OEE Calculator
Calculate the availability × performance × quality of your equipment from a single shift’s data.
Open calculator →Resources
Knowledge applied to real operations.
Articles, guides and operational case studies published by the Captia Technology team. All content is derived from our public editorial plan.
Tools
Energy Savings Calculator
Estimate the annual saving in euros from reducing your plant’s compressed-air leaks.
Open calculator →Downtime Cost Calculator
Calculate the monthly and annual cost of unplanned downtime: machine, labour and margin not produced.
Open calculator →Digital Maturity Test
Self-assessment in 10 questions: place your industrial SME at one of four maturity levels with recommendations per level.
Open calculator →Physical AI Readiness Index
Self-assessment in 14 questions: place your plant on the Physical AI Ladder, from rung 0 to rung 3, with the dimension holding it back.
Open calculator →
Published
Captia Consulting Operational Maturity in Manufacturing: From Diagnosis to Roadmap
A five-level framework to assess the operational maturity of a manufacturing plant: observable symptoms per level, a worked diagnosis example, the four dimensions that drive maturity (data, processes, people and technology) and a four-phase roadmap.
· 15 min read
Captia Consulting OEE Guide: Formula, the Six Big Losses and a Worked Calculation
What OEE is and where its formula comes from (Availability x Performance x Quality), Nakajima’s six big losses, OEE vs TEEP vs OOE, common measurement mistakes and a complete worked example with an interactive OEE calculator for manufacturing teams.
· 18 min read
Captia Consulting Case study: eight machines, one bottleneck and a 1,900 euro shelf
A real, anonymised plant case: nine dry contacts on eight machines, two weeks of baseline, the availability percentage that misled everyone, the effective-cycle-versus-takt analysis that found the real constraint, a 1,900 euro countermeasure, the control chart that proved the gain and a payback calculator with the case numbers.
· 14 min read
Captia Consulting Plant Monitoring in Manufacturing: What to Measure and How to Start
A practical guide to production monitoring: which events to capture (downtime, cycles, rejects, energy), manual versus automatic data capture, the path from raw data to OEE, the minimum infrastructure to start and typical mistakes when monitoring a plant.
· 14 min read
Captia Consulting MES vs Data Platform: Which One Does Your Factory Need?
MES or data platform: the real decision is a closed process versus an open problem. What each one is, a comparison table, when each option is the right call, cases by company size and three questions to decide without getting it wrong.
· 12 min read
Captia Consulting Digital Transformation Roadmap in Manufacturing: From Proof of Concept to Scale
Why most industrial proofs of concept get stuck in pilot purgatory and how to design, from day one, the architecture, the organisation and the metrics that take an isolated use case to a platform running in production.
· 14 min read
Captia Consulting Change Management in Manufacturing: Adoption, Culture and the Human Factor
Why industrial digitalisation projects fail because of adoption rather than technology: resistance on the plant floor, middle managers as the key lever, operator training and metrics to measure real usage.
· 14 min read
Captia Consulting NIS2 and OT Cybersecurity in Manufacturing: Governance and Risk
What the NIS2 directive means for manufacturing companies and their OT environments: scope and obligations, governance and risk management on the plant floor, network segmentation basics and how to plan a realistic OT cybersecurity roadmap in industry.
· 16 min read
Captia Consulting DIGITALIZA-CV and IVACE 2026 Grants for Industrial Digitalisation: A Practical Guide
A practical guide to the IVACE grants for industrial digitalisation in the Valencia region of Spain: what DIGITALIZA-CV funds (ERP, automation, sensorisation, AI), verified data from the 2026 call, who is eligible and how to turn the grant into an executed project.
· 13 min read
Captia Consulting How to Digitalise a Factory Step by Step
The complete path to digitalising a manufacturing plant in five ordered steps: diagnosis, data connectivity, visualisation, decision automation and AI. What not to do first, who should be involved in each phase and how to fund the project with IVACE grants.
· 14 min read
Captia Consulting How Much Does It Cost to Automate a Production Line? Ranges and Cost Drivers
Why nobody publishes industrial automation prices, the orders of magnitude by project type according to market ranges, the seven factors that move the cost, what makes it cheaper and which part a grant such as DIGITALIZA-CV can cover.
· 12 min read
Captia Consulting How Much Does It Cost to Digitalise an Industrial Company? Budget Lines and Factors
Digitalisation has no price list: it has a predictable cost structure. The five budget lines of every project, the factors that move the total, the cost of not digitalising, the applicable IVACE grants and the planning mistakes that cost the most money.
· 12 min read
Captia Consulting What Does an Automation Engineer Do? Daily Work, Profiles and Career Outlook
What an automation engineer actually does day to day: control logic design, commissioning, system integration and working with data. The specialisations of the role (control, SCADA, robotics, OT/IT), who they work with on the plant floor, how Industry 4.0 is changing the profession and what to study to get into it.
