Anna reached out from Poland to comment on my Website informing me of a new MES product specifically targeted to small-to-medium-sized companies called Prodio. Eventually we set up an interview with company founder and leader Marek Mrowiec.
The product is simple to buy, set up, and use—perfect for smaller businesses that typically lack the “luxury” of an IT department. It’s a production scheduling software housed in the cloud. It performs many of the functions common to traditional MES at a fraction of the cost, requiring no team of consultants to install, and easy for the entire team to use.
Prodio sells in Poland, Romania, and is expanding in central Europe. However, there is an English version and the company representatives can converse well in English. Since it is cloud-based, location does not matter. Curious business owners can go to the website and simply try it out.
Why should a company buy the software? Mrowiec told me this story of a customer. The owner discovered that there had been a scam going on for quite a long time. Night shift workers and a foreman “opened” their own company inside his company, committing extra orders, taking side jobs, and stealing the customers. They used all the machines and materials during their working hours. When Prodio was implemented, they were forced to quit because it was no longer possible to hide their unfair practice. To this day, the company hires fewer than ten people (comparing to 20 workers previously) having the same number of machines as yet, and the staff loves Prodio.
Prodio always had in mind serving a customer base of small-to-mid-sized companies. At present, it has more than 200 customer companies, half of them hiring less than ten staff, 40% of the companies employ 10-25 people, and only 10% are larger enterprises.
Prodio grew out of Mrowiec’s experience working for his father at the family manufacturing business. Like many ideas, the product grew from solving their customers’ problems. Originally developing the idea in Microsoft Excel, then moving to Google docs in order to leverage the Web. But that technology did not scale to handle the amount of data the customers were generating. “These tools I created seemed irreplaceable, and many companies couldn’t imagine life without using them. However, as time passed, more and more problems appeared: obviously, neither Excel nor Google docs were designed to process such an amount of information simultaneously.”
“Some of my clients asked me to change Excel sheets to easy to implement ERP systems. I was supposed to oversee the whole process as an independent consultant and ensure that the implementation went smoothly. There were at least three such projects, and each of them faced similar problems: the simple Excel tools I’d created proved to be far more useful than the new ones, which cost the company 30-50 thousand dollars. It seemed to be impossible to achieve the same functionality using expensive ERP systems. My clients became more and more stressed and frustrated because the companies which sold them new products weren’t keen on improved functionality or increased productivity.”
“After about year and a half, another company noticed that even though the ERP system had been introduced, they still carry on using “my” Excel sheets and Google Docs (although not everything worked perfectly because of the amount of data to process) had a light bulb moment. Why don’t we create a simple software based on the same idea as Google Docs and Excel sheets?”
ERP systems with MES work well in the large companies, with recurrent production, mainly because of co-operation with the numerous suppliers, and components which must be delivered on time. In small companies, you have to fill lots of forms with different data would be suicide, not a facilitator. Imagine a situation where there is an order form where you need one ton of metal sheet, but you can’t use it because this material was assigned to a different order in the system. Although you have it physically in stock, you can’t do anything about it, because of inventory mistake.
We see our product as the first step for small and medium-sized companies on their way to technological transformation in the spirit of 4.0 Industrial revolution. The data collected via Prodio can inspire to buy other machines, to automate, become more advanced. From that perspective, Prodio supports transformation – it is a solid foundation for the company to base on further development decisions. Prodio means the end of chaos, order and organisation, insight into possibilities of growth. All of the above is possible without physical presence 24/7 at the shop floor because the progress is monitored from your smartphone, and orders are scheduled online.
“We tend to overestimate risk and under estimate value when we’re evaluating digital technology implementation,” stated a keynoter during the 25th annual ARC Advisory Group Forum. Another keynoter told us that if we are evaluating digital transformation initiatives using a spreadsheet, we are off base. Some things have too great a risk of not doing. A Wall Street analyst told us that over the past year industrial software companies outperformed industrial companies. Software for digital transformation is where it’s at. Check out the new Schneider Electric initiative promoting software defined control based on IEC 61499. This is an outgrowth of the Open Process Automation initiative that seems to be gathering some momentum. Software is eating the world–or at least the industrial one.
