Citadel Automation Solutions Citadel.

Services

Integration services for the plant floor

MES, SCADA, and the data path between them. Each service below is drawn from systems Citadel Automation Solutions has built and supported in production.

Ignition MES

Track and trace, gate checks, OEE, and production reporting in one enterprise Ignition MES.

  • Enterprise MES architecture from concept through production deployment
  • Track and trace from station to finished goods
  • Gate checks and process holds that stop bad product
  • OEE, yield, and SPC reporting for production and quality teams
  • Database front-ends that operators and supervisors actually use

Architected enterprise Ignition MES platforms across multiple manufacturing sites, and owns MES and SCADA for two battery manufacturing sites today.

SCADA and plant overviews

Operator screens that show station status, AGV positions, and the alarms that matter.

  • Ignition Vision and Perspective operator screens
  • Real-time station status and live AGV tracking across the plant
  • Pan-and-zoom plant overviews
  • Andon logic that holds a machine when defects repeat
  • Downtime and production status with audible alarms

Delivered Ignition Perspective SCADA for a battery manufacturing gigafactory and a defense industry plant overview covering dozens of AGVs.

PLC and device integration

OPC-UA servers, PLCs, scanners, and edge devices brought onto one data path.

  • OPC-UA server and tag design, gateway and Kepware configuration
  • Allen-Bradley, Beckhoff, Siemens, and Mitsubishi PLCs
  • Standard PLC handshake and data-exchange architecture across a plant
  • Barcode scanning with Cognex DataMan and Keyence
  • ASRS, gantry, and conveyor tracking logic

Developed the standard data-handshake architecture used across a battery plant's controls, and connected OPC-UA servers and Mitsubishi PLCs into plant-wide data collection.

MES specifications and vendor management

The specifications machine builders and software vendors have to meet before equipment lands.

  • MES, controls, and IT/OT specifications written before equipment procurement
  • Requirements for machine builders, controls integrators, and software vendors
  • Design reviews and compliance checks ahead of commissioning
  • FAT/SAT support and vendor technical management
  • ITAR/NIST compliant remote engineering environments

Wrote the MES, controls, and IT/OT specifications for a greenfield gigafactory and held machine builders to them through FAT, commissioning, and startup.

ERP, test system, and enterprise integration

Ignition tied into the systems around it: ERP, labeling, test stands, historian, and cloud services.

  • ERP integration for orders, work orders, and material data
  • Label printing and marking integration with Loftware
  • Battery test system integration and test-result capture
  • Historian, database, and Azure data flows
  • REST APIs and scripts for the gaps in between

Built enterprise integrations between Ignition and ERP, Loftware, battery test systems, SQL Server, Azure, and Kepware across multiple manufacturing sites.

Machine vision and robotics

Vision at the station: robot guidance, inspection, and classification wired back into the line.

  • Robot vision guidance with 2D, 2.5D, and 3D cameras
  • Imagery and lighting setup for vision-guided robots
  • Six-axis robot cells with ABB, Fanuc, Motoman, and Kuka
  • Photo-eye triggered inspection with TensorFlow inference on a Raspberry Pi
  • Operator confirm or override in Ignition, with corrections feeding retraining

Developed robot vision guidance software and algorithms for 2D/2.5D/3D cameras, and built a live-line inspection system that stopped the conveyor on a bad part.

SQL, reporting, and data pipelines

The data layer behind the screens: schemas, queries, migrations, and reports people trust.

  • Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, PostgreSQL, and MySQL
  • T-SQL and SQL for MES, historian, and reporting workloads
  • Migration plans from legacy or custom MES systems
  • ETL pipelines, scheduled jobs, and retry handling
  • Web reports, OEE and yield studies, and data investigations

Built the reporting layer for track and trace and production reporting, and led the plan to migrate a plant from a custom MES to Ignition.

Template libraries and development standards

Reusable templates and standards, so the next line or site starts from a proven baseline.

  • Reusable Ignition templates for track and trace, gate checks, and front-ends
  • Standard tag structures and communication frameworks
  • One pattern set carried across multiple plants and sites
  • Code standards and reviews for MES and controls development
  • Ignition project templates tailored to the manufacturing process

Created reusable Ignition templates, tag structures, and development standards used across production lines and multiple manufacturing sites.

IT/OT infrastructure and deployment

Servers, networks, containers, and secured remote access that keep the systems up.

  • MES server, network, and application architecture
  • IT/OT segmentation and cybersecurity requirements
  • Docker and Docker Compose deployments on Linux
  • systemd services, timers, and log analysis
  • Remote engineering access, compliant where ITAR/NIST applies

Designed MES server, network, database, and application architecture from scratch, including an ITAR/NIST compliant remote engineering environment.

Not sure which of these you need?

Most plant work starts as a data problem. Describe the line and we will tell you where we would start.

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