Digitizing industrial operations for future-ready connected global manufacturing
Overview
The balance of industrial power is shifting from legacy operations to intelligent ecosystems. Manufacturing isn’t just evolving, it’s undergoing intelligent reinvention where excellence is defined by speed, precision and agility. As enterprises embrace Industry 4.0, digital transformation is not optional; it is foundational. The ability to orchestrate connected operations and derive real-time insights has become a strategic imperative.
To drive this transformation, HCLTech partnered with the customer to deploy a scalable IIoT architecture powered by the PTC ThingWorx® IIoT Platform, customized for rapid multi-site rollout. Using HCLTech’s proprietary “Plant-in-a-Box” framework, the implementation included built-in FSU modules — Asset Monitoring & Utilization (AMU), Connected Work Cell (CWC) and Real-Time Production Performance Monitoring (RTPPM/DPM) — along with HCLTech-developed custom solutions addressing plant-specific business needs. This digital ecosystem was seamlessly integrated with Kepware, MQTT, Snowflake and SAP, enabling secure, bi-directional data flow across machines, systems and users.
The result: a unified, real-time view into production operations, enabling data-driven decisions and operational excellence. The foundation is now laid for a smart, autonomous and scalable factory model.
The challenge
Laying the foundation for a connected, future-ready manufacturing ecosystem
Our customer, a global industrial manufacturing leader, sought to modernize and unify operations across geographically dispersed plants. Key challenges included fragmented systems, manual monitoring and limited operational visibility, all of which highlighted the need to build a robust, intelligent manufacturing ecosystem.
Identified challenges included:
- Data: Siloed, disconnected systems
- Production and quality teams operated with fragmented tools and lacked real-time connectivity.
- The absence of role-based visibility hindered effective monitoring and decision-making.
- Weleding: Manual, error-prone audits
- Welding reports were maintained in Excel, making audits time-consuming and error-prone.
- The lack of traceability impeded performance evaluation of operators and welders.
- Paint shop: Inefficient monitoring
- Critical parameters like pot life, mix ratios, flow and consumption were tracked manually, leading to inefficiencies and delayed responses.
- Water Management: Isolated treatment systems
- Operations relied solely on standalone HMI screens, with no centralized reporting or remote data access.
- Engineers had to manually reset parameters, with minimal visibility into consumption and waste trends.
- Decentralized platform:
- There was no unified platform to monitor KPIs, machine health, audit compliance or workflow efficiency.
- Delayed anomaly detection hindered incident response and continuous improvement.
The Objective
Digitizing operations to unlock speed, visibility and standardization
The objective was to design a modular IIoT solution to improve visibility into production, deliver actionable insights, enhance operational efficiency and scale digital transformation seamlessly across sites.
- Digitize plant operations with smart, role-based applications providing real-time visibility into key metrics like asset performance, OEE and traceability
- Integrate machine data and pre-built frameworks to accelerate anomaly detection, standardize reporting and automate workflows
- Enable multi-site scalability while laying the foundation for advanced analytics, including predictive insights and simulation-based optimization.
Our solution
A scalable IIoT blueprint for enterprise-wide manufacturing transformation
HCLTech recommended the PTC ThingWorx® IIoT Platform to deliver an intelligent, scalable solution. A templatized HCLTech framework was tailored to address pain points such as siloed data, manual processes and limited visibility. The modular architecture not only accelerated implementation but also empowered the customer to drive enterprise-wide transformation with actionable insights.
Key components included:
Data – Digital asset monitoring & production dashboards:
Real-time monitoring of operational KPIs, downtime analytics and automated threshold-based alerts enhanced responsiveness and decision-making.
- Welding – Digital welding assessment & operator management: Manual audits were replaced by a centralized digital system offering traceability, improved compliance and enhanced operator performance evaluation.
- Paint shop – Real-time paint shop monitoring: Enabled automated tracking of parameters and downtime alerts to proactively manage quality and reduce wear on equipment.
- Water management – Centralized water system analytics: Integrated water management into a unified dashboard, supporting historian analytics, anomaly alerts and remote monitoring for efficiency.
- Plant Ops KPI – Statistical Process Control (SPC): Combined automated and manual data capture with image-based inspections and statistical analysis for audit-readiness and quality assurance.
- Scale – Multi-plant IIoT rollout: Enabled progressive rollout across fabrication, machining, assembly and vision systems, using a unified IIoT architecture for standardization and scale.
- Next-gen solution – GenAI-assisted form digitization: Leveraged cloud technologies and ThingWorx® to digitize paper forms into dynamic, interactive mashups.
- ROI – Achieved a 50% reduction in UI development time while enabling non-technical users to actively contribute to the digital transformation journey.
- Integration – Seamless enterprise connectivity: Integrated with Kepware, MQTT, SAP and Snowflake to unify telemetry, historian data and business context across departments, ensuring secure, real-time KPI access and decision-making.
The impact
Quantifiable gains driving manufacturing excellence at scale
HCLTech’s collaboration enabled measurable outcomes in operational efficiency, productivity and cost optimization, achieved through smart IIoT adoption, real-time data integration and scalable application deployment.
| Benefit | Impact |
|---|---|
| Time optimization | Up to 15% improvement in anomaly response via real-time alerts and dashboards; up to 8% reductionin unplanned downtime. |
| Effort optimization | Over 90% reduction in manual monitoring; 100% increase in end-user satisfaction through intuitive, role-based applications. |
| Operational savings | ~$47K annual savings from 12 hours/week saved in data aggregation; additional ~$16K savings from 5 hours/week saved in manual data collection. |
| Rollout efficiency | Up to 30% faster deployments through HCLTech’s “Plant-in-a-Box” methodology; centralized data foundation improved traceability, reporting and governance. |
Beyond metrics, teams now operate from a single pane of glass — empowering real-time monitoring of OEE, asset health and production performance. This fosters proactive intervention, better governance and a culture of continuous improvement across manufacturing systems
Looking Ahead
From foundation to future: Expanding what’s possible
HCLTech’s expertise in the PTC ThingWorx® platform continues to drive scalable IIoT solutions via its modular “Plant-in-a-Box” framework and preconfigured templates. This proven approach accelerates deployment, reduces cost and simplifies customization across industries, including aerospace, automotive and industrial manufacturing.
The journey ahead is focused on advancing predictive analytics, AI-driven simulations and empowering frontline leaders with insights that drive intelligent, strategic decision-making, paving the way for the factories of the future.