I recently heard about a new company, ThinkIQ talking with Niels Andersen, someone I’ve known in the industrial software business for (ahem) many years. We conferenced in Brian Anderson, also with ThinkIQ to introduce me to a different take on industrial software–Track material flow, not assets.
Industrial companies are facing disruptions. The Internet of Things (IoT) is changing how things are made, bought, used, and shared. The always-on, always-connected world is changing how consumers expect to conduct business. The combination of Big-Data Analytics, Machine Learning and Cloud computing is changing how applications are built and what they can do.
They told me about embracing digital transformation to run a supply chain more efficiently and collaboratively, make its products safer, and increase the quality of the output, all whilst driving down costs.
ThinkIQ developed what it dubs Digital Manufacturing Transformation SaaS. It delivers material traceability and insight into ways to improve yield, quality, safety, compliance, and brand confidence. “Our fact-based granular and data-centric contextualized view of material flows and related provenance attribute data integrates into existing IoT infrastructures and crosses supply chains to manufacturing processes and beyond. Our customers have saved $10’s of millions by identifying waste and underperforming assets, as well as reducing warranty reserves for quality and safety issues.”
The occasion for the conversation was a recent release of new functionalities.
New functionalities improve yield, quality, safety, compliance, and brand confidence while reducing waste and environmental impact.
ThinkIQ, a pioneer of digital manufacturing transformation SaaS driving continuous intelligence on the shop floor and throughout the global supply chain, today announced added functionality to its SaaS Manufacturing platform. This new release adds significant product enhancements, which include UI components that allows customers to build custom dashboards, simplified analysis of time series data, and reusable type systems that help to accelerate deployment.
In this release, ThinkIQ addresses core issues that have hindered broad adoption of manufacturing analytics with features that power continuous intelligence driven by sensor data and control systems rather than transactional capabilities.
The new added functionality adds to ThinkIQ’s platform which delivers fact-based granular and a data-centric view of material flows and related providence attribute data. The platform integrates into existing IoT infrastructure to help manage everything from supply chains to manufacturing processes and beyond. These added capabilities will continue to build upon ThinkIQ’s unprecedented material traceability and insight which helps manufacturers improve yield, quality, safety, compliance and brand confidence while reducing waste and environmental impact.
“Most manufacturing systems are transactional in nature, which creates a disconnect between the transactional information systems and the real-life continuous nature of the processes,” said Niels Andersen, CPO of ThinkIQ. “This has limited manufacturers’ ability to analyze operations and find opportunities for improvements. Traditional data lakes do not structure manufacturing data in a reusable schema that is easy to analyze, which results in a vast amount of custom code being written for every analytics scenario where every dashboard has to be created from scratch.”
The following new features break down these barriers:
Consistently Analyze Sensor Data – ThinkIQ features a richer type and instance system model that provides additional meaning to sensor data, making it easier to build systems in a repeatable manner and consistently analyze the data across many production units.
Dynamic Data Calculations for Continuous Intelligence – The upgraded product features a simplified approach to performing calculations on time series data while fully embracing the complexities of how sensor data must be processed. These ValueStream Expressions include manufacturing specific functionality such as material flow alignment of the data, rich interpolation algorithms and unit of measure conversion. ValueStream Functions are able to process time series data at its full resolution with no need to downsample or resample the data prior to performing calculations. This process can be compared to the power of Digital Signal Processing (DSP) for live data streams with the simplicity of 5th grade arithmetic.
User Interface (UI) – ThinkIQ features updated UI Components that allow people with simple web site development skills to build rich dashboards and user interfaces. The UI Components are an integral part of ThinkIQ’s Content management system and embraces ThinkIQ’s type and instance system model so that users don’t have to worry about how to map the UI Components to the underlying data.
