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OCTOPUS — MES for Industry

Co-founder of Crossover Software. A cloud-based, non-invasive Manufacturing Execution System designed for European manufacturing SMEs.

OCTOPUS — MES for manufacturing SMEs
CASE STUDY

Project Overview

Crossover Software, a company I co-founded, has been producing and distributing Octopus since 2016, an innovative and non-invasive Manufacturing Execution System (MES) specifically designed for the needs of small and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises.

Octopus is cloud-based, cost-effective, and easy to implement, making it the ideal solution even for companies with a Job Shop production model. Despite being conceived for a broad spectrum of manufacturing needs, it has been successfully marketed across the European market.

THE CHALLENGE

The market problem

European manufacturing SMEs faced a paradox: MES systems available on the market were designed for large companies, with prohibitive licensing and implementation costs, extremely long deployment times, and complexity that required dedicated IT teams. The specific challenges included:

  • Traditional MES required invasive installations, dedicated cabling, and significant modifications to existing infrastructure, with unsustainable costs and timelines for SMEs.
  • Companies with a Job Shop production model had specific needs that standard MES, designed for mass production, could not adequately meet.
  • The lack of internal IT expertise in SMEs made it impossible to manage complex, monolithic systems.
  • The Industry 4.0 paradigm required connecting industrial machines, but available solutions were out of reach for most SMEs.
THE SOLUTION

What we built

Octopus was designed from the start with a radically different approach compared to traditional MES:

  • Non-invasive: Octopus connects to industrial machines without requiring modifications to existing infrastructure. It uses dedicated sensors and standard protocols to collect production data transparently.
  • Cloud-based: The entire platform is cloud-based, eliminating the need for dedicated servers, local backups, and IT maintenance. Clients access the system via web browser from any device.
  • Job Shop ready: Octopus data model and logic were specifically designed to support the Job Shop production model, with flexible management of orders, batches, and variable processing sequences.
  • Rapid implementation: Thanks to the non-invasive and cloud-based approach, average deployment time is a few days, not weeks or months as with traditional MES.
  • Industry 4.0: Native connection of industrial machines with automatic collection of production data, OEE, cycle times, and performance analysis.
RESULTS

Project impact

150+
Manufacturing companies
700+
Connected machines
2016
Launch year
EU
European market

Today Octopus is used by over 200 manufacturing companies, with more than 700 industrial machines connected according to the Industry 4.0 paradigm. The platform has demonstrated its robustness, scalability, and adaptability to the diverse production realities of the European market. Its commercial success has confirmed that there is a huge market of SMEs needing accessible, non-invasive, and cloud-based MES solutions.

TECHNOLOGIES

Tech stack

✓
Cloud Architecture
✓
MES / Manufacturing Execution
✓
Industry 4.0 / Industrial IoT
✓
Non-Invasive Machine Connection
✓
OEE and Performance Analysis
✓
Job Shop Model

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