Prove the Right Smart Manufacturing Solution Before Full Rollout
Select one operational problem, run a controlled pilot on your own factory data, and judge the result against success criteria agreed before implementation. Typical programs run 2 to 12 weeks depending on the product, integration depth, hardware and how ready your data is.
Choose your PoCTalk to a manufacturing engineerStart from the problem, not the product
Pick the sentence closest to your situation. Each one maps to the PoC that answers it first, and to the programs worth running after it.
Prefer five quick questions instead?
Answer a short form and get one recommended program, with why it fits.
Find the Right Proof of ConceptAssessments & Challenges
Score Your Manufacturing Digitalization Maturity
Nine short questions, one per area. Nothing you answer here is sent anywhere — the score is calculated in your browser from a fixed, published weighting, the same one shown in the result.
What Does Your Downtime Actually Cost?
Enter your own numbers below — every one is editable, nothing is prefilled with an assumption about your business. The formula for each line is shown next to it, and revenue is kept separate from contribution margin so nothing gets counted twice.
Estimate MES ROI Across Three Scenarios
Enter your current costs, then adjust the improvement percentage for each scenario if the defaults do not match your situation — every one is editable and starts at an illustrative assumption you can change — not a benchmark or a measured MSF result.
APS vs Excel Challenge
Not a slide-deck demo. We load your actual open orders, work centers, changeover matrix and capacity constraints into MSF APS and run it alongside the plan your planner already produced for the same week — then compare both against the same measures.
Computer Vision Feasibility Check
Before a camera goes near your line, describe the defect, the part, the cycle time and how you inspect today. An engineer reviews it — not an automated form — and comes back with a feasibility class, the sample images needed to confirm it, and the imaging risks specific to your environment.
OEE Truth Audit
Many plants report an OEE figure that nobody fully trusts — availability that excludes undocumented downtime, performance measured against a padded standard cycle time instead of the true ideal (fastest achievable) cycle time, or a quality figure that misses rework. This audit reviews your actual definitions and data sources against a limited sample and tells you exactly where the number is solid and where it is not.
Legacy Machine Connectivity Assessment
A mixed fleet of machine brands, ages and controller types is normal, not a blocker. This assessment reviews each machine you list — its PLC or controller, what protocols and signals are actually accessible, and your network situation — and comes back with a preliminary connection method for each one, before any hardware is ordered.
Hidden Energy Waste Scan
Most plants can produce a total utility bill in seconds and a cost-per-product or cost-per-machine figure in never. This scan reviews your bill, operating hours, major consumers and any existing metering, using ranges rather than exact confidential figures, and comes back with a measurement plan and the blind spots most likely to be hiding cost.
ERP-to-Shop-Floor Integration Blueprint
IT and Operations often agree an ERP-to-shop-floor connection is needed and disagree on where to start. This blueprint takes your ERP name/version, available interfaces and current manual steps, and returns one concrete, non-confidential first flow — work order to production confirmation, or whatever your actual gap is — with the objects, prerequisites and risks named.
Multi-Plant Standardization Assessment
Every product PoC on this site is deliberately scoped to one representative site — proving a program company-wide at every plant simultaneously is not how any of them are built to run. This assessment is for the enterprise question underneath that: which plant should go first, what should be standardized globally versus decided locally, and what a staged rollout across the group actually looks like.
Choose your Proof of Concept
Core platform
MES Proof of Concept
One line, cell or bounded area — typically 3–10 machines
APS Proof of Concept
One plant or value stream, real order horizon, parallel run
Supply Chain Planning Proof of Concept
Selected product families and suppliers, one plant or a small network
WMS Proof of Concept
One warehouse zone or one end-to-end material flow
Labor Scheduling Proof of Concept
One department, one shift pattern, one planning horizon
MRP Proof of Concept
Selected product families, real BOM and routing data, one horizon
ERP Integration Proof of Concept
One ERP test environment, one work-order flow
Operations
Maintenance Proof of Concept
Selected critical assets and one maintenance team
Quality Management Proof of Concept
One product family, one control plan, selected process steps
Logistics Proof of Concept
One inbound, internal or outbound flow with defined endpoints
Dispatcher Proof of Concept
One area, selected forklifts and operators, defined task types
RTLS & Smart Gate Proof of Concept
One representative zone, route or gate; selected assets and tags
Energy Management Proof of Concept
Selected high-consuming machines or one electrical panel
AI, hardware and platform
Computer Vision Proof of Concept
One inspection station, one product family, a bounded defect set
AI & Machine Learning Proof of Concept
One use case, one decision owner, real historical data
META CRM Bot Proof of Concept
One product, one ICP segment, approved messages and channels
Smart Touch Panels & Smart I/O Proof of Concept
1–3 representative machines or manual workstations
IIoT & Energy Metering Proof of Concept
Selected representative machines, meters and protocol paths