“The newest functionalities to our platform will allow our customers to achieve a more precise understanding of their manufacturing data which can be utilized to better fine tune their production execution,” said Mr. Andersen, CPO of ThinkIQ. “Our customers are continuing to push the boundaries of material traceability and we are committed to giving a holistic view of the supply chain process from farm to fork.”
ThinkIQ’s SaaS Manufacturing cloud-based platform simplifies the creation of web-based applications and leverages the strengths of the Internet of Things, Big Data, Data Science, Semantic Modeling and Machine Learning. The platform is able to collect data inputs across supply chain (existing & IIoT sensors) and analyze with AI, ML to identify correlations and root causes. It creates a new set of value-added traceability data which is delivered with actionable insights and decisions to guide systems across the supply chain.
“We are continuously looking at ways we can improve our platform in order to help our customers obtain the most information possible to manage their supply chains,” said Doug Lawson, CEO of ThinkIQ. “The latest functionalities we have added to our platform will give our customers more ease of use which in turn will allow them to operate their supply chains and material flow with even greater efficiency.”
The pitch from the PR person included “open orchestration for distributed edge” and an interview with long-time acquaintance Jason Shepherd, VP of Ecosystem at ZEDEDA. Ok, that hit many key words and opened up a number of questions.
The news in short:
Deployed for over a year by leaders in manufacturing, oil and gas, energy and retail—trusted by enterprises like Rockwell Automation, Invenergy, BOBST and Agora
Delivers the ultimate flexibility to customers by supporting any combination of Docker containers, Kubernetes clusters and virtual machines (VMs) for legacy applications, deployed on any edge computing node while connecting to any cloud
Uniquely extends operational best practices for uptime, security and simplicity to the field
Purpose-built for edge/OT by leveraging EVE-OS from the Linux Foundation’s LF Edge, insuring against lock-in and facilitating interoperability across an open ecosystem
Protects valuable edge computing resources deployed outside of data centers using its unrivaled and state of the art Zero Trust security architecture
ZEDEDA announced a cloud-native solution that delivers visibility, control, and security for edge computing deployments. Companies can now have full-stack remote management and observability for any distributed edge computing hardware and edge application while connecting to any cloud or on-premises system.
“The explosion of edge data requires more processing closer to the source, and existing solutions simply do not meet the unique needs for orchestrating apps and hardware outside of physically-secure data centers,” said ZEDEDA’s CEO and founder Said Ouissal. “Our solution enables customers to operationalize secure distributed edge computing at scale and is based on a truly open foundation and backed by the world’s leading open edge ecosystem.”
ZEDEDA simplifies distributed edge operations by enabling customers to deploy and manage compute nodes anywhere with no IT expertise required on site. An unparalleled out-of-the-box experience includes a built-in app marketplace for on-demand deployment of custom innovations and featured offerings from leading ISVs. By activating functions such as data ingestion, AI/ML, networking and security, customers can instantly unlock the value of edge data to make real-time decisions, maximize operational efficiency and drive new business outcomes.
The ability to deploy this level of security at the distributed edge is what sets ZEDEDA’s solution apart. As Gartner Research Vice President Bob Gill writes in Gartner’s 2021 Strategic Roadmap for Edge Computing: “One thing that stands out when developing a POC for an edge implementation is that creating a single system for a trial can be straightforward, but implementing such a system at scale, including enterprise-grade security, orchestration, life cycle management and governance, is a daunting task.”
“Edge computing is key to the future of industrial automation, and ZEDEDA provides an unmatched scalable and secure universal orchestration solution,” said John Zepecki, Vice President, Software and Control at Rockwell Automation. “Their solution unlocks the digital future of the IoT edge across Rockwell’s ecosystem of software and hardware partners.”
“We are shaping the future of the packaging world where every phase in the production process is connected, digitized and automated,” said Serge Morisod, Head of IoT Lab at BOBST. “ZEDEDA provides a cloud-based solution, orchestrating the software lifecycle of our IoT devices deployed worldwide. This enables frequent and secure updates of new advanced software, which are required for our customers who operate, more than ever, in an agile business.”
