The Industrial IoT Blog
IIoT Insights by Henry Costa
Category: Solutions
Exploring IIoT solutions that connect systems, simplify operations, and deliver value on the plant floor.
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IIoT Vendor Demo vs Reality: What They Don’t Show You
Read more: IIoT Vendor Demo vs Reality: What They Don’t Show YouIf you’ve ever sat through an IIoT vendor demo and thought, “Wow, this looks easy,” you’re not alone. I’ve been in this industry for over two decades, and I can’t count how many times I’ve seen a slick demo only…
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Retiring SAP MII: Closing a Chapter and Opening the Next One
Read more: Retiring SAP MII: Closing a Chapter and Opening the Next OneAfter spending almost twenty years working with SAP MII (before that, xMII), it feels strange to say goodbye. It was part of daily life for many of us. It solved tough problems, frustrated teams, and more than once saved a…
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TPG to Acquire Kepware and ThingWorx from PTC
Read more: TPG to Acquire Kepware and ThingWorx from PTCSo, here’s a real story from the shop floor to the boardroom: PTC is selling its industrial connectivity and IoT businesses—Kepware and ThingWorx—to TPG, a global private equity firm. This isn’t just another deal in the headlines. For those of…
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Lessons From 50+ SAP Digital Manufacturing Projects
Read more: Lessons From 50+ SAP Digital Manufacturing ProjectsIf you spend enough time in manufacturing, you realize the shop floor is the real test for any digital solution. Since 2005, I’ve worked on more than 50 SAP Digital Manufacturing (MII/OEE/PCo) implementations across more than 10 industries, from the…
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Moving SAP OEE to a Modern IIoT Platform
Read more: Moving SAP OEE to a Modern IIoT PlatformI’ve been working with automated OEE systems for several years. Starting from early SAP MII implementations, I’ve built and supported solutions that collect real-time data from PLCs, calculate availability, performance and quality, and provide operators with live dashboards. These systems…
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When Celonis Meets IIoT: Real-Time Process Mining on the Shop Floor
Read more: When Celonis Meets IIoT: Real-Time Process Mining on the Shop FloorI’ve been thinking about something lately. We spend a lot of time connecting machines and collecting data from the shop floor — tags, sensors, OPC UA servers, the whole IIoT stack. And then there’s this other world called process mining,…
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What Vendor Documentation Won’t Tell You About IIoT Integration Complexity
Read more: What Vendor Documentation Won’t Tell You About IIoT Integration ComplexityIf you’ve ever flipped through vendor documentation or attended a software demo, you’d think IIoT is plug-and-play: connect a few devices, map some tags, and watch the dashboards light up. But after two decades living in the trenches — from…
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Is SAP DM a Replacement for SAP MII?
Read more: Is SAP DM a Replacement for SAP MII?Let’s cut to the chase: SAP Digital Manufacturing (DM, sometimes called DMC for “Cloud”) is not a direct, drop-in replacement for SAP Manufacturing Integration and Intelligence (MII). I’ve spent much of the last few years helping global manufacturers figure this…
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When Kepware isn’t Enough: Rethinking the Edge Connectivity Stack
Read more: When Kepware isn’t Enough: Rethinking the Edge Connectivity StackFor a long time, Kepware has been the go-to tool for connecting machines and pulling data from PLCs, DCS, and all sorts of shop-floor equipment. I’ve used it at dozens of sites — from auto parts to steel mills, pharma,…
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Why Replacing SAP MII is a Priority (and What We’re Learning Along the Way)
Read more: Why Replacing SAP MII is a Priority (and What We’re Learning Along the Way)Let’s talk about SAP MII — why so many of us in manufacturing are moving on, and what it’s really like to make that leap. SAP MII: The Backbone That’s Now Showing Its Age If you’ve spent time in manufacturing…
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My Experience with Oil & Gas SAP MII Implementations
Read more: My Experience with Oil & Gas SAP MII ImplementationsIf you’ve worked in Oil & Gas for a while, you know it’s a world apart — process industry, strict safety rules, and a patchwork of legacy systems that don’t like to talk to each other. Over the last two…
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Ignition 8.3: Leveling Up Industrial IoT
Read more: Ignition 8.3: Leveling Up Industrial IoTHere’s what really stands out to me: Ignition 8.3 isn’t just a “point release.” It’s a shift in how we think about deploying and managing automation software. The core lesson? If you want to run at enterprise scale — multiple…