What changes when the assets you operate stop being centralised and predictable, and start being distributed, intermittent and weather-dependent? The old operations playbook breaks — and most digital programmes are still designed for the old one.

Dr Hema Wadhwa, Associate, Data & Analytics | Asset Management and Performance at Aurecon, joins Phil Seboa and Ed Fuentes to talk about building digital asset intelligence for the energy transition. Hema's career is a live map of that transition: she started as a Floating Systems Engineer in global oil and gas, moved through subsea engineering and power generation operations, and now leads digital strategy and analytics for mixed energy asset fleets.

Key topics in this episode:

- The unplanned career arc — floating production systems and subsea engineering into renewable operations

- "Are you here to take my job?" — what digital transformation actually feels like from inside the control room

- Why the solution providers have to evolve, not the operators

- One gas turbine versus a hundred wind turbines: why renewable fleets break the old operations model

- No standard across vendor SCADA screens and UIs, and what that inconsistency costs

- Why there is no AI magic without the data groundwork first — and why selling it that way isn't ethical

- Cognitive load: lean frontline teams, PDF report fatigue, and tools that land as a burden

- OT/IT convergence and the cybersecurity questions that come with opening it up

- OEM warranties and whether asset owners really have access to their own asset data

- Recording data when it changes, not on a fixed scan rate

- One source of truth, different views per role — data presented so it guides a decision

- Predicting failures months ahead: cranes, spares, and turning downtime into planned work

- BESS as a trading platform, not just another renewable asset

- Why the real cost driver is people, and why it only stacks up if it scales across assets

Made possible by FlowFuse.

Connect with Hema on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/drhemawadhwa

Connect with Phil on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/phil-seboa

Connect with Ed on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/ed-fuentes

Sign up for the Unplugged newsletter: unpluggediiot.com/newsletter

Learn more about Aurecon: aurecongroup.com

Every IIoT project starts the same way: you need data out of a PLC. The standard answer is OPC-UA — but what if that protocol is overloading your PLCs, eating bandwidth, and costing you thousands in upsized hardware?

In this episode, Christofer Dutz — creator of Apache PLC4X and CEO of ToddySoft GmbH — joins Phil Seboa and Ed Fuentes to explain why speaking the native tongue of your PLCs is faster, cheaper, and more efficient than wrapping everything in OPC-UA. Chris shares how PLC4X pulled 2,600 data points every 200 milliseconds at just 2–3% CPU overhead — compared to OPC-UA choking at 200 data points every two seconds on the same hardware.

The conversation covers the origin of PLC4X (a "JDBC for industrial automation"), the not-invented-here syndrome that created today's protocol mess, why open-source adoption in OT is still painfully slow, the role of Apache IoTDB as a time-series storage engine handling 1.5 billion insertions per second, and Chris's new commercial venture ToddySoft — bringing production-grade Rust-based drivers to platforms like Inductive Automation's Ignition.

Whether you're an automation engineer drowning in protocol adapters or an IT architect trying to bridge the OT gap, this episode is packed with practical insight from someone who has spent a decade making PLCs talk.

Connect with Christofer on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/christoferdutz

Connect with Phil on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/phil-seboa

Connect with Ed on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/ed-fuentes

Sign up for the Unplugged newsletter: unpluggediiot.com/newsletter

Learn more about ToddySoft: toddysoft.com

Learn more about Apache PLC4X: plc4x.apache.org

In the final part of our FlowFuse mini-series on Unplugged: An IIoT Podcast, Phil Seboa and Ed Fuentes close out with Kristopher Sandoval of FlowFuse on what happens once you can build fast: how do you scale, govern and standardise industrial applications across plants, lines and teams?

Kristopher explains why Expert doesn't replace developers — it removes repetitive setup so engineers can focus on operational problems, business logic, architecture and deployment strategy. We cover scaling via FlowFuse pipelines (build once, roll out to hundreds of devices), granular RBAC that persists across instances and sites, air-gapping and data sovereignty for regulated environments, and the bring-your-own-key/model future. The throughline: without FlowFuse's governance, versioning and standardisation, AI-generated apps just become technical debt.