Open Ecosystem Accelerates Time to Value
ZEDEDA’s open edge ecosystem offers the developer community and enterprises a choice of market-leading solutions and services delivered by industry experts. Participating companies include Accenture, Advantech, Dianomic, Google, HPE, Inductive Automation, Lanner, Microsoft, PTC, SAS, Supermicro and SUSE.
“HPE Edgeline systems are deployed at far-edge locations, and the users value simplified management of platforms and applications,” said Bharath Ramesh, Head of Global Product Management, Converged Edge and IoT Systems, HPE. “ZEDEDA provides a remote orchestration foundation that addresses this need for our customers.”
“We’re seeing customers commence Kubernetes projects with thousands to tens of thousands of nodes, and this requires a foundation that provides visibility,” said Sheng Liang, President of Engineering and Innovation at SUSE. “ZEDEDA provides a secure foundation for us to extend our supported Kubernetes offer outside of data centers.”
“ZEDEDA’s support for both VMs and containers is valuable for customers,” said Abby Eon, General Manager of PTC Kepware. “This enables deployment of Windows-based ThingWorx Kepware Server alongside containerized applications like Azure IoT Edge on the same device.”
Zero Trust Security Architecture Protects Edge Computing Software and Hardware
Deploying valuable resources outside of secure data centers calls for increased safety measures, so ZEDEDA employs a Zero Trust security model with considerations down to the hardware level. Operating under the principle of “never trust, always verify,” ZEDEDA’s solution authenticates and approves requests at every point, not just the perimeter.
Additional Customer and Partner Perspectives on ZEDEDA’s Solution
“Our edge computing platform is leveraging ZEDEDA’s unique approach to orchestrating our partner apps,” said Agora President and CEO Sujit Kumar. “Our customers can easily deploy edge AI and IoT solutions to meet regulatory requirements, increase production efficiency, and improve worker safety.”
“Video surveillance integrators typically lack remote orchestration and management of customer infrastructure because IT tools are too complex and cost-prohibitive,” said Tom Larson, Director of Safety and Security at MBX. “ZEDEDA makes simplified deployment and remote management of existing video management software a reality, while future-proofing for new innovations.”
“Deploying predictive maintenance apps through ZEDEDA’s IoT edge orchestration solution has provided new insights into our wind turbines and is expected to both improve uptime and reduce O&M costs,” said Matthew Conwell, Director, Operations Engineering at Invenergy.
“Our customers and community are deploying Industry 4.0 edge applications for continuous monitoring, predictive maintenance, OEE, and safety using our leading IIoT open-source platform FogLAMP,” said Tom Arthur, CEO of Dianomic. “ZEDEDA enables them to securely manage edge operating environments at scale combined with FogLAMP’s tight integration with existing ISA95 operational systems (e.g., OSIsoft, Rockwell, Emerson, ABB, Siemens, AVEVA, SAP, Oracle) and clouds (Google, AWS and Microsoft).”
Flexible Purchasing Models
ZEDEDA’s distributed edge orchestration solution is sold and consumed as a service with a subscription-based enterprise license, including 24/7 support. The “pay-as-you-go” model enables customers with the flexibility to start small and scale as their edge computing needs evolve. White-label models are also available for OEMs and SIs. For pricing, contact ZEDEDA.
Microsoft has positioned itself as a premier platform provider for manufacturing applications for a long time. It lists as partners just about every industrial/manufacturing application developer. Recently, AVEVA announced it has reached a new level of competency within the Microsoft ecosystem.
AVEVA has attained a Gold Application Development competency and Silver Cloud Platform, Data Analytics, and Data Center competencies, demonstrating a ‘best-in-class’ ability and commitment to meet Microsoft customers’ evolving needs in today’s mobile-first, cloud-first world and distinguishing itself within a small percentage of the Microsoft partner ecosystem. A portfolio of competencies showcases that AVEVA is committed to focusing on on-demand, business solution areas, along with ensuring it can meet the evolving needs of our mutual customers.
