Questions plants ask before buying
Straight answers, no sales gloss. If yours isn’t here, ask us on a demo call — the unusual questions are usually the interesting ones.
Connectivity & machines
What types of machines can ThingConnect monitor?
CNC machines — machining centers, turning centers, tapping centers — across the major controller brands found on Indian shop floors. Connectivity is confirmed machine-by-machine during the site survey, before you commit.
Does it connect through sensors or through the controller?
Through the controller, natively. No sensors, no current clamps, no hardware bolted to the machine. That is why ThingConnect can tell you why a machine stopped — including the alarm code — not just that it stopped.
Does it connect via IoT gateways or an Ethernet cable?
Machines connect over your plant's Ethernet network to the ThingConnect server. No cloud gateway hardware is required. Machines without a network port are assessed individually during the site survey.
Can it automatically detect downtime and its reasons?
Stops are detected automatically from the controller, with exact timestamps and the controller alarm attached when one exists. The business reason (changeover, no material, breakdown type) is added by the operator in two taps — automatic detection plus human context is what makes the data trustworthy.
What about very old machines?
Older controls vary — some connect fine, some need an option enabled, a few can't be connected economically. We tell you which is which per machine in the site survey instead of promising everything and surprising you later.
Deployment & running it
Who installs ThingConnect?
Our engineers — site survey, server setup, machine connections, and operator training. There is deliberately no self-service installation; guided deployment is how dashboards end up live on install day.
How long does deployment take?
For most plants, dashboards are live on install day. End-to-end — first call, site survey, install, training — is typically a few weeks, driven mostly by your scheduling.
What happens when something breaks or we need help?
You have our support directly — the team that built and installed the system, in your time zone. Updates are applied in scheduled windows, remotely if you permit it or on-site if you don't.
Do our people need training to use it?
Operators learn the two-tap classification in minutes; supervisors get trained on dashboards and reports during install week. It is designed for shop-floor use — big targets, plain language, no manual needed.
Data & security
Where does our production data live?
On a server inside your plant, in a database you own. Nothing is uploaded to a cloud, aggregated, or shared. If your IT policy or customer contracts prohibit off-site production data, ThingConnect fits as-is.
Does it work without internet?
Yes — fully. Monitoring, dashboards, OEE, and reports all run on your local network. Internet is only used for optional WhatsApp/email alerts and support sessions you initiate.
How is access controlled?
Named user accounts with three roles: admin, supervisor, and operator. Operators see their station; supervisors see dashboards and reports; admins manage machines, users, and settings.
Pricing & fit
How is ThingConnect priced?
A per-machine annual subscription plus a one-time deployment fee. No per-user licenses — unlimited operators, supervisors, TVs, and tablets. You get an indicative price on the first 30-minute call.
I have fewer than 10 machines — is it still worth it?
Usually yes, and the calculator will tell you: even 30–45 minutes of unclassified downtime per machine per day is a large annual number at ₹ machine-hour rates. Per-machine pricing means small floors pay small amounts.
We're a large plant with 100+ machines — does it scale?
Yes — the same on-premise server architecture handles large machine counts, with machines grouped by line and cell so dashboards stay readable. Large deployments are phased line-by-line during rollout.
How is this different from an MES?
An MES wants to run your factory; ThingConnect wants to show you the truth about it. No routing, no work orders, no six-month implementation — machine monitoring, OEE, and downtime done properly, live in days.
Can we try it before committing to the whole plant?
Yes — that's the normal path. A pilot deployment on one line or a subset of machines, on your own server, with our team installing. Scale to the rest of the plant when the numbers convince you.