Chapters:

- 0:00 — Welcome back: the changing role of industrial teams

- 1:00 — Expert removes repetitive setup; engineers focus on operational problems

- 5:00 — Augmenting vs replacing developers

- 9:00 — Enterprise governance: self-hosted, BYOK, guardrails

- 12:00 — Scaling across teams and sites with FlowFuse

- 15:00 — Advice for closing the application gap today

- 17:00 — Learning segment

- 18:00 — Closing and outro

Connect

- Kristopher Sandoval (FlowFuse): https://www.linkedin.com/in/krsando/

- FlowFuse docs: https://flowfuse.com/docs

- Phil Seboa: https://www.linkedin.com/in/phil-seboa/

- Ed Fuentes: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ed-fuentes-2046121a/

FlowFuse is a proud sponsor of Unplugged: An IIoT Podcast.

For more Info about Flowfuse Expert visit https://flowfuse.com/

#IIoT #NodeRED #FlowFuse #Governance #Scaling #IndustrialAutomation #ITOT

In Part 2 of our FlowFuse mini-series on Unplugged: An IIoT Podcast, Phil Seboa and Ed Fuentes get practical with Kristopher Sandoval from FlowFuse. We move from “what is the application gap?” to what it looks like to close it on the shop floor.

Kristopher walks through real operational use cases—OEE dashboards, shift handover workflows, quality validation, and asset monitoring—starting with the operational problem and then showing the working application. We also dig into the technical mechanics: how FlowFuse Expert turns plain-language requirements into Node-RED nodes and flows, updates to the immersive editor in FlowFuse 2.30, and the governance layer (snapshot comparisons, change review, and deployment management) that helps teams keep changes production-ready.

• OEE: “Build me an OEE dashboard for three production lines with downtime tracking and shift comparison.”
• Shift handover: “Create a shift handover workflow where operators log production issues, actions taken, and outstanding risks.”
• Quality validation: “Create a workflow that validates production data and alerts operators when thresholds are exceeded.”
• Asset monitoring: “Create a dashboard showing machine status, downtime, and maintenance alerts.”

• 0:00 — Welcome back: real operational use cases
• 1:00 — Shift handover, quality validation, asset monitoring, Modbus-to-UNS
• 5:00 — From operational problem to working application
• 9:00 — Technical mechanics: how Expert translates needs into flows
• 13:00 — Immersive editor improvements in 2.30
• 16:00 — Governance: snapshot comparisons, change review, deployment

• Kristopher Sandoval (FlowFuse): LinkedIn (TBC)
• FlowFuse docs: https://flowfuse.com/docs
• Phil Seboa: https://www.linkedin.com/in/phil-seboa/
• Ed Fuentes: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ed-fuentes-2046121a/

Disclosure: FlowFuse is a proud sponsor of Unplugged: An IIoT Podcast.

#IIoT #NodeRED #FlowFuse #OEE #ShopFloor #IndustrialAutomation #ITOT

In this first episode of a 3-part FlowFuse mini-series on Unplugged: An IIoT Podcast, hosts Phil Seboa and Ed Fuentes sit down with Kristopher Sandoval of FlowFuse to unpack the application gap in industrial operations — the growing distance between how many applications industrial teams need and how fast their developers can build them.

Kristopher explains why so many operational workflows still live in spreadsheets, local scripts and one-off dashboards, and how the Node-RED → FlowFuse → FlowFuse Expert stack is changing the equation. We cover what FlowFuse Expert actually is — an AI co-pilot that builds industrial applications on a Node-RED workspace from a plain-language description — why it's built on MCP (Model Context Protocol) for real industrial context instead of generic LLM guesswork, and how it can compress tasks that once took 10–20 hours down to around an hour, without replacing the operators and OT engineers who know the plant best.

