Which technologies do you consult on?

All of the major location, identification and IoT technologies: RTLS (UWB, BLE, Wi-Fi), RFID (passive, active and RAIN UHF), industrial IoT and sensors, GPS and GNSS, AGV and AMR robot fleets, and hybrid stacks that combine them. We recommend the right mix for each zone and use case, not a single technology.

Are you really vendor-neutral?

Yes. We do not sell hardware or a software platform of our own, and we take no resale commissions, so our technology and vendor recommendations serve your outcome rather than a product we need to move.

Do you work outside the UK?

We are UK-based and work across Europe and internationally, delivering in English, German and French. Engagements can be remote or on-site depending on the work.

What does a consulting engagement include?

Typically discovery and requirements, vendor-neutral technology selection, vendor evaluation and RFP support, ROI and business case, solution architecture, and an implementation roadmap. We scope each engagement to where you are.

Can you help after the decision is made?

Yes. We work across the full lifecycle - we can also deploy, integrate, and operate the system, so you can keep one independent team from business case through to live operation.

How do we get started?

Usually with a short call or a fixed-fee discovery to scope the problem, followed by a proposal with clear deliverables, timeline and fees. There is no obligation and no platform pitch.

How disruptive is RTLS installation to production?

Done well, minimal — most of the work happens during planned downtime. Anchor mounting, cabling and integration commissioning are sequenced around production. We've deployed RTLS at multiple plants without losing production time.

How do we get the operators to use the data?

Integration into operator workflow tools (MES screens, mobile devices) rather than a separate RTLS dashboard. If the operator has to switch tools to see RTLS data, adoption fails. We design workflow integration in stage 1.

What's the right pilot scope for a plant?

Single line or single cell, full production load, 8–12 weeks duration, with pre-agreed success criteria tied to OEE, WIP turn or cycle time. Avoid technology-only pilots; require business-KPI validation. See /method.

How do we handle works council consultation for staff tracking?

Build in 6–12 weeks of consultation before any production rollout. Works council representatives should be included in scoping conversations and in design reviews. We have run these for European manufacturing clients. See /compliance/works-council-consultation.

Can RTLS pay back at single-plant scope?

Usually yes for high-volume manufacturing, but the strongest paybacks come from multi-plant deployments where platform and integration costs amortise. We model single-plant and multi-plant cases during stage 1.

EINSICHT · ARBEIT, DIE ERLEDIGT WIRD

Anlagenleiter – Verlegung von RTLS auf einer stromführenden Leitung.

For a plant director, RTLS, RFID and IoT promise WIP visibility, better OEE, lower cycle time and improved safety.

The job is to capture those promises on a live production line without disrupting throughput during deployment, and to integrate the data into MES and shop-floor systems so it drives real change rather than just generating dashboards.

This insight covers how we think about that job with plant directors.

Buchen Sie einen 30-minütigen Scoping-Termin

Die zugrundeliegende Frage des Anlagenleiters

Not "will RTLS work in a factory like ours?" — but "will this deployment move OEE, WIP turn or cycle time by enough to justify the disruption and capital,

with deployment risk to production held to acceptable levels?" Most failed plant RTLS programmes fail because deployment disruption was underestimated or because the system didn't integrate with MES sufficiently to drive shop-floor action.

OEE-Treiber und RTLS-Hebelwirkung

RTLS moves OEE through specific mechanisms. Availability: tool location, machine status, operator availability — RTLS shaves search time and idle micro-stops. Performance: WIP visibility shows bottlenecks in real time; balancing decisions get faster.

Quality: traceability of every part through every station enables root-cause analysis when defects emerge. Different use cases move different OEE components. We map each use case to specific OEE leverage points during stage 1.

Sichtbarkeit in WIP – der wertvollste Anwendungsfall für viele Anlagen

WIP tracking is often the single highest-ROI RTLS use case in manufacturing. UWB or RTLS-grade RFID tracks every WIP item by station, queue and operator.

Benefits: WIP turn improvement (often 20–40% reduction in average WIP time), cycle-time variance reduction, bottleneck identification, dwell-time analytics by station, FIFO compliance.

Pre-requisites: integration with MES for routing data; operator workflow design so floor decisions use the data. Without MES integration, WIP dashboards exist but don't change behaviour.

Sicherheit und Personenverfolgung

Worker safety RTLS — forklift-pedestrian collision avoidance, fall detection, restricted-zone alerts — is increasingly common.

The deployment is technical but the procurement is political: works council consultation (in EU jurisdictions) is required for staff systems, and trust is the hardest thing to build.

Best practice: lead with high-consequence safety use cases (collision avoidance), avoid surveillance-feeling use cases (operator productivity tracking), and run worker representation through the procurement. See /compliance/works-council-consultation.

Integration mit MES – die Gating-Entscheidung

RTLS-without-MES is a dashboard project. RTLS-with-MES is a process project. The plant director should require MES integration as a deployment gate, not a downstream feature.

SAP ME, SAP DM, Rockwell PharmaSuite, Siemens Opcenter and other leading MES platforms have documented integration patterns with major RTLS vendors. We design MES integration as part of stage 1 — see /integrations.

Einsatz auf einer Live-Linie

Deployment risk on a running production line is real. RTLS infrastructure installation (anchors, cabling, mounting) happens around production.

Best practices: install during planned downtime (weekend or shift change), validate accuracy in production-load conditions (not just commissioning hours), pilot on a single line before expanding, and have a clear rollback for any integration that touches MES write paths.

We've deployed on lines without losing a shift. See /for-plant-director for the dedicated plant-director persona page.

FAQ

Häufig gestellte Fragen

Wie störend ist die Installation von RTLS für die Produktion?

Gut gemacht, minimal – die meiste Arbeit findet während geplanter Ausfallzeiten statt. Ankermontage, Verkabelung und Integrationsinbetriebnahme sind rund um die Produktion verteilt. Wir haben RTLS in mehreren Werken eingesetzt, ohne Produktionszeit zu verlieren.

Wie bringen wir die Betreiber dazu, die Daten zu nutzen?

Integration in Operator-Workflow-Tools (MES-Bildschirme, mobile Geräte) statt eines separaten RTLS-Dashboards. Wenn der Betreiber das Werkzeug wechseln muss, um RTLS-Daten zu sehen, scheitert die Einführung. Wir entwerfen die Workflow-Integration in Stufe 1.

Was ist der richtige Pilotscope für eine Anlage?

Einzelzeile oder Einzelzelle, volle Produktionslast, 8–12 Wochen Dauer, mit vorab vereinbarten Erfolgskriterien, die an OEE, WIP Dreh- oder Zykluszeit gebunden sind.

Vermeiden Sie reine Piloten, die nur auf Technologie basieren; Erfordern eine Business-KPI-Validierung. Siehe /method.

Wie handhaben wir die Konsultation des Betriebsrats zur Personalverfolgung?

Bauen Sie 6–12 Wochen Beratung ein, bevor die Produktion gestartet wird. Vertreter des Betriebsrats sollten in Scoping-Gespräche und Designüberprüfungen einbezogen werden. Wir haben diese für europäische Fertigungskunden durchgeführt. Siehe /compliance/works-council-consultation.

Kann RTLS sich im Einzelanlagen-Scope zurückzahlen?

In der Regel ja, bei Großserienfertigung, aber die stärksten Erträge entstehen durch Einsätze in mehreren Anlagen, bei denen Plattform- und Integrationskosten abgeschrieben werden. Wir modellieren Einzel- und Mehrpflanzenfälle während Phase 1.

Zuletzt aktualisiert: 26. Mai 2026