· 11 min read
Captia Connect OT/IT Integration: Unified Namespace and MQTT Sparkplug B in Manufacturing
How to bridge OT and IT in a factory with a unified namespace: broker architecture, MQTT Sparkplug B, topic and payload conventions, integration with SCADA, MES and ERP, and the steps to move from point-to-point wiring to an event-driven data backbone.
· 14 min read
Captia Connect Unified Namespace (UNS): What It Is, Principles and Architecture with MQTT and Sparkplug B
The definitive guide to the Unified Namespace concept: a working definition, the four principles of the pattern, the ISA-95 hierarchy as its skeleton, the technical architecture with MQTT and Sparkplug B, how it differs from a data lake, a historian or an ESB, the mistakes that sink UNS projects and how Captia Connect implements the pattern at the edge.
· 13 min read
Captia Connect Sparkplug B: Namespace, Birth and Death Certificates, Metric Aliases and When to Use It
A technical guide to the Sparkplug B specification: what it adds to plain MQTT, the five-part topic namespace, how birth and death certificates turn session state into first-class information, what metric aliases and report by exception are for, and the criteria for deciding when Sparkplug B pays off and when plain MQTT is enough.
· 10 min read
Captia Connect Industrial Edge Computing: From Sensor to Cloud with Buffering and QoS
A guide to industrial edge architecture: local store-and-forward buffering, MQTT QoS levels, normalisation at the edge and gateway sizing so that plant data does not depend on the network.
· 14 min read
Captia Connect Industrial Data Contracts: Schemas, Data Quality and Lineage
A guide to industrial data contracts: what every topic and every table promises, plant data quality (completeness, frequency, units), lineage from sensor to dashboard, schema versioning and data ownership by domain.
· 13 min read
Captia Connect Zero Trust in OT: Segmentation and Detection in Industrial Networks
How to apply zero trust in industrial networks honestly: segmentation into zones and conduits per IEC 62443, remote access based on identity and session, passive detection and coexistence with legacy equipment.
· 14 min read
Captia Connect The Sagunt Industrial Hub in Valencia, Spain: What It Means for Local Suppliers
What is publicly known about the PowerCo gigafactory at Parc Sagunt II, what the automotive and battery supply chain demands from its suppliers (certifications, traceability, process data) and how an industrial SME in the Valencia region can prepare without waiting for a request for quotation.
· 9 min read
Captia Connect Industrial Data Platform: What It Is and How to Build One
What an industrial data platform is and how to build one step by step: connectivity layer, contextualisation, storage and analytics, how it relates to SCADA, historian, MES and ERP, and the architecture decisions that keep plant data usable at scale.
· 17 min read
Captia Connect IIoT Platform: What It Is and How to Choose One
What an IIoT platform is and how to choose one: the five functional layers from edge acquisition to applied intelligence, a comparison table of IIoT platform vs SCADA vs MES, vendor selection criteria such as protocol coverage, buffering and open APIs, and the criteria that matter most for industrial SMEs.
· 13 min read
Captia Connect Plant Data Historian: What It Is, What It Stores and When You Need One
What a plant data historian is and how it differs from a conventional database and from an industrial data lake: tags, quality flags and compression, its place in the data platform, a numerical sizing example for a mid-sized plant and the common mistakes that devalue years of process history.
· 14 min read
Captia Connect Data Historian vs Time-Series Database: Which One to Choose
Classic vendor data historian or time-series database: a criteria-based comparison covering origin, licensing model, industrial connectivity, deployment flexibility and the team each option requires, when each one makes sense, and why in a layered data platform the storage engine is the easiest piece to change.
· 12 min read
Captia Connect Best Industrial Data Platforms in Spain (2026)
Honest comparison of the main industrial data platforms available in Spain in 2026: N3uron, Savvy Data Systems, Nexus Integra, Ignition, atvise, Rapid SCADA and Captia. Verifiable criteria only (deployment, licensing where public, web SCADA, origin and focus), with a verdict by use case rather than a ranking.
· 12 min read
Captia Connect Alternatives to Ignition in Spain: An Honest Guide to Choosing a Platform
Which alternatives to Ignition exist in Spain and how to compare them honestly: what Ignition does well (per-server licensing, Perspective, integrator ecosystem), five criteria for evaluating any platform, where Captia Connect and Captia.ai fit as a managed web option with local support, and other options such as N3uron, Nexus Integra, Savvy or Rapid SCADA.
