About Citadel Automation Solutions
Manufacturing systems delivered end to end, and systems that keep running after handover.
Citadel Automation Solutions is a manufacturing systems practice. The work is MES, SCADA, and the industrial IT/OT underneath them, for battery and automotive manufacturing: enterprise Ignition MES and SCADA, track and trace, OEE and reporting, and the data path to the PLCs, machine vendors, test systems, and ERP that surround them.
The experience behind it comes from inside plants, not from a slide deck. Enterprise MES and SCADA architecture across multiple manufacturing sites. MES, controls, and IT/OT specifications written for machine vendors before the equipment was ordered. An MES program moved off a custom system onto Ignition, and a battery pack line built alongside a machine-builder partner. Gigafactory SCADA, warehouse management, defense industry plant overviews, and emissions test systems delivered as an integrator.
Most of the work is unglamorous, and that is the point. Track and trace that holds up on a live line. Gate checks that stop bad product. Specifications machine builders can actually design to. Database front-ends and reports that production and quality teams open in the morning. Requirements are worked out directly with the people running the line, then turned into MES workflows, operator screens, and standards the next line or site can reuse.
Beyond the line, the work covers machine vision - robot vision guidance for 2D, 2.5D, and 3D cameras, TensorFlow inference at the station - and engineering data systems, including CAD and PLM data exchange and mass properties work on defense vehicle programs.
Citadel Automation Solutions is owned and operated by two engineers who have spent their careers on manufacturing systems, and the work is done by the people who scope it. The company is based in Metro Detroit, Michigan.
Credentials
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Ignition 8.1 Gold Certification
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Ignition training and implementation certification
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Convolutional Neural Networks with TensorFlow in Python
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BS Computer Engineering
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BS Computer Science
Track record
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2020 - present
Enterprise MES and SCADA architecture and ownership
Battery manufacturing, multiple sites
Architected enterprise Ignition MES platforms from concept through production deployment - MES, server, network, database, and application layers, Ignition Vision and Perspective applications, reusable templates and development standards, and integrations with ERP, labeling, test systems, SQL Server, Azure, and Kepware. Also owns the MES and SCADA for two battery manufacturing sites today: track and trace, gate checks, database front-ends, and production reporting.
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2023 - 2025
Greenfield gigafactory: specifications to startup
Battery manufacturing, greenfield gigafactory
Built the enterprise MES and SCADA strategy for a greenfield plant - MES, controls, and IT/OT specifications for machine vendors written before procurement, standards for PLC handshakes, track and trace, OEE, historian, and APIs, and the Ignition Perspective patterns carried across three plants in startup phase, with OPC-UA servers and Mitsubishi PLCs feeding plant-wide data collection.
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2023 - 2024
Systems integration delivery
Multiple industrial clients
Delivered Ignition Perspective SCADA and MES systems, including a battery manufacturing gigafactory, a defense industry plant overview, and an internal warehouse management system.
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2021 - 2023
In-house MES and machine vision
Tire and wheel assembly plant
Built an in-house Ignition MES with a small team, automated visual inspection with TensorFlow on a Raspberry Pi, and supported MES fault resolution on a just-in-time line.
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2019 - 2021
Industrial engineering and line support
Automotive interiors plant
Supervised equipment builders, applied LEAN principles on production lines, wrote VBA tools for production data collection and analysis, and owned the yearly plant direct labor budget.
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2016 - 2019
MES program leadership
Battery manufacturing
Led the MES program and its move off a custom system onto Ignition: development, migration planning, a battery pack line built with a machine-builder partner, and consulting support for plants in Europe and China.
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2013 - 2016
MES development and controls integration
Battery manufacturing
Developed MES web applications and database scripts, maintained Oracle data for the MES, and built the standard data handshake architecture used with controls engineers across the plant.
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2013
Robot vision software
Industrial robotics
Developed vision algorithms and guided robot cells with 2D, 2.5D, and 3D cameras, including imagery and lighting setup, Qt/C++ interface work, and embedded vision PCs.
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2012
Emissions test systems
Automotive test systems
Modernized corporate emissions test software and simulators, converting Fortran code to C++ and building database tables to EPA test specifications.
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2007 - 2011
Engineering data systems
Defense vehicles
Built engineering databases and 3D model data exchange for vehicle mass properties work across CAD and PLM tools.
Industries
The industries the work behind Citadel Automation Solutions comes from - and what the systems do there.
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Battery manufacturing
Cell and pack plants and gigafactories: enterprise Ignition MES and SCADA, track and trace, gate checks, OEE and reporting, machine-vendor specifications, and ERP and battery test system integration.
Architected enterprise MES and SCADA across multiple battery sites, and owns the systems at two of them today.
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Tire and wheel assembly
High-volume assembly lines: in-house MES, ASRS and gantry logic, finished goods conveyor tracking, reject prevention, and automated inspection at the station.
Built an in-house Ignition MES with a small team and put TensorFlow inspection on a live line that stopped the conveyor on a bad part.
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Automotive interiors
Interior and seating plants: line support, part presentation and logistics equipment, LEAN line efficiency work, and production data tools.
Supervised equipment builders producing part presentation and logistics equipment for production lines, and owned a plant direct labor budget.
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Automotive test and emissions systems
Test software and simulators for vehicle programs: database-backed test systems, legacy code modernization, and test schedule tooling.
Modernized corporate emissions test software and simulators, converting Fortran code to C++ and building database tables to EPA test specifications.
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Defense industry
Plant overviews, engineering data systems, and work inside ITAR/NIST compliant environments.
Built a plant overview tracking dozens of AGVs for a defense industry client, and the engineering databases behind vehicle mass properties work.
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Industrial robotics and machine vision
Robot cells and inspection stations: 2D, 2.5D, and 3D vision guidance, imagery and lighting setup, Qt/C++ interfaces, and inference at the edge.
Developed vision algorithms and guidance software for ABB, Fanuc, Motoman, and Kuka robot cells, and embedded vision PCs for the lab and for customers.
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Warehouse and logistics operations
Warehouse and material flow systems: material management, transfer history, picklists, user management, and the logistics equipment that feeds the line.
Built an internal warehouse management system in Ignition Perspective, and logistics equipment for production lines.
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