If your team has more ideas than capacity to build them, this episode is about closing that gap.

• 0:00 — Intro and guest welcome
• 3:00 — The application gap in industrial operations
• 6:00 — Where workflows live today: spreadsheets, scripts, manual processes
• 10:00 — Who feels this gap most?
• 12:00 — From operational need to working application (OEE dashboard)
• 16:00 — Iterating with Expert and availability
• 0:00 — Intro and guest welcome
• 3:00 — The application gap in industrial operations
• 6:00 — Where workflows live today: spreadsheets, scripts, manual processes
• 10:00 — Who feels this gap most?
• 12:00 — From operational need to working application (OEE dashboard)
• 16:00 — Iterating with Expert and availability

• Kristopher Sandoval (FlowFuse): https://www.linkedin.com/in/krsando/
• FlowFuse docs: https://flowfuse.com/docs
• Phil Seboa: https://www.linkedin.com/in/phil-seboa/
• Ed Fuentes: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ed-fuentes-2046121a/

Sign up: www.unpluggediiot.com/newsletter

FlowFuse is a proud sponsor of Unplugged: An IIoT Podcast.

#IIoT #NodeRED #FlowFuse #IndustrialAutomation #ITOT #ManufacturingTech #OEE

What does it take for AI to actually deliver on the factory floor? In this episode, we explore why most manufacturing AI pilots never make it to production, and what changes when you get the data architecture right.

Francisco Almada Lobo, CEO and Co-Founder at Critical Manufacturing, joins Phil Seboa and Ed Fuentes to discuss MES as the foundation for manufacturing AI, why context beats compute, and what regulated industries need before they can trust AI in production.

Key topics in this episode:

• What MES is and why it keeps expanding beyond process control
• Why Audi's 100+ AI initiatives failed to scale to production
• "Fat events": enriching IoT data with MES context for AI workloads
• Design-time AI vs runtime AI in regulated manufacturing
• The first FDA warning letter for unauthorized AI use
• Why this technology revolution gives no time for adjustment

This episode is proudly made possible by FlowFuse. FlowFuse is the industrial application platform that helps operations, maintenance, and IT teams connect any machine, move data between systems, and scale industrial applications across sites. It is built on Node-RED, with the security and governance you need for real production environments. Learn more at flowfuse.com.

Connect with Francisco on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/falmadalobo

Connect with Phil on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/philseboa

Connect with Ed on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/edfuentes

Learn more about Critical Manufacturing: criticalmanufacturing.com

Book mentioned: "Agentic Artificial Intelligence" by Pascal Bonnet

Howard Sachs joins Phil Seboa and Ed Fuentes to discuss how de-risking industrial technology, championing sovereign manufacturing, and first-principles leadership are shaping Australia's industrial future.

Key topics in this episode:

• Why de-risking matters more than product specifications in industrial sales
• How the Dulux Industry 4.0 project succeeded through collaboration and leadership
• Australia's sovereign manufacturing challenges and the COVID-19 vaccine push
• Pockets of innovation across traditionally conservative industries
• Why mentorship from every direction accelerates learning

Connect with Howard on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hsachs/

Connect with Phil on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/philseboa/

Connect with Ed on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/edfuentes/

Learn more about Universal Automation Solutions: https://universalsystems.com.au

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Most industrial AI projects fail before they produce anything useful. The models are ready, the dashboards look great, and the executive presentation landed. But on the shop floor, nobody can get clean data out of the PLC without calling the vendor. The missing piece is a data foundation.

Alexander Kruger, co-founder and CEO of United Manufacturing Hub (UMH), joins Phil Seboa and Ed Fuentes on this episode, powered by PLCnext Technology, to explain why factory AI stalls without the right infrastructure underneath it, why boring technology beats shiny platforms, and how open source tooling is putting data ownership back in the hands of the people who run factories.

