Plugs into what you own. Runs where you work.
Your drives, PLCs and meters already speak standard industrial protocols. Plantmargin listens to all of them, keeps working when the internet doesn’t, and never takes safety away from your PLC.
What your team sees, on screen and on the phone.
One file per site. Live in an afternoon.
Plantmargin engineers write the site's configuration from the survey: which meters, drives and signals, on which port, at which address. The gateway reads them every 10 seconds and sends encrypted batches, keeping 30 days on site if the link drops.
- Modbus RTU and TCP, OPC UA, pulse and 4–20 mA
- A built-in check confirms every signal before go-live
- Read-only unless you approve setpoint writes
Five layers. One source of truth.
Every reading is published once, named by plant, line and machine, and used by every app. New machines appear automatically.
- Edge gateway per section. Rugged, fanless, DIN-rail mounted, on its own UPS.
- Thirty days of local buffer. No reading is lost when the link drops.
- On-site server. Dashboards and control keep running with no internet at all.
Speaks your machines’ language.
No proprietary hardware lock-in. Any device with a standard signal works, from a 1980s motor starter to a new PLC.
| Protocol | Typical devices | How Plantmargin connects |
|---|---|---|
| Modbus RTU / TCP | Energy meters, drives, analysers, weighing indicators | Read directly by the edge gateway over RS-485 or Ethernet |
| OPC UA | Modern PLCs, SCADA, sorters, checkweighers | Secure subscription to the tags you choose |
| Siemens S7 · EtherNet/IP · Profinet | Existing PLCs and drives | Native drivers on the gateway; no PLC program changes needed |
| IO-Link | Smart vibration, temperature and level sensors | IO-Link master per line, read over Modbus TCP |
| 4–20 mA / HART | Pressure, flow, temperature and analyser outputs | Wired to a PLC or a remote I/O module |
| DLMS / COSEM | Utility billing meters | Optical or RS-485 port, with the utility’s consent |
| LoRaWAN · WirelessHART | Battery sensors on remote or hot equipment | Wireless gateway into the plant network |
| MQTT · Sparkplug B | Everything above, once inside Plantmargin | One live namespace per plant, organised by line and machine |
Trust is earned. One loop at a time.
Every control loop moves through three stages, and only when your shift team is ready. Your PLC keeps every interlock throughout.
Advisory
Plantmargin recommends a setpoint and explains why. An operator decides. Every accepted advice is logged with its shilling value.
Supervised
Plantmargin writes the setpoint; the operator confirms it. Old and new values are shown side by side before anything changes.
Closed loop
Only for chosen loops, after a site acceptance test: Plantmargin adjusts setpoints within limits set in both Plantmargin and your PLC. Operators can take back control at any time.
An algorithm that knows your plant. Engineers who act on it.
Our intuitive algorithm studies every signal in every section, learns how your plant runs when it runs well, and flags what drifts within minutes. Plantmargin engineers check each finding before it reaches you. It only ever reads your data.
Learns your normal
Every signal gets a normal band for each hour, day type and plant state, learned from your own last four weeks and rebuilt nightly.
Flags abnormal events
A value that stays outside its normal band raises an alarm to the people responsible, stating the band it was compared with.
Reviews every section
Plantmargin engineers go through each section's data, raise alarms when something needs eyes on it, and send advice with evidence and a conservative value.
Reports that get read
A one-page weekly report and a monthly report per plant: cost per unit, what changed, and the next three things to do.
Alerts follow responsibility.
Each section has owners. Critical alarms reach them by app notification, SMS or WhatsApp, advice by email, and anything not acknowledged in time escalates to the next level.
Your own super admin
Each client controls its people, roles, plant access, two-step sign-in and alert rules, and sees an activity log of everything done in its plants.
Heatmaps and live cameras
Hour-by-hour heatmaps of energy, demand and cost show waste outside working hours. Live CCTV of each section sits next to its figures; video can stay entirely on site.
On your domain, in your colours
Open Plantmargin at energy.yourcompany.com with your logo, embed live figures on your intranet, and connect your ERP or Power BI through the API.
Your plant. Your data. Your rules.
Segmented network
Plant controls sit in their own zone, separated from office IT and the internet, following IEC 62443 zones and conduits.
Read-only by default
Plantmargin only reads until you enable a control loop. Every setpoint write is role-based and recorded in an audit log.
Encrypted sync
Data leaving the plant is encrypted in transit, buffered locally first and sent outbound only. No open inbound ports.
You own the data
Export everything at any time. Personal records are handled under the Kenya Data Protection Act.
Every plant gets its own profile.
Tell Plantmargin what your plant has. It builds the data structure, the dashboards and the hardware list to match. Try it below.
From first meter to closed loop.
Each phase pays for the next. You can stop after any phase and keep everything installed.
Measure
Energy and power-quality meters, utility survey, mass balance. The baseline is agreed.
Optimize the biggest load
Drives and control on the largest motors or utility, in advisory mode first.
Heat and machines
Steam, boiler and process loops; vibration monitoring on heavy motors.
Closed loop
Trusted loops run automatically; group benchmarking across your sites.
See it on your own machines.
Schedule a demo and we will map your plant’s profile, protocols and quickest payback in the first visit.