FactoryThread

Resources

How plants actually get to a trusted number

Written by the engineers doing the integrations. No gated PDFs, no forms — read everything.

Explainer

The real decision cadence of a plant — daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly

Most plant decisions are not made in a system. They are made in a meeting, from a spreadsheet someone rebuilt the night before.

9 min read

Read

Explainer

Spreadsheet debt: the hidden operating system of manufacturing

The models that actually run scheduling, costing and planning are undocumented, unversioned and owned by one person.

8 min read

Read

Guide

Nine data model mistakes manufacturers make

Most failed plant analytics projects were lost at the model, months before anyone looked at a chart.

11 min read

Read

Explainer

Data architecture for a plant, explained without the jargon

Edge, historian, UNS, lakehouse, warehouse, semantic layer — what each one is actually for, in factory terms.

10 min read

Read

Playbook

What data-driven actually means on a factory floor

Not more dashboards. Fewer arguments, faster decisions, and a written record of why the call was made.

8 min read

Read

Explainer

Why continuous improvement, IT projects and business re-engineering never meet

Three groups, three funding lines, three definitions of success — all working on the same losses.

9 min read

Read

Checklist

Data practices that hold up on a shop floor

Naming, validation, freshness, warnings, ownership — the unglamorous work that decides whether people trust the number.

7 min read

Read

Guide

Data science in manufacturing, minus the hype

Where models genuinely pay, where good rules beat machine learning, and what has to exist before either works.

9 min read

Read

Explainer

The problems manufacturers are actually carrying in 2026

Ageing systems, deprecating platforms, retiring expertise, growing custom-app estates and no appetite for another rip-and-replace.

9 min read

Read

Explainer

What is a manufacturing intelligence platform?

The layer that sits above ERP, MES and machines and turns their data into answers, alerts and actions.

8 min read

Read

Playbook

Choosing your first question

The single decision that determines whether a plant data rollout sticks or stalls at the pilot.

6 min read

Read

Guide

Connecting ERP and MES without a data project

A read-only path from first connection to trusted number, and the four places teams usually lose months.

9 min read

Read

Guide

Alerts people actually act on

Thresholds, ownership and timing — how to set alerts that change behaviour rather than train people to ignore them.

5 min read

Read

Checklist

The IT security review checklist

What to bring to your security team so a plant pilot is approved in days rather than quarters.

4 min read

Read

Playbook

From one team to one plant

How successful rollouts expand: which function goes second, and what to automate before adding users.

7 min read

Read

Guide

Making OEE mean the same thing everywhere

Definitions, loss coding and the shared model that ends the cross-plant argument.

8 min read

Read

Explainer

Why plant data pilots stall after the demo

The gap between an impressive demo and a used workspace, and the four things that close it.

6 min read

Read

Reference

Definitions, connectors and the security answers IT will ask for

Three references we keep updated because every evaluation needs them.

Plant intelligence notes

One short email a month: rollout playbooks, connection guides and what actually converts a pilot into production use. No product announcements.

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