Key topics in this episode:

• Why most factory AI projects fail at the data layer before they reach the model layer
• How UMH went from systems integration with McKinsey to building open source data infrastructure
• The five-step process for connecting machines, modeling data, and serving it to applications
• Why Kafka and Postgres beat purpose-built IoT platforms for long-term reliability
• How containers and Kubernetes solve high availability problems OT has wrestled with for years
• The open source bet on forerunner power users who change organizations from within

--------------------------------

This episode is proudly made possible by PLCnext Technology

PLCnext Technology is the ecosystem for industrial automation consisting of open hardware, modular engineering software, a global community, and a digital software marketplace.




Learn more at:

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.plcnext-community.net/news/synergy-edge-cloud/⁠⁠⁠




--------------------------------

Connect with Alexander on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexander-krueger/

Connect with Phil on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/philseboa/

Connect with Ed on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/edfuentes/

Learn more about United Manufacturing Hub: https://umh.app

Most industrial data projects fail before they start. The data is clean, the tools are connected, and the dashboards look great. But nobody can explain why the production line dropped 12% last Tuesday. The missing piece is human context.

Bob van de Kuilen, CEO and co-founder of Thred, joins Phil Seboa to explain why knowledge graphs fill the gap that the Unified Namespace leaves open, and how pairing them with AI turns weeks of troubleshooting into minutes.

Key topics in this episode:

• Why machine context alone cannot make industrial data meaningful
• How knowledge graphs go beyond UNS to connect cross-functional perspectives
• A hydraulic failure diagnosed in three minutes instead of two weeks
• The knowing-doing gap that keeps factories stuck despite having the right tools
• Why throwing an LLM over raw data without a knowledge graph causes hallucinations




---------------

This episode is proudly made possible by PLCnext Technology

PLCnext Technology is the ecosystem for industrial automation consisting of open hardware, modular engineering software, a global community, and a digital software marketplace.




Learn more at:

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.plcnext-community.net/news/synergy-edge-cloud/⁠⁠




---------------

Connect with Bob on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bob-van-de-kuilen-a531403/




Connect with Phil on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/philseboa/




Connect with Ed on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/edfuentes/




Learn more about Thred: https://thredcloud.com

Containerization is quietly reshaping how factories deploy and manage software, but most OT teams never asked for it. In this episode powered by PLCnext Technology, we explore why containers matter for manufacturing and how to adopt them without the complexity.

Neil Cresswell, Founder and CEO of Portainer, joins Phil Seboa and Ed Fuentes to discuss how his platform went from an IT tool to a factory floor essential, and why the technology behind it should be invisible to the people using it.

Key topics in this episode:

• How Portainer evolved from an IT tool to an industrial platform
• Why containers and Kubernetes are reshaping factory software deployment
• The global manufacturing competition driving modernization
• Real-world use cases from John Deere, precision agriculture, and quality control
• A bottom-up strategy for adopting new technology in your plant

This episode is proudly made possible by PLCnext Technology

PLCnext Technology is the ecosystem for industrial automation consisting of open hardware, modular engineering software, a global community, and a digital software marketplace.

Learn more at:

⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.plcnext-community.net/news/synergy-edge-cloud/⁠

---------------------------

FlowFuse at Hannover Messe 2026

Discover how FlowFuse empowers you to build, deploy, and scale industrial automation -- your way. Visit FlowFuse at Hall 014, Stand K26 during Hannover Messe (April 20-24, 2026) and experience live demonstrations of FlowFuse connecting the entire industrial stack -- from PLCs on the shop floor to MES, ERP, and cloud services -- enabling real-time industrial connectivity, data integration, and AI-powered operations.

Let's transform industrial data together -- live, integrated, and in real time.

Claim your free pass and learn more: https://flowfuse.com/events/hannover-messe-2026/

---------------------------

Connect with Neil on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ncresswell/

Connect with Phil on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/philseboa/

Connect with Ed on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/edfuentes/

Learn more about Portainer: https://www.portainer.io

Episode Recap Article: https://unpluggediiot.com/episodes/ep-48-containers-without-complexity-it-tools-factory-floor