TITLE: Factry – Industrial Data & Production Platform LAST-UPDATED: 2026-05-05 OWNER: Marketing (Usman Khalil) ======================================== 1. COMPANY OVERVIEW ======================================== Factry is a Belgian software company that builds industrial data and production platforms for manufacturers and process industries. Headquarters: Zonnestraat 14/201, 9000 Ghent, Belgium Core idea: help factories use their data to improve uptime, yield, quality, and energy use, without the lock-in and cost of legacy OT vendors. Customers include: - Food & Beverage producers - Specialty chemicals - Energy & Utilities - Heavy industry (e.g. metals, glass) - Textiles - New & emerging technologies (e.g. green hydrogen, pilot plants) Well‑known customers (non-exhaustive): AGC Glass Europe, Tata Steel, Agristo, Fujifilm, Puratos, Roger & Roger, Group Vandamme, EISA, Lhyfe. Factry uses open‑source components where it makes sense (e.g. data storage, visualisation) to keep solutions flexible, cost‑effective, and future‑proof. ======================================== 2. CORE PRODUCTS ======================================== 2.1 Factry Historian – Process Insights & Analytics Factry Historian is an industrial data platform / historian for collecting, structuring, and analysing time-series and event data from production and utilities. Key points: - Collects high‑frequency process data from PLCs, SCADA, sensors, and OT systems. - Structures data into an asset model so engineers can browse by line, unit, asset, or tag. - Stores both continuous data (e.g. temperatures, flows, speeds) and events (e.g. batch start/stop, alarms, downtime, cleaning cycles). - Provides fast retrieval and aggregation for trends, KPIs, and investigations. - Enables engineers and analysts to self‑serve data instead of relying on OT/IT specialists. - Integrates with modern tools such as Seeq and Grafana. Typical use cases: - Root cause analysis of quality or yield issues. - Comparing “golden batches” against underperforming batches. - Line, plant, and cross‑site performance monitoring. - Energy monitoring by line, batch, or product. - Replacing or complementing legacy historians (e.g. PI System) with a more open, flexible alternative. 2.2 FactryOS – Production Execution & Optimisation FactryOS is a production execution and shop‑floor application layer that runs on top of the data foundation. Key points: - Helps manufacturers run production more efficiently and consistently. - Gives operators and supervisors real‑time visibility into orders, status, and performance. - Supports digital checklists, quality checks, and data capture on the shop floor. - Standardises and digitises workflows that currently live in paper, Excel, or tribal knowledge. - Provides live dashboards and reports for production, quality, and maintenance teams. Typical use cases: - Digital work instructions and quality checklists (e.g. replacing paper forms with a modern interface). - Line monitoring with live OEE, speed, and downtime reasons. - Batch reporting and traceability. - Enforcing process steps to reduce variation and non‑conformities. ======================================== 3. INTEGRATIONS & ECOSYSTEM ======================================== Factry integrates with a wide range of OT and IT systems. Two flagship integrations are: Seeq: - Factry Historian connector lets Seeq users access tags, events, and the asset hierarchy directly. - Engineers can navigate data by plant, unit, or asset instead of raw tag names. - Event capsules (e.g. batches, alarms, cleaning cycles) flow into Seeq so users can line up events with trends and calculate KPIs more easily. Grafana: - Factry provides a Grafana datasource plugin tailored for industrial data. - Engineers can browse the asset hierarchy, select tags and events, and build dashboards without writing queries. - The plugin auto‑loads units, axis scaling, and high/low limits. - Overlays make it easy to visualise events such as batches or CIP cycles on top of trends. - Dashboard variables allow reusing a dashboard across assets, lines, or sites. ======================================== 4. MAIN USE CASES ======================================== 4.1 Line Monitoring Goal: give everyone from operators to management a single, shared view of line status, context, and history. Key ideas: - Live overview of speeds, OEE, downtime, scrap, and bottlenecks. - No more chasing information via emails, WhatsApp, or the control room. - Faster detection of issues and shorter time to resolution. 