Corso Systems is excited to announce our new partnership with Peakboard!

In the past few years, Corso Systems has completed many interesting projects outside conventional SCADA systems. From creating SQCDP Boards to give teams better visibility into day to day operations, implementing OEE for more manufacturers, and helping companies keep their operations staff sharp with the 5 W’s of Manufacturing we have seen a lot of growth in a variety of interesting areas.

Peakboard is designed from the ground up to solve many problems for customers without the customer needing to be a software developer. If you want to get into writing code you certainly have the option. And as we have found, you can build very powerful systems in Peakboard in addition to and beyond dashboards. We were even able to implement machine control integrated with PLCs, inventory and warehouse management tools, process alarms (with notifications), and recipe management systems!

Of course we can—and have—built all of these types of tools with Ignition, but there are also benefits to building these tools with Peakboard. We’ve found hurdles when customers have wanted to pull in data from a database along with process data, connect it with other data sources, and display it all on an Andon screen. Accomplishing this without Peakboard could quickly become cost prohibitive from a software perspective, and have a steeper learning curve for non-developers. The complexity required to maintain a system is an extremely important and often ignored aspect of the total cost of ownership of technology—especially for people who don’t have software development experience who want to manage things themselves.

Peakboard = Ease of Use

Peakboard solves a lot of problems with a low-cost licensing model, an easy to set up and run development environment, and connectivity options for just about any data source you can imagine.

Customers can manage the data and update the screens on their own, and then bring engineers from somewhere like Corso Systems to build more complex solutions. Peakboard also has a lower total cost of ownership—especially if they don’t need all the bells and whistles provided by Ignition. This is an especially big advantage for less automated industries like machining, or places where LEAN manufacturing is the name of the game.

Peakboard can also do more than displaying data. We ran it through its paces on the projects we’ve created thus far, and it is fully capable of everything from managing process setpoints, alarms, and even recipe management!

Corso Systems Power Packs

Keeping in line with a video that sparked some very heated discussions, our $10K, 10 Days to ROI concept thrives using a tool like Peakboard.

We have since extended $10k/10Day concept to our Industry Power Packs for everything you need to get up and running with a SCADA system, including our pre-built libraries, scripts, and data backends. Our Power Packs have been especially beneficial in the Heat Treatment industry where automation can improve production quality immensely, yet isn’t highly utilized because of the potential for high implementation costs.

Partnering with Peakboard allows us to implement the $10K, 10 Days to ROI approach in a new way. With this new technology partner, we can help even more companies at any stage of their automation journey. With Peakboard as a foundation, they can then expand what Peakboard can do for them while preserving the opportunity to add tools like Ignition when the time is right (and when the additional capabilities of Ignition will offset the higher licensing costs.)

What Got You Here Won’t Get You to Where You Are Going

As we have said since day one, the biggest hurdle to any company’s automation journey is the culture shift that needs to take place for automation to be successful.

Automating a machine with non-time limited historical data collection, database integrations, and multiple users accessing the system at the same time can quickly bump the $10K/10 Day approach up to a $25K investment in software alone. And if you are beginning your automation journey, you likely won’t have the culture in place to fully support the additional investment required for implementing a totally automated system. Peakboard allows us to bridge the gap between getting started with automation, and growing into a more fully automated manufacturing operation with the culture to match.

It’s important to remember that when you work with Corso Systems, you’ll never lose value from your investment in the initial system. Peakboard allows us to build the same strong technology foundation as we can with Ignition, but at a much lower cost. As you progress in your automation journey, Peakboard will help you grow, and if/when you reach a point of complexity and need to bring in a tool like Ignition to reach the next level, you can still leverage all of the Peakboard infrastructure you already have to help speed up a future Ignition implementation. Ultimately, leveraging both platforms for their strengths will give you the best of all worlds.

Wrapping Up

Partnering with Peakboard gives us the confidence and capability to really put our money where our mouth is on a $10K, 10 Day to ROI project rollout. Corso Systems and Peakboard can help you build momentum on a culture shift, and the technology can grow with you along your automation journey.

Peakboard is built on the same foundation of industry standard protocols, hardware and data integrations, and flexibility provided by truly modern manufacturing technology. It can grow and scale along with your operations, and keep working for you even when you may decided to move into the Ignition ecosystem.

Most importantly, you don’t have to worry about Peakboard becoming legacy software like we have seen with many big name SCADA platforms. Industry-leading companies all across the globe are already using Peakboard too.

We are excited to partner with Peakboard and gain another very powerful tool in our arsenal! We look forward to deploying interesting projects on their platform, helping our customers meet their goals, and as always, help to solve some of the world’s most challenging manufacturing problems!

Get Started with Corso Systems and Peakboard

Schedule an intro call with Cody Johnson in Sales or Contact us with your questions and/or project requirements!