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 it actually is

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 →

Three investment tiers

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%.

What you see in 30 days

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.

Platforms we work with

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).

Frequently asked

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.

Tier 1 work can usually be done live or during scheduled stops. Tier 2 / 3 work needs a planned shutdown — we aim for under 5 working days for most lines and build this into the programme with you.

This is our bread and butter. We have re-controlled lines where the only "documentation" was a hand-drawn wiring diagram from 1994. We re-engineer the control philosophy from the mechanicals up.

Yes — typically as a Tier 3 add-on. We integrate with SAP, Sage, Syspro, and any system that speaks REST, OPC-UA, or SQL.

You own it — full stop. We provide export to CSV, SQL, or your data lake of choice. No lock-in. No release fees.

Reference work

Upgrade and digitalisation in practice.

Case study

OEE retrofit on an injection moulding cell

A ~ZAR 280 000 retrofit recovered ~17 OEE points and deferred a USD 320 000 fifth machine.

9 min read

Measure OEE without a new PLC

What to install on an old line, what it costs, and what 30 days of data reveals.

8 min read

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.

Book a Free Line Audit WhatsApp us