Industrial Portfolio Director
Transition Technologies PSC S.A.
Most factories don’t have a technology problem. They have a data problem dressed up as a technology problem – and a market full of vendors happy to sell them the wrong fix.
I’m Jakub Kaczyński, Industrial Portfolio Director in the Digital Manufacturing practice at TT PSC, a global industrial solutions integrator. With 15 years in the field and a technical background, I’ve spent enough time close to the machines, the historians and the integration layer to know where Industry 4.0 projects actually break – usually not where the slide deck promised.
50+ delivered projects, most inside larger digital transformation programs where the stakes and the politics are real, spanning the US, Europe and Asia – primarily in Europe. I stay deliberately vendor-agnostic: I’ve deployed the major industrial platforms (ThingWorx, Kepware, Ignition and Litmus) across the stack, from OT connectivity and SCADA through MES and IIoT, and I pick the one that fits the plant, not the one with the best reseller margin. My sharpest work sits in the data layer itself: building a unified namespace so OT and IT finally speak the same language, then turning that clean, contextualized data into the analytics and decisions people actually act on.
One example: in a plant producing over a thousand tonnes of sweets a week, I led the team behind a recipe management solution built on a unified namespace – owning the high-level architecture and standardizing formulas so the same product runs the same way on every line. The approach is now being discussed as a template for the company’s other plants.
In the last few years my work has concentrated in food & beverage: high-mix lines, tight margins, OEE that has to move this quarter, not next roadmap.
End to end, in that order: define the business case first (if the numbers don’t add up, we stop), then choose the technology, then design the architecture, then support the rollout. I’d rather kill a project at the business-case stage than watch it die expensively six months after go-live. Pragmatic, realistic, and allergic to vendor hype.
Turning shop-floor data into decisions is a recurring theme in my talks. Recent ones: „From Data to Decisions” at Smart Manufacturing Week 2026, „From Machine to Decision: Digital Transformation Step by Step” at IndustryX0 2025, and „How Smart Maintenance Drives Strategic Success” at Robotics Warsaw 2025.
Got a specific data or connectivity problem and want a straight answer? Reach out.
The IoT Gateway plug-in streams plant floor data to any MQTT broker or REST endpoint, but AWS and Azure each enforce their own rules. This guide covers the exact agent settings for both, the errors that cause most failed connections, and four architecture patterns that hold up in production.
A pilot that works with 50 tags stalls at 50,000. What industrial connectivity actually is, why digital programmes fail at the data layer, and how to deploy it right.
In September 2025, Jaguar Land Rover shut down production across the UK, Slovakia, and Brazil for five weeks after a ransomware attack. Reuters reported losses of around £50 million a week, with 33,000 staff sent home and hundreds of suppliers unable to operate. The intrusion started in IT, but what stopped production was how deeply […]
A typical plant runs controllers, SCADA, a historian and an MES from different vendors, and every connection is a custom integration. OPC UA replaces that patchwork with one secure, self-describing interface between OT and IT. This guide explains what OPC UA is, how it works, how its security model holds up to audit, and how Kepware implements it in production.
A 5-year TCO between Kepware perpetual and subscription is a reasonable starting point. It is not a verdict. The output shifts by 20 to 50 percent on three variables no online calculator asks, and the answer depends on the environment around the licence, not on the spreadsheet alone.
Kepware Server connects to virtually every PLC, RTU and IIoT device on the plant floor through 150+ certified drivers, exposing the data through a single OPC UA, MQTT or REST interface. This guide walks through the full driver catalogue, the Communication Suites, the Kepware+ enterprise subscription and the configuration steps a system integrator needs to scope and deploy a project.
TPG Capital has acquired PTC’s entire IIoT portfolio including ThingWorx and Kepware. Raising understandable questions for manufacturers relying on these platforms. Here’s a quick, clear explanation of what happened and what this change truly means for your operations
Energy costs are no longer a fixed overhead in manufacturing. This guide explains what an Energy Management System is, how it works in a manufacturing environment, and why real-time energy data is becoming critical for cost control, operational efficiency, and compliance.
Unified Namespace with MQTT provides a scalable, event-driven foundation for industrial OT/IT data integration.
This article explains proven MQTT patterns, topic design, state management, and common pitfalls when building a production-ready UNS.
What is Unified Name Spac and why is it quickly becoming the “central nervous system” of modern manufacturing?
If your IT and OT worlds are still tied together with brittle point-to-point integrations, siloed data, and reports that are always a step behind, it’s time for a different approach. In this practical guide, we explain What is Unified Name Space, how it differs from the Purdue model, and how to design a scalable, real-time data layer using a consistent hierarchy, naming conventions, and governance. You’ll also learn the core implementation steps with MQTT/Sparkplug B or OPC UA—so every system can publish and subscribe to the same contextual, live source of truth.
Industrial data is growing faster than most manufacturers can process — yet much of its potential remains locked inside disconnected systems, legacy integrations, and outdated architectures. As a result, critical insights arrive too late, operational decisions lose accuracy, and digital initiatives struggle to scale. This article explains why traditional data management can no longer support modern industrial needs and how a Unified Namespace approach helps eliminate silos, unify data flows, and create the real-time foundation required for Industry 4.0, advanced analytics, OEE optimization, and energy efficiency.
Choosing the right OEE (Overall Equipment Efficiency) system is crucial for optimizing production performance. In this article, we highlight the key factors to consider when selecting an OEE system to effectively monitor machine efficiency, minimize downtime, and improve production quality. Learn how to choose a system that supports your factory’s growth and delivers real, measurable benefits.