Industrial Systems Expert — Architecture, Interoperability & Knowledge Representation
I help industrial companies, software vendors, system integrators, consulting firms and strategic decision-makers address complex industrial systems questions spanning MES/MOM, automation and control, enterprise integration, digital transformation, interoperability, knowledge representation and AI-enabled applications.
When should you involve me?
Industrial systems raise questions well beyond individual projects: how architectures should evolve, how operational and enterprise systems should interact, how transformation should be governed, how performance should be assessed, and how knowledge should remain understandable and reusable across applications and organisational boundaries. I can intervene from strategic reflection and architecture through design, implementation, review and recovery.
When shaping strategy or architecture
Challenging industrial digital strategies and architectures, clarifying long-term principles, responsibilities and technology choices, or providing an independent view to executive and governance bodies.
When designing or evolving industrial systems
Structuring functional architectures, operational responsibilities, equipment behaviour, modularity and control principles — including automation and ISA-88-based approaches where relevant.
When framing or securing a project or product
Reviewing specifications or product architectures, clarifying MES/MOM scope, application responsibilities, business objects, interfaces, information models and interoperability assumptions.
When performance or delivery is disappointing
Diagnosing conceptual, functional, organisational or integration issues; reviewing transformation priorities, performance assumptions and architectural decisions when expected results are not materialising.
Services offered
Strategic architecture, transformation & performance
- Independent advice to executive committees, boards, software leadership teams and transformation governance bodies
- Industrial digital architecture and transformation review
- Assessment of transformation priorities, investments and architectural choices from a performance and long-term coherence perspective
- Independent challenge of architectural principles and technology decisions
- Recurring senior advisory support, supervision, review, coaching and method transfer
MES/MOM & interoperability
- ISA-95 / MES-MOM / ERP-to-plant functional architecture
- ERP / MES / SCADA / automation responsibility and interface design
- Structuring of business objects, messages, transactions and shared information models
- Industrial information and interoperability architecture
- Critical review of MES, IT/OT and industrial integration projects
- Assessment of actual alignment with ISA-88, ISA-95 and B2MML
Industrial systems, automation & control
- Functional architecture and design of industrial automation and control systems
- Process control, equipment modularity and control-responsibility reviews
- ISA-88 / IEC 61512 applied to functional design, batch and procedural control
- Review of automation specifications and functional design
Knowledge representation & software architecture
- Knowledge representation, semantic architecture and ontology reviews
- Domain modelling and standards alignment for industrial software vendors
- Alignment of heterogeneous operational models and information architectures
- Knowledge graphs and semantic interoperability
- Preparation of operational knowledge for AI and domain assistants
Training and method transfer
Training sessions combine industrial experience, standards and systems thinking, and can be adapted to your architecture, project, product or transformation context.
Automation design — ISA-88 / IEC 61512
Functional design of automation and control systems, physical, process and procedural models, equipment modularity, sequencing, batch control, robustness and qualification.
MES/MOM & interoperability — ISA-95 / IEC 62264
MES/MOM, ERP-to-plant architecture, business objects, application responsibilities, transactions, messages, interoperability and B2MML.
Industrial transformation & performance
Systems thinking, industrial architecture, performance management, transformation priorities, information-system evolution and gradual migration.
Knowledge representation & AI
Industrial information models, ontologies, knowledge graphs, interoperability architectures and the preparation of operational knowledge for practical AI applications.
Rare experience spanning industry, standards, field practice and modelling
Fifty years of professional involvement in industrial systems: process control and automation, MES/MOM, industrial IT, functional architecture, ERP/MES integration, interoperability, performance and digital transformation.
This experience spans several generations of industrial architecture — from operational systems and control to MES/MOM, enterprise integration, information modelling and the broader question of how operational knowledge can remain understandable and usable across different systems and viewpoints.
I am the author of Enterprise Knowledge Representation (EKR) — Working Definition V0.1, which formalises part of this continuing work on representation, governance and interoperability. Working Definition · Open Development Repository
My contribution is to connect operational reality, industrial standards, functional architecture, information systems, knowledge representations, performance and digital technologies in order to make industrial systems and software solutions more coherent, interoperable and evolvable — and to help decision-makers distinguish enduring architectural issues from short-term technology choices.
Discuss a strategic, architecture, project or product question
Are you facing an industrial architecture, interoperability, software product, performance or transformation question — at strategic level, before a project, during implementation, or when the expected results are not materialising?
SyntropicFactory — consulting, training and R&D by Jean Vieille.