Practical articles: how production data becomes usable, where AI genuinely helps on the shop floor, and what new regulation means for machine builders and mid-sized manufacturers. No buzzwords, sources included.
Each topic is a connected guide of several articles – from first principles to implementation.
The OEE formula is quickly explained. Whether the number holds up is decided by the time model and by where runtime, output and scrap come from - with a shift worked through minute by minute and an Excel layout.
20 min read
The honest route from a document base to an answer you can verify: which document classes can actually be opened up, where layout parsing breaks down, and why source citation is an acceptance criterion.
20 min read
Which shopfloor process should be automated first? A scoring grid built from frequency, media breaks, error costs and data availability, plus a checklist for a pilot that does not slide back into Excel after go-live.
18 min read
The make-or-buy question is settled process by process, not company by company. A weighted scoring matrix, a five-year TCO logic and the tax side - plus a clear list of the processes where standard software simply wins.
20 min read
A complete ISA-95 topic schema, naming rules with the reasoning behind them, an honest assessment of Sparkplug B and a grid for choosing a broker - vendor-neutral, including a section on when you do not need a UNS at all.
21 min read
Brownfield is the normal case. Four escalation levels show how to reach the data inside an existing machine - and why capturing it is the smaller part of the work.
21 min read
A credible price for custom industrial software exists only as a range. Which cost drivers occur only in manufacturing, what quotes routinely leave out, and how to calculate running costs over the life of the machine.
21 min read
In October 2025 Germany's data protection authorities set out how they will judge a RAG system. This article turns the 18 pages into an ingest pipeline, permission filters, a deletion path and a 14-point checklist.
22 min read
OPC UA models meaning and access at the asset; MQTT moves messages upwards through a broker. Which protocol carries which job, what Sparkplug B adds, and what the bridge between the two looks like.
19 min read
The S7-1500's built-in OPC UA server or Snap7 on port 102? A decision table by PLC generation, the licence classes, the PUT/GET setting, optimized data blocks and a working python-snap7 example.
21 min read
A language model in your own server room is a plant asset, not a subscription: the calculation from user count to GPU, why small models are what make on-premise operation economical, and which cases belong in an EU cloud.
18 min read
Five integration patterns between MES and ERP compared — and then the part almost nobody writes about: confirmation logic, duplicate protection and what happens when one system goes down.
20 min read
Free · No obligation · approx. 30 minutes
In a free initial consultation we clarify your goals, your data situation and the feasibility – with no obligation.