CHAPTER 01 · OVERVIEW
A Process Plant's Blind Spots, Closed With AI
Every line already streamed sensor data into a historian nobody had time to open. Six weeks later, the floor gets a briefing that catches failures before they happen.
Unplanned downtime always showed up as a surprise — a line went down, and only then did anyone look back at sensor data that had been flagging it for days. The data existed. Nobody was watching it in real time.
Industry
Continuous-Process Industrial Manufacturing
Operation
Multi-line food & beverage processing plant · IoT-instrumented production floor · continuous-batch operations
Systems in place
Plant historian · CMMS · ERP · shift-log spreadsheets
Scope
3 production lines in scope
WHAT SOLVING THIS REALLY MEANT
This Wasn't About a Dashboard
The cost of reactive maintenance
Every unplanned stoppage costs more than the fix — the missed run, the rework, the overtime to catch up. Waiting for a breakdown is the most expensive way to find one.
Sensor data nobody was using
Every line already streamed vibration, temperature, and acoustic data into a historian nobody opened until something went wrong.
Can't yet explain why equipment fails
Maintenance could tell you a motor failed. They couldn't tell you which one was next, or why — a gap that gets more expensive as the people who know the equipment's history retire.
HOW AN ENGAGEMENT RUNS
Same Three Phases, Every Time
01 · Day 0
Discover
One working day, on-site. We interview people, watch the work happen, map how it really runs, and score what we find.
02 · Weeks 1–8
Build
The first system shipped inside the plant's existing historian and CMMS — no new sensors, no new platform.
03 · Ongoing
Operate
We tune it, add the next workflow, and keep the models current as real usage comes in.
OPERATING BENCHMARK
45 days
from the first working session to the first AI system live on the plant floor
$7.0M
modeled annual value, once every wave is live
3
Facilities in scope, one team
Annual Value Created
Modeled from the discovery baseline. Value is captured across cost reduction, revenue growth, and risk mitigation — not cost alone.
UP NEXT · DISCOVER