Your plant almost certainly has its production data already. Industrial digitalisation projects rarely fail for lack of it. They fail because the information arrives too late, in the wrong place, or has to be keyed in again by hand. Here’s why IT/OT integration decides the outcome of an Industry 4.0 project, and what changes when an engineering consultancy is involved from the design stage.
In short: an industrial digital project usually stalls on integration, not on the software. When the MES, the ERP and the PLCs don’t share the same data at the same moment, teams fall back on spreadsheets. The IEC 62264 standard (ISA-95) defines exactly where business management ends and production control begins.
The data is there. Connecting it is another matter.
Every PLC, every weighbridge and every lab analyser produces measurements around the clock. ERP is widely installed too: according to Eurostat, 43.3% of EU enterprises used ERP software in 2023, rising to 53.6% in manufacturing. In France, INSEE puts the figure at 47% of companies with 10 or more employees.
So you have the tools. What you’re missing is the connection. When a deviation appears on a line, the team checks the SCADA, opens an Excel file, phones the lab and then waits for the dashboard to refresh. By the time those sources are cross-checked, the drift has already done its damage. You end up noting the problem rather than heading it off.
Where projects go wrong on site
Software installed next to the process
We see many projects start with the choice of a tool. The software goes live, the screens look good, but it doesn’t receive PLC data directly. It runs on manual imports or overnight exports and becomes yet another island in an already fragmented system.
Manual re-entry between shop floor and back office
If your MES and ERP don’t talk to each other, someone on your team copies the numbers across. Quantities produced, consumption and downtime move from one screen to another by hand. Every re-entry adds delay and a chance of error, and those are the figures that stock levels, invoicing and reporting rely on.
IT/OT integration left too late
Business IT and operational technology (OT) work under different constraints and with different teams. A PLC thinks in milliseconds; an ERP thinks in shifts or days. If the data exchange architecture isn’t defined at design stage, the project discovers the gap during commissioning, which is exactly when there’s least room to manoeuvre.
Where does the MES end and the ERP begin?
This is standardised. The IEC 62264 series, derived from ANSI/ISA-95, covers the integration of enterprise and control systems. It splits the plant into levels. Level 3 covers the MES and SCADA, which manage production operations. Level 4 is business management, in other words the ERP. The standard deals mainly with the interface between the two.
Part 1 was revised in 2025 (ANSI/ISA-95.00.01-2025). With data-centric architectures spreading, the question is as relevant as ever.
When we build a project on this model, we agree upfront what flows up from the plant to the ERP (quantities, consumption, stoppages), what flows down to production (work orders, recipes), and how often.
Why bring in an engineering consultancy from day one?
Your industrial data is born in PLCs, sensors and electrical cabinets. A digital project that forgets this stays on the surface.
An automation, electrical and industrial IT consultancy picks up where the software vendor stops. It inventories the signals and their tag naming convention, chooses the communication protocols (OPC UA, for example), modifies PLC programs, and handles wiring, testing and commissioning.
It’s also the team that can tell you whether the existing installation can deliver the data you expect, or whether a piece of equipment needs a revamp or retrofit first. Ask it before you order the software and you’ll save yourself a lot of disappointment.
Real time is what makes a decision useful
Production data is worth something only while it can still change a decision. Tomorrow’s dashboard is for reporting. To run your plant, operators, production managers and finance need to work from the same figures, updated automatically, with no re-entry. Displaying everything isn’t the goal.
How IBITEK approaches these projects
PILOT by IBITEK (formerly IBIProd for production tracking) brings together production, lab, downtime and truck flow data, and connects it to the ERP through its integration module. It’s modular and works alongside the tools you already have rather than replacing them: start with one scope, extend later.
PILOT is never delivered on its own. IBITEK handles the hardware, electrical works, programming and commissioning, with its electrical, automation and Industry 4.0 IT engineering teams. Founded in 2007, IBITEK has delivered more than 100 major projects and carries out over 60,000 engineering hours a year across six EMEA countries.
Still running production on yesterday’s figures? Let’s talk about your architecture and your operational challenges.
