that matters most and raise a warning when it starts to drift from normal.
- What it gives you
- Maintenance gets a chance to plan a repair instead of reacting to a breakdown.
Typical work
- Sensor selection and installation planning
- Data collection from existing equipment
- Drift and threshold alerts
- Alerts into your maintenance system
OT/IT integration
Connecting the floor to the office
- The problem
- Production, stock and accounts each hold their own version of what happened, and someone reconciles them by hand.
- What we do
- We connect machine and production data to your ERP, MES or reporting tools, so an event is recorded once and everything else reads from it.
- What it gives you
- The plant and the office describe the same day, without re-keying.
Typical work
- PLC and SCADA data to ERP or MES
- Data collection gateways
- Production reporting
- Plant network separation designed in
We also build the software around the plant
Internal tools, data dashboards and business process automation, usually where they connect to the industrial work above. If it isn’t something we can do well, we’ll say so.
- Custom internal tools
- Data and reporting
- Business process automation
- AI-assisted tools
A note on safety systems
Emergency stops, guarding and other safety functions belong in hardwired or safety-rated systems designed and validated for that purpose. Our standard PLC and software work sits alongside them and never replaces them. If your project involves safety functions, we’ll say so at the start and agree who is responsible for them.
Nothing gets quoted before we understand it.
Five stages, and each one produces something you keep whether or not you carry on with us. Most automation projects that go badly were mis-specified long before anyone wrote a rung of logic.
- 01
We look at it with you
We walk the process, read the existing programs and drawings, and talk to the people who run and maintain it. They usually know exactly what’s wrong. No proposal before this part.
- What you have now, written down
- Risks and constraints
- How it runs today
- 02
We agree what it has to do
A written specification in language you can check: what it does, what it connects to, what happens when something fails, and the tests that mean it’s finished.
- A specification you can read
- Interfaces and I/O
- Agreed acceptance tests
- 03
We build and test it
Logic and screens are built and tested off-site against the specification, with something you can review along the way rather than a long silence and a surprise.
- Programs and screens under version control
- Off-site test records
- Regular reviews
- 04
We commission it
On site, tested against the acceptance criteria from stage two. Operators and maintenance staff are shown the system on the real equipment.
- Site acceptance records
- Operator and maintenance handover
- As-built documentation
- 05
We hand it over properly
Support after go-live is agreed up front. If you’d rather run it yourselves, you get everything needed to do that.
- Agreed support arrangement
- Source and documentation
- Help when something changes
Not sure which of these you need?
Describe what’s happening on the floor. Working out which service fits is part of our job.
Discuss a project