· 12 min read
Captia Connect Captia.ai vs Ignition: An Honest Comparison of Two Platform Models
A criterion-by-criterion comparison of Ignition and Captia Connect with Captia.ai, written to be verifiable: per-server licensing and on-premise deployment versus a managed web platform with an edge in the plant, Perspective versus a configurable web SCADA, built-in AI versus analytics developed on top, and an open account of where Ignition remains the better choice.
· 11 min read
Captia Connect Industrial Data Contextualisation: From Raw Values to Meaningful Data
How to enrich raw plant data with the context the business needs: the five layers of context (signal, asset, production, operational and business), the canonical data model that holds them together, where each layer is added between edge and platform, and a worked example from PLC counter to per-reference indicator.
· 13 min read
Captia Connect Industrial MQTT Broker: What to Demand (QoS, Retained, LWT, Sparkplug, Buffering)
What separates an industrial MQTT broker from a default deployment: which QoS level to use for plant data, retained messages for the last known value, LWT for detecting client drops, Sparkplug B as a data contract, why edge store-and-forward is still needed, the security minimums (TLS, authentication, per-topic ACLs) and a final selection checklist.
· 13 min read
Captia AI Web SCADA: What It Is and How It Differs from Traditional SCADA
What a web SCADA is and how it differs from the traditional thick-client model: HTML5 screens served from a central server instead of per-seat runtimes, concurrent multi-user access with role-based views, secure remote access without exposing the OT network, on-premise, cloud or hybrid deployment, a criterion-by-criterion comparison table and how Captia.ai approaches it.
· 14 min read
Captia AI Physical AI in Manufacturing: What It Is, What It Is Not and Why It Starts with Data
Reference guide to industrial physical AI: what it is and what it is not next to generative AI, the digital twin, classic automation and programmed robotics; the perceive, reason and act loop in four stages; the decision horizons of a plant; the data substrate each level demands; the Physical AI Ladder with observable criteria; the state of the art with sources; and the European regulatory timeline.
· 40 min read
Captia AI From Level 0 to 1: Connecting the PLCs You Already Have
Engineering the perception layer in an existing factory: an inventory of sources, protocol choice (Modbus, OPC UA, Sparkplug B), sampling rate per signal, timestamping with NTP, PTP or TSN, edge buffering, a canonical naming model and OT connection security.
· 17 min read
Captia AI From Level 1 to 2: The Plant That Knows What Is Happening
How a plant moves from connected data to knowing what is happening: the five layers of context, the ISA-95 asset model, real-time OEE and its traps, energy per product, anomaly detection and alarm management.
· 15 min read
Captia AI From Level 2 to 3: When to Let the System Act
The engineering of the supervised closed loop: a risk matrix by reversibility and cost of error, the three actuation patterns, guardrail design, traceability of every decision, the European regulatory dates and how the effect is measured.
· 15 min read
Captia AI Inside Level 4: World Models, VLA Policies and the Sim2Real Gap
What a world model is and how it differs from a predictive model, how a vision-language-action policy is trained, why the sim2real gap is a distribution problem, and what separates a documented pilot from production today.
· 18 min read
Captia AI The US Physical AI Wave and What It Means for a Spanish Factory
What is happening in the United States with physical AI, with a source and a date for every figure: actors, investment, proven deployments against announcements, the European and Spanish contrast, the regulatory calendar and what to decide in the next twelve months.
· 16 min read
Captia Connect Industrial Data Acquisition System: What It Is, Architecture and How to Choose One
What an industrial data acquisition system (DAQ) is and how it differs from laboratory equipment: the four-link architecture from signal to usable data, why native multi-protocol support is the decisive requirement, six criteria for choosing a system and how it fits as the edge layer of an industrial data platform.
· 14 min read
Captia Connect How to Get Modbus Data to the Cloud: Edge Gateway, MQTT and Buffering
How to get data from Modbus drives, meters and controllers to the cloud without exposing the OT network: Modbus TCP vs RTU, why the protocol cannot travel directly, the edge gateway architecture, conversion to MQTT, persistent buffering for network outages and a seven-step walkthrough from register inventory to dashboard.
· 12 min read
Captia Connect MES vs SCADA: Differences and When You Need Each One
SCADA and MES are not alternatives but complementary layers of the ISA-95 pyramid: what each one does, a comparison table, signs that you need one or the other, cases by company size and in what order to implement them.
· 12 min read
Captia Connect OPC UA vs MQTT: Which One to Choose to Connect Your Plant
OPC UA and MQTT solve different layers of industrial connectivity: what each protocol brings, a comparison table, when each one makes sense, the usual combined architecture (OPC UA for machine access, MQTT for distribution) and where OPC UA over MQTT (PubSub) fits.
· 15 min read
Captia AI Predictive Maintenance in Manufacturing: From Vibration Data to RUL
Predictive maintenance explained for manufacturing: from vibration and process signals to anomaly detection and remaining useful life (RUL), which data you need, how models fit into maintenance workflows and what it takes to run them reliably in a plant.
