In industrial projects, some essential engineering tasks are still largely performed manually. Industrial signal coding is one of them.
During an industrial revamping project or a new installation, thousands of signals from temperature sensors, motors, valves and field devices must be reviewed, structured and renamed according to the site’s coding standards.
This step ensures that all project stakeholders, automation engineers, electrical teams, operators and maintenance teams, share a common understanding of the technical data.
However, when hundreds or thousands of signals need to be processed, manual signal coding quickly becomes a time-consuming engineering activity.
Why is industrial signal coding a key challenge?
During industrial projects, signal lists often come from multiple sources: legacy systems, existing databases or supplier documentation.
Before being integrated into new automation environments such as PLC, DCS or SCADA systems, each signal must be adapted to the site’s specific naming conventions.
This process usually requires teams to:
- Review existing signal lists.
- Analyze the site’s coding structure and standards.
- Convert each signal manually into the required format.
- Validate data consistency before system integration.
For large industrial projects, this activity can represent several days or even weeks of engineering work.
The limits of manual signal recoding
Although signal coding does not directly impact production equipment, it plays a critical role in project execution.
Manual recoding can lead to:
- Significant engineering time spent on repetitive tasks.
- Increased risk of data inconsistencies.
- Longer project timelines.
- Difficulties maintaining standardized technical data.
As industrial companies aim to deliver projects faster, optimizing engineering workflows has become a major challenge.
Automating signal coding for faster industrial projects
To address this issue, IBITEK developed a dedicated tool to automate industrial signal coding.
Based on the project’s signal lists, the tool automatically applies the coding rules defined for the targeted industrial site.
Engineers can automate most of the transformation process while keeping a final validation step to ensure data accuracy.
This approach reduces manual workload, improves data reliability and accelerates automation engineering activities.
Proven results on an industrial project
During a customer project, a file containing 934 signals was processed using IBITEK’s automation tool.
The results were:
- 95% of signals automatically recoded according to site standards.
- Only 5% requiring manual verification.
- Processing time reduced from 1 to 2 weeks of manual work to only a few minutes.
Beyond time savings, this automation allows engineering teams to focus on higher-value activities throughout the project lifecycle.
Optimizing engineering processes for smarter industry
Industrial performance is not only about improving production equipment. It also depends on optimizing the engineering processes behind industrial systems.
By automating repetitive tasks such as signal coding, companies can accelerate project execution, improve technical data consistency and enhance collaboration between different teams.
IBITEK supports industrial companies in their automation, revamping and digital transformation projects by developing solutions adapted to real operational challenges.