SaaS Cloud Platform & Deployment Proof of Concept
One non-production tenant or environment, representative roles
How every MSF Proof of Concept works
Feasibility check, PoC, pilot, rollout — what differs
| Stage | Primary question | Typical scope | Main output |
|---|---|---|---|
| Feasibility check | Can this use case work technically at all? | Samples, images or a limited data extract | Feasibility verdict and the risks behind it |
| Proof of Concept / Value | Does it work on our data, and does it create measurable value? | One controlled line, area, process or data set | Scorecard, gap list, ROI model, rollout decision |
| Pilot deployment | Can it run reliably with real users, every shift? | A limited but live production scope | Acceptance result and the rollout method |
| Full rollout | How do we standardise and scale it? | Plant, then multi-plant | Production system, governance, support, continuous improvement |
Who does what during a PoC
Meta Smart Factory provides
- Discovery workshop and scope facilitation
- Solution configuration for the agreed scope
- Integration and connection work inside that scope
- MSF hardware listed in the proposal
- Training for the pilot users
- The KPI definitions and validation method
- Issue tracking and support during the pilot
- The final result report and rollout design
You provide
- A named business owner and a named technical owner
- Timely access to users, the line, machines and approved systems
- An accurate explanation of the process and the master data
- Network, power, mounting and safety access
- ERP, PLC and vendor documentation, plus the experts who know them
- Representative samples or historical data
- Validation that the baseline is fair
- Feedback and the acceptance decision
Defined in the written proposal
- Panel PCs, tablets, servers and GPU servers
- Cameras, lenses, lighting and enclosures
- Scanners, printers, RFID readers, meters and sensors
- Travel, installation, freight, import duty and local electrical work
- Whether hardware is rented or purchased
- Whether any PoC fee is credited against a rollout
What is needed varies by the PoC you select — an APS planning benchmark needs order and routing data, a Computer Vision feasibility test needs physical samples. Each PoC page lists its own inputs.
Commercial terms
Commercial terms, hardware ownership, travel, integration scope and any rollout credit are defined in the written PoC proposal. They are not the same for every product, and this page does not promise them.
No unplanned shutdown is expected. Any installation window or controlled interruption is agreed with you in advance and scheduled around production.
Frequently asked questions
How is the right PoC selected?
By the decision you need to make, not by the module list. The selector above maps fourteen common operational problems to the program that answers each one first. A short discovery call confirms it — if the honest answer is that a different program should come first, we say so.
How long does a PoC take?
Between 2 and 12 weeks depending on the program. A Smart I/O connectivity validation is 2 to 4 weeks; an MES pilot on a real line is 6 to 12. Every PoC page shows its own typical duration and what can extend it. There is no single company-wide duration.
Do we have to stop production?
No unplanned shutdown is expected. Where a PoC needs physical installation — panels, meters, cameras, I/O modules — the installation window is agreed in advance and scheduled around your production plan, usually into a planned break or changeover.
Can we use our existing PLCs, cameras, meters, servers and scanners?
Often yes, and it is one of the first things the readiness step checks. MSF has native drivers for the common PLC families plus OPC UA, Modbus and MQTT. Existing meters, scanners and industrial PCs are reused wherever they meet the requirement; where they do not, the gap is written into the proposal rather than discovered later.
Is ERP integration mandatory?
No. Several programs — Computer Vision, Energy, Smart I/O, RTLS, Maintenance — prove real value with no ERP connection at all. Where an ERP loop is part of the scope, it runs against a test environment first, never straight into production.
How are the success criteria approved?
They are written into the PoC scope and signed before implementation starts: each metric with its definition, its baseline source, what data is excluded, and the result that supports a rollout decision. A metric agreed after the result is known is not evidence.
What happens if the target is not reached?
You get the analysis anyway, and a clear reason. Some PoCs end at "adjust the scope", some end at "stop — this is not the right first step for you". Both are legitimate outcomes and both are cheaper than discovering the same thing after a full rollout.
What data is required?
It differs completely by program, which is why each PoC page lists its own inputs. As a rule: nothing confidential goes through this website. Data exchange for a real PoC happens through an agreed, secure channel after the scope is signed.
Can a PoC run on-premise?
Yes. Cloud, on-premise and hybrid deployments are all supported, and the SaaS and deployment PoC exists specifically to validate the topology, access control and operational readiness your IT organisation requires before anything else starts.
What happens after the final report?
You decide: go, adjust or stop. The report carries the measured scorecard, the gaps found, the rollout architecture and the business case. Commercial terms for the rollout — including hardware ownership and any credit of PoC fees — are set out in the written proposal, not assumed here.
Choose your PoC
Pick the sentence closest to your situation. Each one maps to the PoC that answers it first, and to the programs worth running after it.