Gallarus Industry Solutions
Smart Factory Solutions for the Industry 4.0 Evolution

Industry 4.0 is no longer just a buzzword but a reality that has changed the face of the manufacturing industry. At the cornerstone of this rapid digital transformation is the integration of information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT) infrastructures, which traditionally have different architectures, technologies, and vendors. Due to fear of security threats and exposure, organizations had previously utilized siloed systems on the manufacturing floor that restricted IT and OT interaction, hindering technological advancements. However, this new convergence plays a critical role in helping them thrive in today’s evolving environment. It allows exploring rich data from the plant floor that can mitigate production challenges and drive business growth.

But the road to this effective transformation is not without challenges. Most organizations, still using the Industry 3.0 business model, are locked in vendor contract obligations, creating technical complexities for integration. What this means is the data is unable to move across solutions. Besides, these organizations lack a clear digital strategy or roadmap to enable a smooth transition to a flexible modular approach of Industry 4.0. Helping these organizations with the perfect concoction of IT and OT environments under a holistic approach is Gallarus Industry Solutions.

With intelligent machines and systems across the factory ecosystem Gallarus Industry Solutions provides exponential benefits in the form of cost-saving, quality enhancement, and OEE efficiencies for its clients. “We create a parallel environment or a unified namespace (UNS) where organizations can connect their networks to the legacy systems with one communication protocol and reap the benefits of a smarter plant floor. “The systems— be it an MES or ERP—become nodes of the network and share data across them, closing the gap between IT and OT,” says John McKeon MIET, CEO of Gallarus Industry Solutions. Enabling this transition is Nucleus 4.0, a powerful plug-and-play subscription software suite that offers cost-effective integration across all systems based on open configurable technology, delivering manufacturing solutions at a local and global site level. “Nucleus 4.0 collects, analyses, and learns plant floor data, and provides actionable solutions to help our clients make smart business decisions,” remarks McKeon.

A notable feature of Nucleus 4.0 is its subscription model that allows clients to scale cost-effectively. With no extra army of engineers tied to solutions, Gallarus Industry Solutions ensures that its off-the-shelf solutions resolve all the production challenges faced by a client from a technological standpoint.

To substantiate this value proposition, McKeon mentions that a typical client engagement begins with a workshop that involves C-level executives and stakeholders, thereby understanding the overarching vision for digitization. Gallarus Industry Solutions conducts an assessment to identify the gaps in the existing model and create a roadmap. Successively, the company proceeds with the implementation of the roadmap by identifying the OT environment assets, such as manufacturing lines or environmental control systems. These processes, handled by different vendors, have separate communication protocols, which are then harmonized into a common platform; Gallarus Industry Solutions allows open architecture with protocols such as MQTT and OPC-UA. Once the functional areas to be digitized and the unified protocol is determined, the systems are interconnected as nodes in the UNS, and clients can publish their change of state through pub-sub (publish-subscribe) processes. The clients can then subscribe to monitor and store this data over time. Meanwhile, the Nucleus 4.0 suite observes, learns, and analyses node activities using AI/ML, allowing clients to obtain valuable feedback with a baseline reference on improvements and gaps, which can be applied for predictive analytics and digital twin representations. “In essence, digital transformation is all about consuming data in real-time. Through our UNS, our clients no longer have to assume how information is consumed or provided,” mentions McKeon.

More importantly, what differentiates Gallarus Industry Solutions is its focus on developing a technology-driven platform than a solution-driven one. With an Industry 4.0 mindset, the company ensures a vertical agnostic approach that adopts multiple OEMs into its suite and provides a platform that’s easily configurable to meet the needs of the client’s product portfolio and facilities. Further bolstering the strength of Gallarus Industry Solutions is its expert team that handles projects from start to finish, from initial concept right through to installation and aftercare service support. The company also boasts of its diverse cross-functional subject matter specialists and engineering experts to support IT and OT integration.

McKeon believes that Gallarus Industry Solutions is on the right path to support innovation in the industry. Unlike traditional integration that involves more than a decade-long cycle for digital transformation, the cost-effective UNS-based structure gets the process done in few years. “This is the future where our industry is headed to, and we strive to help our clients capitalize on this transformation and thrive in the evolving market,” concludes McKeon.