Consulting and expert support for industrial systems
I support industrial companies, software vendors, system integrators, consulting firms and strategic decision-makers on industrial architecture, MES/MOM, interoperability, transformation, performance, knowledge representation and industrial systems design.
Engagements are designed to be focused and directly actionable: strategic advice, executive briefing, architecture or project review, diagnostic assessment, functional framing, expert support or recurring advisory assignments.
1. Strategic architecture, transformation & performance
Independent support for leadership teams, executive committees, boards, software leadership teams and transformation governance bodies facing significant industrial digital choices.
Questions addressed
Industrial architecture, transformation priorities, technology choices, investment trade-offs, integration debt, performance expectations and long-term architectural coherence.
Typical situations
Preparing a transformation roadmap, challenging an investment decision, assessing a strategic architecture, reviewing a software-product direction or providing an independent view before major commitments.
Deliverables
Executive briefing, decision note, risk and assumption review, architecture principles, questions for project teams or suppliers, recommendations and priorities.
2. MES / IT-OT critical review
A focused independent review to identify functional, conceptual, organisational, architectural and interoperability risks before a decision, request for proposal, contract, implementation phase or project recovery.
When to use it
Before launching a MES/MOM, ERP-to-plant or IT/OT initiative; before selecting a solution; when specifications look fragile; or when a project starts to drift.
What I review
Functional scope, ERP/MES/SCADA/automation boundaries, business objects, information flows, interfaces, reference data, application responsibilities, coupling risks and relevant standards.
Deliverables
Summary assessment, main risks and ambiguities, possible standards gaps, architectural concerns, framing recommendations and action priorities.
3. MES/MOM & ERP-to-plant functional architecture
Support to structure responsibilities, models and interactions between enterprise systems, industrial applications and operational systems.
- Clarification of ERP / MES / MOM / SCADA / automation responsibilities and functional boundaries
- Structuring of industrial business objects using ISA-95 / IEC 62264 where relevant
- Identification of transactions, messages, events, reference data and information ownership
- Functional specification of ERP-to-plant and application-to-application interactions
- Support for B2MML or other appropriate exchange models
- Assessment of actual alignment with ISA-95 / IEC 62264, ISA-88 / IEC 61512 and B2MML
- Consistency analysis across processes, applications, interfaces, models and operational reality
4. Industrial systems, automation & control
Expert support for the functional architecture and design of industrial operational systems, with automation and control treated as part of the overall industrial architecture rather than in isolation.
- Functional architecture of automation and control systems
- Process-control and control-responsibility review
- Equipment organisation, functional decomposition and modularity
- Physical, process and procedural modelling
- Application of ISA-88 / IEC 61512 to automation, batch and procedural control where appropriate
- Consistency between operational requirements, automation, MES/MOM and equipment behaviour
- Review of automation specifications and functional design
5. Knowledge representation & software architecture
Industrial systems increasingly need operational knowledge to remain understandable and reusable across applications, domains and organisations. This concerns industrial companies as well as software vendors designing products expected to work across heterogeneous operational contexts.
- Clarification of operational concepts, business objects, relationships, events, states and quantities
- Knowledge-representation and semantic-architecture review
- Domain modelling and standards alignment for industrial software products
- Alignment of heterogeneous operational and information models
- Industrial ontologies, knowledge graphs and semantic interoperability
- Consistency analysis across reference data, models, interfaces and operational information
- Preparation of operational knowledge for AI, domain assistants and other advanced digital uses
This work is also informed by my research on Enterprise Knowledge Representation (EKR), a technology-independent framing of how enterprises can create, relate, govern and evolve purposeful representations of operational knowledge. Working Definition V0.1 · Open Development Repository
6. Recurring expert advisory support
A flexible format for organisations that need independent senior expertise over time without adding a full-time role to the project or governance structure.
Strategic and architecture review
Participation in steering or architecture reviews, challenge of assumptions and decisions, identification of long-term consequences and emerging risks.
Expert support
Targeted support for industrial leaders, software teams, consultants, architects, project managers, IT/OT, engineering, automation or integration teams.
Method transfer
Progressive formalisation of models, architecture principles, good practices, deliverables and reasoning methods so that teams become increasingly autonomous.
Independent expertise from operational reality to strategic architecture
My experience spans process control and automation, MES/MOM, industrial IT, functional architecture, ERP/MES integration, interoperability, performance and digital transformation.
My contribution is to connect operational reality, industrial standards, functional architecture, information systems, knowledge representations, performance and digital technologies in order to make industrial systems and software solutions more coherent, interoperable and evolvable.
I can also provide an independent assessment when the interpretation or actual application of ISA-88, ISA-95 or B2MML is required, disputed or uncertain — distinguishing genuine standards issues from broader architectural, functional or organisational problems.
Discuss a strategic, architecture, project or product need
Are you preparing a transformation, defining an architecture, selecting or developing a solution, securing a project, or trying to understand why the expected results are not materialising?
SyntropicFactory — consulting, training and R&D by Jean Vieille.