· 18 min read
Captia AI AI Visual Inspection and Traceability on Production Lines
How AI-based visual inspection works on production lines: cameras and lighting, defect detection models, linking inspection results to traceability records, integration with PLC and MES, and the practical limits of machine vision in real factories.
· 16 min read
Captia AI Predictive Analytics in Manufacturing: Demand, Energy and Supply Chain Forecasting
A guide to forecasting applied to industry: demand prediction for the master plan, energy consumption forecasting, early supply chain signals, how to choose horizon and granularity, and how to measure and use forecast error (WAPE, bias) in stock decisions and alerts.
· 14 min read
Captia AI Industrial MLOps: Drift Monitoring and Human-in-the-Loop
How to keep AI models alive on the plant floor: detecting data and concept drift, setting confidence thresholds, closing the human-in-the-loop cycle and deciding when to retrain or retire a model.
· 16 min read
Captia AI How to Apply AI in Manufacturing Operations: A Practical Method
A practical methodology for industrial SMEs: where not to start, which data requirements are needed, use cases ordered by maturity (dashboards, rules, prediction, agents), typical mistakes and how to measure with numbers whether the project works.
· 10 min read
Captia Energy Industrial Energy Efficiency: ISO 50001 and IPMVP Measurement and Verification
Industrial energy efficiency with ISO 50001 and IPMVP: how to structure an energy management system, define baselines and performance indicators, verify savings with measurement and verification protocols and sustain improvements in a manufacturing plant.
· 15 min read
Captia Energy Industrial Energy Optimisation: Baselines, EnPIs and ISO 50001
A practical guide to industrial energy optimisation: how to build an energy baseline, choose energy performance indicators (EnPIs), align monitoring with ISO 50001 and connect energy data with production data to reduce consumption per unit produced.
· 22 min read
Captia Energy Industrial Solar Self-Consumption: Sizing PV and Storage from the Load Curve
How to size an industrial photovoltaic self-consumption system starting from the plant load curve: coverage versus surplus, when batteries make sense, surplus compensation at a conceptual level and a worked example of a plant running a daytime shift.
· 14 min read
Captia Energy Industrial Demand Response: Peak Shaving and Tariff Optimisation
How to reduce the industrial electricity bill by managing demand: tariff periods and contracted power, peak shaving through load coordination, a process flexibility map, what to measure to get started and how it all fits with self-consumption and storage.
· 14 min read
Captia Energy Industrial Decarbonisation: GHG Protocol Scopes 1-3 and Corporate PPAs
A guide to industrial decarbonisation: GHG Protocol Scopes 1, 2 and 3 explained with plant examples, real reduction levers (efficiency, electrification, self-consumption and corporate PPAs) and rules for reporting without greenwashing.
· 12 min read
Captia Energy IVACE Grants for Industrial Solar Self-Consumption: What They Cover and How to Plan for Them
Which grant lines for industrial photovoltaic self-consumption exist in the Valencia region of Spain, how the IVACE annual call calendar works and which technical decisions (sizing from the load curve, surplus handling, itemised budget) should be closed before applying.
· 11 min read
Captia Service Odoo for Manufacturing: MRP II, WMS and Quality on the Shop Floor
How Odoo works as a manufacturing ERP: MRP II planning, warehouse management (WMS), the quality module on the shop floor, integration with plant data, and what to consider before implementing Odoo in an industrial company with real production constraints.
· 14 min read
Captia Service Field Service Apps for Industry: Mobile Work Orders, Checklists and Offline Use
A guide to field service applications for technicians and operators: work orders on the phone, checklists with evidence, offline operation on the plant floor and integration with the ERP and the CMMS.
· 14 min read
Captia Service Business Process Automation in Industrial Environments
A guide to business process automation in industry: orders, delivery notes, non-conformities and purchasing between office and plant. When to automate and when to redesign first, maturity levels, orchestration across ERP, MES and other systems, and how to measure the outcome.
· 14 min read
Captia Service Industrial Training and Support: Operational SLAs That Actually Work
What a real operational SLA is: response versus resolution times, severity levels with plant examples, role-based and on-the-job user training, living documentation and the real cost of under-training, with an incident example resolved step by step.
· 16 min read
Captia Service Odoo Implementation Cost for an SME: Real Budget Lines and Ranges
An honest breakdown of the cost of implementing Odoo in an SME: licences, services, data migration, training and support, with the ranges published by the Spanish market, the Community vs Enterprise comparison and how to fund it via DIGITALIZA-CV.
· 12 min read
Public editorial plan
Our editorial plan is public. Total planned: 56 pieces spread across 28 pillars across the 5 units.