We designed a Unified Namespace architecture for a specific coating line.
We connected isolated PLCs and a vision system to a central MQTT broker.
We eliminated manual data collection and enabled real-time quality analysis.
Nitto Belgium is a local offshoot of the Nitto Denko Corporation. As the largest production site of the Nitto Group in the EMEA region, they wanted to modernise their manufacturing operations by experimenting with a Unified Namespace. Nitto already gathered plenty of production data, but it was locked away in isolated PLCs and vision systems. To demonstrate the value of a connected OT network, they wanted a targeted proof of concept.
One of their coating lines proved to be the perfect candidate. Experts had to extract processing data through a SCADA system, send it to a historian, and then export it to Excel files. To check the line’s overall quality, they had to carefully compare several spreadsheets. This manual work took some time, and was therefore only done on a weekly basis. In other words: a clear use case to show how structured, real-time data could solve their daily frustrations and take their business to the next level.
The proof of concept successfully validated the UNS architecture for Nitto. We connected the isolated PLCs and the vision system to a central MQTT broker, and this completely eliminated the need for manual data gathering.
Process engineers can now monitor live data through a clean, browser-based dashboard. When a quality issue occurs on the coating line, they no longer spend time reconstructing the event. The system automatically correlates and contextualises the data. This compresses root cause analysis from hours down to a few minutes.
Thanks to this initial success, Nitto now has a secure, scalable foundation. They are fully prepared to expand the architecture across new production lines and integrate it with their future Manufacturing Execution System.
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When a company wants to experiment with a new architecture, we always recommend the same thing: start narrow. Don't try to transform the entire factory at once. Instead, prove the concept, build the foundation, and scale from there. In this case, we focused our efforts on connecting three Siemens PLCs and one vision system on a single line. It sounds modest, but that was exactly the point.
Before we touched a single network cable or configured a device, we had to get everyone on the same page. In our experience, the hardest part of a UNS project is not the technology, but aligning the different departments. We organised three specific workshops to tackle this.
First, we sat down with the IT and OT teams to map out the network architecture and security requirements. Next came the most crucial step: the data modelling workshop. We brought the digitalization, process engineering, quality control and IT/OT departments together. We needed to get everyone’s input because information is often spread across people, not just systems. The PLC programmer knows the tags, the process engineer knows the ideal values, and maintenance calls a machine part something completely different.
This workshop made sure that everyone spoke the same language. Together, we defined the UNS topic hierarchy based on the ISA-95 standard and agreed on payload structures, naming conventions, and measurement units. Finally, a third workshop focused on the user interface and determined what the end-users needed to see on their dashboards.
Even for a proof of concept, we don't believe in using simplified, experimental tools. We built the architecture using lean and production-proven components that Nitto will actually be able to rely on when they scale up.
At the edge, we deployed Ignition Edge on Advantech industrial hardware. This setup handles the necessary protocol translation smoothly. It polls the PLCs using the Siemens S7 protocol and connects to the vision system via OPC UA. Ignition Edge then publishes structured MQTT payloads to the central broker.
For the central MQTT broker, we selected HiveMQ. Because Nitto plans to feed this data into a critical Manufacturing Execution System (MES) in the next phase, we can easily configure HiveMQ as a redundant cluster in the IT DMZ layer. If one broker fails, the other will take over to guarantee business continuity for their future expansion.
The time-series data flows from HiveMQ directly into Canary. It acts as the central historian, tagging and contextualising the information. Finally, we set up Axiom (Canary's reporting layer) to provide clean, browser-based dashboards. Nitto Belgium's process engineers can now easily analyse their process data, leaving the days of raw exports and spreadsheets far behind them.
Want to unlock the hidden value in your factory data? We help manufacturers build scalable IT-OT architectures that start narrow and deliver immediate results. Reach out to our team to discuss your own proof of concept.
