MES Retrofit at a Deli Meat Plant Without Replacing a Single Cell
A food client needed MES on existing OEM equipment without a forklift upgrade. TEC retrofitted the PLCs, standardized the operator screens, and the solution was rolled out to a second site.
After the greenfield project, the same client turned to an existing deli meat facility — full of OEM equipment cells from different vendors and different generations of controls. They wanted MES integration. They did not want to buy new equipment.
The challenge
Make heterogeneous, in-production equipment look uniform to a single MES — without disrupting daily output and without saddling operators with a different interface for every cell.
What we did
- Analyzed every existing OEM cell to find the common patterns and the genuinely unique requirements.
- Designed and built per-cell PLC ↔ MES interfaces for each MES use case.
- Replaced cell-specific HMI quirks with one standardized, recipe-aware operator interface.
- Delivered installation, startup support, operator training, and maintenance training cell by cell.
The outcome
- Existing OEM equipment was successfully adapted to MES — no capital replacement required.
- The standardized operator interface cut training time across the floor.
- The solution is fully operational at the original facility and has since been deployed at a second one.
Key Results
Avoided
New Equipment Purchase
Lower
Operator Training Time
2 Plants
Production Deployment
Technology Stack
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