To earn a Microsoft competency, partners must successfully complete exams (resulting in Microsoft Certified Professionals) to prove their level of technology expertise and, for Gold competencies, designate these certified professionals uniquely to one Microsoft competency, ensuring a certain level of staffing capacity. Partners must also submit customer references that demonstrate successful projects and pass technology and/or sales assessments. For gold competencies, partners must also implement a yearly customer satisfaction study and, for many competencies, meet a revenue commitment.
“AVEVA is enabling industrial organizations to embrace innovative digital platforms that will allow them to deploy faster, reduce energy consumption and emissions, and work more collaboratively,” commented Steen Lomholt-Thomsen, Chief Revenue Officer at AVEVA. “These Microsoft competencies not only showcase our technology expertise, but also demonstrate our commitment to supporting customers and embracing innovation. By deploying our solutions, customers can be empowered to deliver better business outcomes, which will in turn help to accelerate their own success.”
“By accomplishing a portfolio of competencies, partners demonstrate true commitment to meeting customer technology needs today and into the future,” said Gavriella Schuster, corporate vice president, Worldwide Partner Group at Microsoft Corp. “These partners’ proficiency and expertise of Microsoft technology is instrumental in helping our mutual customers continue to drive innovative solutions.”
All 17 Microsoft technology competencies differentiate a partner’s specific technology capabilities, helping customers find qualified solution providers with expertise in discrete areas quickly and easily.
Earning the Application Development competency helps partners differentiate themselves as a trusted expert to their customers through development and deployment of commercial or custom applications built using core Microsoft technologies like Windows Server and Windows 8 operating systems, the Windows Azure platform, Microsoft Visual Studio 2012 development system, Microsoft BizTalk Server and emerging cloud-based and web business models. By gaining access to a comprehensive set of benefits through the Application Development competency, partners can acquire new customers and help them be more productive and profitable through deployment of business applications, advanced web portals or rich client user interfaces that run on premises or in the cloud.
The Cloud Platform competency is designed for partners to capitalize on the growing demand for infrastructure and software as a service (SaaS) solutions built on Microsoft Azure. Differentiate your company with the Cloud Platform competency, and you will be eligible for Signature Cloud Support, Azure deployment planning services, Azure sponsored credit, direct partner support, eligibility to deploy certain on-premises, internal use software on Microsoft Azure, and access to the cloud platform roadmap.
The Data Analytics competency recognizes partners who demonstrate expertise in specific aspects of Microsoft BI solutions to deliver, deploy, and support BI projects. Differentiate your company with this competency and receive access to internal use software licenses, technical and presales support, training for your IT professionals, developers, incentives, and marketing through the Partner Marketing Center and Pinpoint. Strengthen relationships with your customers by becoming a provider of SQL Server deployment planning services or SharePoint deployment planning services.
The Datacenter competency recognizes partners who are transforming data centers into more flexible, scalable, and cost-effective solutions. Partners can deepen customer relationships by becoming a provider of Private Cloud, Management, and Virtualization Deployment Planning Services. Differentiate your company with this competency and receive access to internal use software licenses, technical and presales support, training for your IT professionals, incentives, and access to the Microsoft Partner server and cloud site with exclusive content and resources to help you win new deals to deliver projects successfully.
The Microsoft Partner Network helps partners strengthen their capabilities to showcase leadership in the marketplace on the latest technology, to better serve customers and to easily connect with one of the most active, diverse networks in the world.
Sparta’s AI-enabled software as a service (SaaS) quality management software (QMS) offering will combine with Honeywell Forge and Experion Process Knowledge System
Honeywell will leverage Sparta’s technologies to continue to drive global growth and expand into new market segments, including highly regulated verticals, that require advanced process technologies
Sparta’s technologies will accelerate Honeywell’s breakthrough initiative to further penetrate the life sciences market and strengthen Honeywell’s existing portfolio of advanced automation and process control technologies
It’s not only Apple and Google in technology consolidating the market and increasing their private portfolios. The same phenomenon is happening in the industrial space with the latest exhibit being this software acquisition by Honeywell.
