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PARTNERSHIPS

Two handovers decide whether an MES sticks.

We've delivered 42 sites across the EU, the US and Africa. In our experience two handovers cause most of the trouble: the one where a live OEE number has to change what a supervisor does at 6am, and the one where the MES and the ERP have to agree on what a production order means. Both sit between two suppliers, which is usually why nobody has priced them. This page is about who we work with on each, and where our own responsibility stops.

Diagram of an MES programme. At the top, the improvement system and daily-management routines, owned by Kaizen Institute. In the middle, MES and operations systems, owned by Kaizen Tech. At the bottom, ERP, network and security, owned by Incentea Group. Two handover points are marked as failure risks: between the improvement system and the MES, where a live number fails to change the shift routine; and between the MES and the ERP, where both suppliers assumed the other had priced the interface. Underneath, the two platforms: TrakSYS from Parsec and AquiWeb from Astrée.
HANDOVER 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 they stop. The number's correct, it's visible, and it changes nothing, because nobody rebuilt the 6am meeting around it and nobody gave the supervisor authority to stop a line on what it says.

That's how a technically successful MES gets written off inside a year. The fix is a change to the operating routine, and it belongs to somebody who does that for a living.

Kaizen Institute Consulting Group

FOUNDING SHAREHOLDER · OPERATIONAL EXCELLENCE

Founded in 1985 by Masaaki Imai, the author who introduced KAIZEN to Western management. Kaizen Institute operates in more than 30 countries and runs its Western Europe hub from Portugal. It's a founding shareholder of Kaizen Tech.

  • Daily management: who reads which number, when, and with what authority
  • Gemba walks, standard work, loss reduction, strategy deployment
  • The change management that decides whether a supervisor trusts the screen
More on Kaizen Institute
KAIZEN TECH

We capture the loss at source, attribute it to an asset, a cause and a shift, and put it in front of the right person within minutes.

KAIZEN INSTITUTE

They rebuild the routine that consumes it, and they're still auditing whether that routine happens in month nine.

HANDOVER 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 answering the phone at three in the morning when it stops.

Then there's the infrastructure underneath it: network segmentation between OT and IT, certificates, remote access, and a security review nobody put in the plan. That review has delayed more of our go-lives than any MES feature.

Incentea Group

MAJORITY 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. Majority 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
KAIZEN TECH

Orders in, confirmations and lot genealogy out, built against a master-data model we agree in writing before anyone codes.

INCENTEA GROUP

The ERP side, the network it all crosses, and the security posture your CISO has to sign.

PLATFORM PARTNERS

The two platforms we implement

We hold delivery partnerships with both vendors and we run both in production.

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 that actually went live. 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: Astrée reports AquiWeb on 400+ industrial sites and 21,000+ daily users. Most of those plants needed OEE, quality and traceability configured. Selling them a development platform to reach the same place would be an expensive way to do it.

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 couldn't find anyone able to implement it at the scale it needed. The team that solved that became this company. Eleven years on, the first site is still running and the template has reached 25+ sites. That history explains the shareholder register better than a 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 GroupMAJORITY SHAREHOLDER 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 share register is unusual. It's also the closest thing we have to a strategy: each of them does something in a programme that we'd otherwise have to pretend we could do.

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 don't 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're actually running.
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Tell us where your last programme stalled, and who owned that boundary.