Empowering Multisite  Operational Visibility Through Robust Data Integration 

Overview 

INX International, a multisite manufacturing company, sought to improve visibility into the performance of its production operations. While they had selected an advanced analytics platform to help them analyze efficiency and machine utilization, the company lacked the plant floor connectivity, data infrastructure, and integration framework required to gather accurate, real-time data across several facilities. E Tech Group was brought in to bridge that gap, connecting legacy equipment, establishing data pipelines, and creating the foundation for enterprise-wide analytics. 

The Challenge 

INX’s leadership needed deeper insight into how their facilities operate day-to-day. Their goals included understanding: 

• How many machines were running per shift 

• How long machines were operating and at what output 

• Staffing needs by shift 

• Bottlenecks and areas for performance improvement 

• Variability across multiple plant locations 

INX identified an analytics platform to help them achieve these goals, however the company faced significant obstacles: 

1. Outdated, disconnected equipment

Many machines used legacy PLCs and had no native ability to transmit data.

2. Insufficient network infrastructure

Several facilities lacked even the basic connectivity required to access machine level information.

3. No standardized method for collecting, validating, or aggregating data across sites

Without a structured integration architecture, the platform could not ingest or use meaningful data.

In summary, the client had chosen an analytics solution, but they did not yet have access to the data required to make it useful.

The Solution: E Tech Group Builds a Scalable Data Integration Framework

E Tech Group was engaged to develop the data pipeline, plant connectivity, and integration strategy needed to support multi‑site analytics. Their work focused on three major areas:

1. Capturing Data from Legacy Equipment

E Tech performed site audits on existing controllers and equipment, identifying what data could be extracted and what technologies needed to be added to collect missing information.

In facilities where equipment was too old to interface with modern systems, E Tech implemented new devices to enable data capture for the first time.

2. Establishing a Multitier Data Pipeline

E Tech designed and deployed an architecture that moves data through the following sequence:
Plant Floor → Local Spoke Server → Central Hub Server.

Once data reached the hub server, it could be accessed by any analytics tool or reporting system the client chose, supporting long-term flexibility and vendor independence.  The central hub server provides an additional layer of security and data integrity via its single external access point.

E Tech used Ignition as an intermediate layer, enabling reliable, real-time collection of machine data.

3. Collaborating Through Multiple Data Iterations

E Tech used their extensive manufacturing process knowledge to “translate” the plant floor operational metrics into usable data. This included:

• Integrating with legacy operator interface databases
• Validating and cleaning raw data
• Reconfiguring data formats and tags
• Correcting inaccurate or incomplete data sets
• Repeating multiple iterations until the analytics platform could correctly interpret the information

Through this iterative process, E Tech ensured data was accurate, structured, and meaningful for decision-making.

Results

1. Dramatically Improved Operational Visibility

INX now has far greater insight into machine performance, production rates, and staffing demands across multiple plants, something they previously could not achieve due to lack of connectivity.

2. Real-Time Access to Production Data

To provide immediate value while analytics tools were implemented, E Tech created a simple, real-time Ignition display that allowed INX teams to view live machine data.

3. A Vendor Agnostic Architecture

The data pipeline developed by E Tech allows INX to integrate with any analytics provider, not just the one they initially selected, protecting them from vendor lock in and ensuring long-term adaptability.

Conclusion

This project demonstrates the critical role that integration partners like E Tech Group play in enabling modern manufacturing intelligence. Analytics platforms depend on high-quality data, but without the right architecture, connectivity, and plant floor expertise, those platforms cannot deliver meaningful results.

E Tech’s work provided:

• Reliable data access across aging and modern equipment
• Standardized data collection across multiple plants
• A scalable integration architecture
• Real‑time visibility for operators
• A path toward full AI driven insights

In short, INX can now make smarter, faster business decisions because they finally have the right data in the right place at the right time.