Our Expertise
We provide comprehensive Industry 4.0 connectivity solutions that include:
- Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT): Connect your machinery, sensors and devices to a central network, enabling seamless communication and real-time monitoring.
- Smart Manufacturing: Advanced automation systems that give the ground to integrate machine learning and AI to optimise production lines, reduce waste and improve quality.
Additional options
We can utilize third party software to integrate and provide:
- Predictive Maintenance solution: We can provide tools to utilise data analytics to predict and prevent equipment failures, minimising downtime and extending the life of your assets.
- Big Data Analytics: Leverage data from all your OT/IT systems to gain actionable insights, enhance decision-making and drive continuous improvement.
- Digital Twin Technology: Create virtual replicas of your physical assets to simulate processes, diagnose issues and plan upgrades without disrupting your operations or just make working demo.
Typical IIoT use cases in manufacturing
To make Industry 4.0 tangible, it helps to focus on a few high-value use cases first. Below are examples that I frequently see in factories starting or extending their digitisation journey.
- OEE and downtime monitoring: collect runtime, stop reasons and performance data from machines to understand where capacity is lost.
- Production and shift dashboards: give operators and supervisors live views of output, scrap and target vs. actual performance.
- Quality analytics: analyse scrap, rework and test data to identify patterns and improvement opportunities.
- Energy and utility monitoring: track electricity, compressed air, gas and water consumption per line or product to reduce waste.
- Traceability and genealogy: link process parameters, material batches and quality results to each product or lot.
- Condition and maintenance data collection: centralise alarms, counters and sensor values as a foundation for predictive maintenance.
The integration process
Everything starts with hardware interfaces like simple hardwired signals, RS232 or RS485/422 serial connections, protocol signal converters and Ethernet connectivity. From communication protocols perspective in industrial OT world the mechanisms of OPC are still in use. The OPC stands for Open Platform Communications. Through the years standard has became stable and robust and was expanding functionalities to get the shape of classic OPC2.0 (DA, HDA, A&E, Batch, etc.). As the PLCs have been evolving, the OPC UA (Unified Architecture) started to grow to provide more secure, open and platform future-proof standard.
Most typical examples of OPC drivers incorporated into commercial packages (like e.g. Kepware, IGS, SCADA systems) are:
- Modbus TCP_IP/RTU/ASCII, Modbus+
- Simatic ProfiNet, Profibus DP, MPI
- Industrial Ethernet
- GE(Fanuc) SRTP/SNP/SNPX, EGD
- Allen-Bradley Ethernet, DF1
- Omron HostLink/FINS/NJ
- MTConnect
- Matrikon
In addition to OT standard drivers, we have the knowledge of protocols to connect operations at IT levels: like MQTT, HTTP/REST. We offer help with message formatting for client agents (like HiveMQ) to support requirements of misc. data modelling (eg. JSON, XML, CSV and other custom models).
Transforming Manufacturing with Advanced Technology
Industry 4.0 is not just about technology - it's about transforming your entire approach to manufacturing.
Our solutions empower you to:
- Boost Productivity: Automate repetitive tasks and optimize workflows to increase throughput and reduce operational costs
- Enhance Flexibility: Quickly adapt to market demands with scalable solutions that allow for mass customisation and faster time-to-market
- Improve Quality: Implement real-time quality control systems that detect defects early and ensure that every product meets the highest standards
- Reduce Waste: Minimize material waste and energy consumption through intelligent resource management and precise process control
Why Choose Tom's Automation?
Examples of our +100 integrated CNC machinery covers discrete production systems with CNC machines like:
- Punching machines (Trumpf, Amada, EHRT)
- Bending machines (Trumpf, LVD, Amada, Bystronic)
- Milling machines (Haas, Dugard, Eagle, Blohm)
- Bending machines (Trumpf, LVD, Amada, Bystronic)
- Milling machines (Haas, Dugard, Eagle, Blohm)
- Press brakes (Safan Darley)
- Turning machines (Citizen)
- Moulding machines (Engel, Arburg)
- Grinding (Magerle)
- EDM (+GF+)
- Turning machines (Citizen)
- Moulding machines (Engel, Arburg)
- Grinding (Magerle)
- EDM (+GF+)
and other integrations - like automated warehouse, process heaters, product filling or painting lines - based on typical PLC/HMI/SCADA systems.
Proven Expertise
Back in 2016 I've started the journey of the Industrial IoT integrations.
I have started deploying the early stage of so called 'Digital Thread' in local factory, being member of the international team. My task was to enable aprox. 50 selected/critical production machines to feed OEE system.
The goal was to employ data and analytics across the complete product life-cycle.
Electrical skills and "hands on" experience that I have, enabled us to safely figure out the ways of setting machine OT to IT connectivity. In our approach EU Machine Directives and CE markings were maintained.
After that, further projects where done were I've developed PLC code and have build connectivity using miscellaneous interfaces and custom made gateways. Since the OT security came nowadays to shopfloor networks, I do my work the way to maintain the security as required recently by IT teams.
Partner with Us
At Tom's Automation, we understand that every manufacturing process is unique.
I believe - with 100+ already connected machines the IIoT journey has just started...
Feel free to get in touch via contact and lead your industry into the future.