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PARTNERSHIPS

Nobody fails in the middle of a layer.

Operational programmes rarely collapse inside anyone's specialism. The improvement consultancy usually knows how to run daily management. The IT group usually knows how to run an ERP. We usually know how to build an MES. What goes wrong is the join between them — and the join is nobody's line item. This page is about who we work with, and specifically about which seam each of them is there to close.

Three stacked layers with the seams between them marked as failure points. Top: the improvement system, owned by Kaizen Institute. First seam: the number is on the screen and nobody changes what they do. Middle: operational systems, owned by Kaizen Tech. Second seam: the ERP interface both suppliers priced as the other one's problem. Bottom: business systems and IT, owned by Incentea Group. Underneath, the platform substrate of TrakSYS from Parsec and AquiWeb from Astrée.
SEAM 01

Measurement → behaviour

WHAT BREAKS

OEE goes from a monthly guess to a live number on a screen above the line. For about six weeks everyone looks at it. Then it becomes wallpaper. The number is correct, visible, and changes nothing, because no one rebuilt the shift meeting around it, no one decided who owns a loss, and no one gave a supervisor the authority to act on what it says.

This is the most common way an MES gets written off as a failure, and it is not a software problem at all.

Kaizen Institute Consulting Group

FOUNDING SHAREHOLDER · OPERATIONAL EXCELLENCE

Founded in 1985 by Masaaki Imai, operating in more than 30 countries, with its Western Europe hub in Portugal. They created the continuous-improvement consulting category and they still hold the deepest documented practice in it.

  • Daily management and the shift routines that consume the numbers
  • Gemba walks, standard work, loss reduction, strategy deployment
  • The change management that decides whether a supervisor trusts the screen
More on Kaizen Institute
WE INSTRUMENT THE LOSS

Capture it at source, attribute it to an asset, a cause and a shift, and put it in front of the right person within minutes rather than at month end.

THEY BUILD THE ROUTINE THAT USES IT

Who looks at what, when, with what authority to act — and the discipline that keeps that happening in month nine.

SEAM 02

Execution → business

WHAT BREAKS

The MES vendor prices the integration as "we expose an API". The ERP partner prices it as "we consume a standard interface". Neither has priced the actual work: agreeing master data, deciding what a production order means on both sides, handling partial confirmations, reconciling stock when the shop floor and the ledger disagree, and owning it at three in the morning when it stops.

Then there is the layer underneath — network segmentation between OT and IT, certificates, remote access, the security review nobody scheduled. That one has delayed more go-lives than any MES feature we can name.

Incentea Group

SHAREHOLDER · ICT & BUSINESS SYSTEMS

A Portuguese technology group in ICT, business consulting and product engineering, working across Iberia, Brazil and Portuguese-speaking Africa. Around 380 professionals and €22M+ turnover in 2024. A shareholder in Kaizen Tech since 2026, alongside our founding shareholders.

  • ERP practice — Cegid PRIMAVERA, SAP, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, Sage
  • Analytics, application development and product engineering
  • Infrastructure, cloud, networks and cybersecurity
More on Incentea
WE OWN THE MES SIDE

Orders in, confirmations and genealogy out, built against a real master-data model rather than a hopeful field mapping.

THEY OWN THE ERP AND THE PLUMBING

The Level 4 systems, the network the whole thing crosses, and the security posture your CISO signs off.

PLATFORM PARTNERS

The two vendors underneath.

We hold delivery partnerships with both. That is the only reason our platform recommendation is worth anything — if we sold one licence we would find a way to believe in it.

Parsec Automation

TRAKSYS

The US company behind TrakSYS, in development since 1987. Parsec reports it running in thousands of factories across more than 100 countries.

Where we stand: Parsec's partner programme has four levels and Strategic is the top one. It requires company certification, certified TrakSYS Engineers and Architects on staff, documented delivery practice, and a contracted number of referenced implementations. We hold it.

What TrakSYS does

Astrée Software

AQUIWEB

A French MES specialist founded in 2011, part of the 4CAD Group since February 2024. It describes itself as the only French publisher dedicated entirely to MES, and reports AquiWeb on 400+ industrial sites across 18 countries.

Why we carry it: most plants do not have an exotic process, and selling them a development platform to solve an ordinary problem would be dishonest. AquiWeb is the answer for the operations an enterprise programme would simply flatten.

What AquiWeb does
OWNERSHIP & ORIGIN

Where the company came from.

In 2015 Corticeira Amorim, the world's largest cork producer, had selected an MES and could not find anyone able to implement it at the scale it needed. The team that solved that problem became this company. That history explains the shareholder register better than any strategy statement would.

Kaizen InstituteFOUNDING SHAREHOLDER

The improvement methodology the company was built around, and the reason we treat adoption as engineering rather than training.

Corticeira AmorimFOUNDING SHAREHOLDER

The manufacturer whose problem started it. Still a client, still extending the same template across 25+ sites, and still the most demanding reference we have. The case study is the long version.

Incentea GroupSHAREHOLDER SINCE 2026

The ICT group that brought the ERP, infrastructure and security practice, and the reach across Iberia, Brazil and Portuguese-speaking Africa.

A manufacturer, an improvement consultancy and an IT group on the same register is an unusual combination, and it is the closest thing we have to a strategy: each of them owns a layer we would otherwise have to fake.

WHERE OUR WORK ENDS

Who to call for what.

Being clear about this at the start is cheaper than discovering it in month four.

THE WORK Who owns it In practice
MES/MOM architecture, configuration, rolloutKaizen TechThe core of what we do. Design, build, commissioning, hypercare.
Machine connectivity and OT/IT integrationKaizen TechPLCs, OPC UA, MQTT, historians, and the segmentation conversation that comes with them.
ERP-side development and master dataIncentea, or your ERP partnerWe specify the interface and own our half of it. We do not write in your ERP.
Network, cloud, identity, cybersecurityIncentea, or your IT functionWe tell you what the MES needs. Somebody else provides and secures it.
Daily management and improvement routinesKaizen Institute, or your own CI teamWe build the instrument. Turning the reading into a habit is a different discipline.
Platform licences and product roadmapParsec or AstréeYou license from the vendor. We implement, and we argue your case with them when a roadmap item matters.
Deciding what "good" looks like on your lineYour organisationNobody in this group can tell you what your target rate should be. We can tell you what you are actually running.
● START HERE

Tell us where your last programme stalled. It was probably a seam.