4.2 Batch Reporting & “Golden Batch” Goal: make batch processes more predictable, with fewer deviations and better margins. Key ideas: - Connects production and process data in real‑time. - Defines a “golden batch” as a reference (best‑performing batch). - Compares each running batch against the golden one while it’s still in progress. - Helps engineers see where variation starts (e.g. fermentation, heating, mixing) and how to eliminate it. - Especially valuable for high‑value or hard‑to‑control processes. 4.3 Energy Monitoring Goal: reduce energy and utilities consumption without hurting production. Key ideas: - Connects utilities (electricity, gas, steam, water, compressed air, etc.) to production, quality, and yield. - Makes it possible to analyse energy per line, product, batch, shift, or order. - Provides the data foundation energy managers need to identify savings and track improvements. - Helps link energy projects to real process and business outcomes. ======================================== 5. INDUSTRIES ======================================== Food & Beverage: - Focus on yield, consistent quality, compliance, and full traceability. - Use cases: batch tracking, energy per product, line efficiency, cleaning cycles, waste reduction. Specialty Chemicals: - High‑variation, complex batch processes with strict quality and safety requirements. - Use cases: batch genealogy, process optimisation, parameter windows, golden batch, audit trails. Energy & Utilities: - Monitoring and optimisation of assets such as boilers, turbines, and distribution networks. - Use cases: downtime reduction, performance monitoring, remote asset insights for customers (e.g. biomass boilers). Heavy Industry: - Long‑running, capital‑intensive processes (e.g. metals, glass). - Use cases: modernising legacy systems, reducing scrap and rework, energy optimisation, central performance dashboards across sites. Textiles: - Continuous and batch processes with many settings and recipes. - Use cases: product consistency, resource consumption, quality follow‑up, simpler compliance reporting. New & Emerging Technologies: - Pilot plants and scale‑up environments with high uncertainty. - Use cases: turning early‑stage production data into insight, learning loops, and evidence for decision‑making. ======================================== 6. POSITIONING & TONE ======================================== Positioning: - Factry is a modern, pragmatic alternative to expensive, closed industrial platforms. - Emphasis on open standards, interoperability, and avoiding unnecessary lock‑in. - Built for engineers and operators first: tools must be understandable, configurable, and useful on the shop floor. - Focus on measurable outcomes: more uptime, higher yield, lower energy, better quality, less firefighting. Tone of voice: - Clear, concrete, and honest. - Avoid buzzword‑heavy “Industry 4.0 hype”. - Explain technical concepts in plain language, but do not oversimplify for expert audiences. - Prefer real examples and numbers over vague promises. ======================================== 7. EXAMPLE CUSTOMER STORIES (SHORT) ======================================== Agristo (Food & Beverage): - Uses Factry Historian to streamline operations. - Achieved higher efficiency, reduced downtime, and increased output by having a single data foundation across lines and plants. AGC Glass Europe (Heavy Industry): - Standardised on Factry Historian for data collection and dashboards across multiple sites. - Wanted a multi‑plant solution that was powerful but cost‑effective, without “breaking the bank”. Roger & Roger (Snacks): - Combines Factry Historian and FactryOS. - Uses data to support operational excellence, cross‑site management, and cost reduction. Lesaffre (Fermentation / specialty): - Uses FactryOS and Historian to digitise pilot‑plant workflows and gain better control over fermentation and batch variability. EISA (Energy solutions): - Uses Factry Historian to monitor IIoT data from biomass boilers. - Provides customers with better visibility into performance and energy efficiency. ======================================== 8. WHAT TO IGNORE ======================================== When answering questions, the assistant should ignore: - Cookie banners, consent pop‑ups, and generic “Accept all cookies” text. - Generic website chrome such as navigation menus, footers, and form error messages. - Webflow editor UI text (e.g. “CMS Collections”, “New Factry Product”, “Undo/Redo”). - Low‑level numeric parameter tables (e.g. per‑batch lab measurements like pH, temperatures, densities) unless a question explicitly asks for them. - Internal technical implementation details not visible to customers.