Honeywell announced Dec. 22 it has agreed to acquire privately held Sparta Systems for $1.3 billion in an all-cash transaction from New Mountain Capital. Sparta Systems is a leading provider of enterprise quality management software (QMS), including a next-generation SaaS platform, for the life sciences industry.
The acquisition further strengthens Honeywell’s leadership in industrial automation, digital transformation solutions and enterprise performance management software.
Honeywell will leverage its global presence, Honeywell Forge and Sparta’s expertise to introduce new, integrated solutions, including QMS offerings, for life sciences and adjacent industries. Honeywell’s customers will benefit from advanced digital QMS solutions to help them proactively achieve better quality, which results in improved new therapies, faster time to market, better business and patient outcomes, and effective regulatory compliance.
“Sparta’s TrackWise Digital and QualityWise.ai are a welcome addition to Honeywell’s enterprise performance management software, Honeywell Forge, and will further enhance the link between quality and production data for life sciences manufacturers,” said Que Dallara, president and chief executive officer of Honeywell Connected Enterprise. “Our combined offerings will make it easier for customers to gain critical insights from manufacturing and quality data that can improve their manufacturing processes while ensuring product quality, patient safety, and supply chain continuity.”
Honeywell has provided the world’s leading drug manufacturers and biomedical firms with advancements in automation technologies, systems and services for more than 30 years.
Honeywell’s portfolio includes advanced automation and process controls; data capture and recording solutions that simplify and safeguard compliance; and technologies that help maintain auditability, optimize production, and speed time to market while ensuring quality and repeatability. Honeywell’s Fast Track Automation helps life science manufacturers expedite development and production of vital vaccines and medical therapies.
“Sparta Systems is an ideal complement to our life sciences portfolio,” said Rajeev Gautam, president and chief executive officer of Honeywell Performance Materials and Technologies. “While Sparta’s capabilities will initially help us expand our capabilities for our existing breakthrough initiative in life sciences, we plan to leverage Honeywell’s global footprint and expertise to quickly expand Sparta’s capabilities to serve other markets. We have strong conviction in the growth opportunities in the life sciences and pharmaceuticals space and in the synergies between Sparta and Honeywell both for Honeywell Connected Enterprise and Honeywell Forge as well as for Honeywell Process Solutions.”
Sparta Systems is headquartered in Hamilton, N.J., and has approximately 250 employees globally. Sparta serves more than 400 customers, including 42 of the world’s top 50 pharma companies and 33 of the top 50 medical device companies.
“Organizations need a quality management software solution with advanced digital capabilities that effectively automates, optimizes and standardizes quality processes across the board,” said Dana Jones, chief executive officer of Sparta Systems. “When you combine Sparta’s leading QMS platform with Honeywell’s existing process automation and software offerings, you create a highly differentiated, comprehensive solution that allows customers to focus more on the value-add activities that will accelerate their growth.”
Honeywell will continue to enhance TrackWise Digital QMS by adding AI and machine learning capabilities that augment human decision making. Honeywell will also add new IoT-enabled connectivity between quality and operational data to detect manufacturing anomalies and triage quality events in near real time. These continuing innovations will help customers proactively address quality to improve patient safety and effective regulatory compliance.
Pete Masucci, managing director of New Mountain Capital, said, “Since we partnered with Sparta in 2017, the company launched its TrackWise Digital platform – the only AI-enabled QMS solution, expanded its SaaS customer base by two-and-a-half times, and significantly invested in product development and R&D. We are excited to watch Sparta continue to thrive within the Honeywell organization.”
The acquisition is expected to close by the end of the first quarter of 2021 and is subject to certain regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions. There is no change to Honeywell’s 2020 financial outlook as a result of the acquisition.
