Your existing line is not the problem. Its blind spots are.
Most African manufacturers don't need a new line. They need their current one to run more hours per week, with fewer surprises, and with someone able to answer "why did we miss the shift target?" before the shift ends. CISH retrofits existing production lines with modern PLCs, the right sensors, an OEE dashboard your foreman actually opens, and remote support that catches issues before they take the line down.
What "digitalisation" really means on a factory floor.
| Layer | What it is | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Sensing | Flow, pressure, temperature, vibration, current, output/reject counter | Truth — the line stops lying to you |
| PLC + HMI upgrade | Replace ageing controls with Siemens / Allen-Bradley + touchscreen | Faster fault recovery, available spares, easier hiring |
| Edge gateway | Industrial PC on the line, secured | Buffer when internet drops, local control loops |
| OEE dashboard | Browser dashboard on office and shopfloor TVs | Real availability, performance, quality numbers by line, shift, SKU |
| Remote monitoring | Encrypted VPN — our engineers can see your line | Faster diagnosis, fewer site call-outs |
| Alerts | WhatsApp / email when thresholds break | Maintenance acts at the start of failure, not the end |
The underlying IoT and dashboard stack is engineered by our technology partner addanode. CISH integrates, installs, and owns the warranty on your floor. About our partnership →
Start where it makes sense for you.
Tier 1 — Visibility
ZAR 150K+Goal: See the line. Don't touch the control system.
Output and reject counters, current clamps on key motors, edge gateway, OEE dashboard. No interruption to existing PLC. 2–4 weeks.
Most owners discover OEE is 10–20 points below what they assumed.
Tier 2 — Control modernisation
ZAR 600K+Goal: Replace ageing or unsupported PLC, keep mechanicals.
New PLC + HMI, new MCC if required, full re-engineering of control philosophy, operator training, documentation. 6–12 weeks.
Best for lines with discontinued PLCs or disappeared integrators.
Tier 3 — Performance retrofit
ZAR 1.5M+Goal: Lift throughput, yield, energy efficiency.
Tier 2 plus VSDs, recipe management, SPC, energy sub-metering, ERP integration. 12–20 weeks.
Typical throughput lift 8–20%. Energy reduction 5–15%.
Numbers that change behaviour — not slides that get filed.
- A clear OEE number for each line, by shift and by SKU
- Top 3 reasons your line stops, in order, with minutes lost
- Energy consumption per unit produced
- A list of "small wins" — the 5–15% improvements that pay for the upgrade inside a year
Cybersecurity: Encrypted site-to-site VPN. No exposed PLC ports. Role-based access, named users only. Audit log of every remote session. SA-region cloud or optional air-gapped mode.
Add automated inspection — let the line catch the defect.
Quality is one of the three pillars of OEE, and the hardest to fix with dashboards alone. Machine vision inspection closes that gap: industrial cameras, controlled lighting, and inspection algorithms we design on the Hikvision VisionMaster platform, checking 100% of production for defects, codes, dimensions, labels, and fill level — at line speed, every shift, without fatigue.
An inspection station is usually a self-contained module interfaced to your line PLC, so it slots into a retrofit without replacing your controls. The results feed straight into your OEE and quality data.
Explore Machine Vision Inspection →Defect & surface
Cracks, contamination, short-shots, colour deviation.
Code & date (OCR/OCV)
Verify date, lot, and batch codes before product ships.
Label & fill
Label position/SKU, cap seating, underfill/overfill.
Measure & count
Non-contact dimensions, presence/absence, pack count.
We are brand-neutral. We choose what fits the line.
S7-1200, S7-1500, TIA Portal, WinCC
CompactLogix, ControlLogix, FactoryTalk
Modicon, EcoStruxure
IoT edge, OEE dashboards via addanode
Also: ABB, Beckhoff, Mitsubishi, Omron, Delta, Inovance, AVEVA, Ignition, Rockwell FactoryTalk, open-source (Node-RED, InfluxDB, Grafana).
Questions we answer on every upgrade project.
Most upgrade decisions come down to shutdown risk, documentation quality, and whether the new controls stack will still be serviceable five years from now.
This section is most useful if...
you are planning a retrofit on a working line, inheriting an unsupported PLC, or trying to justify why better visibility is worth funding before you replace the entire asset.
Upgrade and digitalisation in practice.
Losing output to load shedding? See protecting a production line from load shedding and generator vs UPS vs battery. Can't get your imported line serviced? See specifying maintainable controls.
OEE retrofit on an injection moulding cell
A ~ZAR 280 000 retrofit recovered ~17 OEE points and deferred a USD 320 000 fifth machine.
Measure OEE without a new PLC
What to install on an old line, what it costs, and what 30 days of data reveals.
Cost to digitalise a production line
Honest 2026 price bands for three retrofit tiers.
Want to know what your line is actually doing?
A free 2-hour site audit, on us — anywhere in Gauteng. We walk your floor, look at one line, and give you a one-page recommendation. No pitch.