From the engineering desk.
Long-form guides and articles on industrial automation in Australia. Written by the team that delivers the projects, not by marketing. Useful for plant managers and engineering teams scoping their next move.
In-depth guides.
Comprehensive end-to-end guides for the two conversations that come up most often in scoping calls. Each runs about 4,000 words and covers the topic from drivers through standards through integrator selection.
Food & Beverage automation in Australia
Standards, platforms, and the upgrade journey for plant managers scoping MES, batch traceability, vision QA, and cold-chain compliance. ~15 minute read.
Read the guide 02Brownfield PLC upgrade guide
S7-300 EOL, cutover models, retrofit vs replace, and AS IEC 62443 for plants running an upgrade on a live line. ~15 minute read.
Read the guideTechnical articles.
Shorter articles on specific topics that come up inside the guides. Each runs about 1,500 words. Best read alongside the full guide.
Siemens S7-300 to S7-1500 migration
Spares cliff October 2033. Migration tool gotchas, panel and IO realities, cost bands in Australian dollars. ~8 minute read.
Read the article 02SCADA cutover with zero downtime
Three cutover models, the four documents that decide it, and the 02:00 failure patterns we have seen across two decades. ~9 minute read.
Read the article 03Ignition SCADA vs Wonderware (AVEVA)
Licence model, real cost bands, switching reality, AU support landscape for the two platforms most often compared on brownfield projects. ~9 minute read.
Read the article 04Rockwell ControlLogix programmer in Australia
What a Rockwell-house integrator does differently. PlantPAx vs raw ControlLogix, FactoryTalk View SE vs ME, RSLogix to Studio 5000. ~9 minute read.
Read the article 05Dairy plant MES & batch traceability
Silo to pallet in an Australian dairy plant. Standards, platforms, the recall simulation most plants skip, and a real rollout pattern. ~10 minute read.
Read the article 06Machine vision for food packaging
Rules vs deep learning, 2,400 cpm reality, the vision-to-PLC handshake, and the Cognex / Keyence shortlist for Australian food lines. ~9 minute read.
Read the article 07Food manufacturing OEE & SCADA
The 85% world-class benchmark, the multiplication trap, and the policies that produce an OEE figure the GM actually trusts. ~10 minute read.
Read the article 08ISA-88 batch control for food manufacturers
Recipe, unit procedure, operation, phase — in plain English. What changes in PLC code, when ISA-88 is overkill. ~10 minute read.
Read the article 09SIL determination (IEC 61511)
What SIL means, IEC 61508 vs 61511, HAZOP and LOPA in plain English, and what most Australian SIL studies actually conclude. ~10 minute read.
Read the article 10Machine safety AS 4024 & ISO 13849
AS/NZS 4024:2019, Performance Levels and Categories, what triggers a re-assessment, and the WHS Act relationship. ~10 minute read.
Read the article 11Cognex vs Keyence industrial vision
Software, deep learning, AU support, integrated lighting, and the decision rule that consistently works for Australian vision projects. ~9 minute read.
Read the article 12OCR & barcode verification on the line
ISO 15416/15415 grades, GS1 retailer requirements, fixed vs handheld, and the WMS handshake that consistently fails quietly. ~9 minute read.
Read the article 13PLC code standards & PackML
The 17-state PackML model, operating modes, PackTags, and how to write code that survives the next engineer. ~9 minute read.
Read the article 14Automation feasibility study
What the deliverable contains, what it costs, where FEED begins, and why an integrator quote is not a substitute. ~9 minute read.
Read the article 15Automation vendor selection
Integrator vs OEM-direct, writing a fair RFP, the parallel-scope pattern, and the reference checks that actually matter. ~9 minute read.
Read the article 16Automation ROI calculator
The framework plus an embedded calculator. Indicative simple-payback in months for early triage. ~8 minute read.
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