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At Optix 2026, Apperture Solutions brings together industry leaders, technology partners, and operational experts to explore how innovation is transforming performance, reliability, and sustainability across the industrial landscape.
This exclusive customer event is designed to help you see your operation more clearly—through real-world insights, hands-on demonstrations, and collaborative discussions that bring digital transformation into focus.
From process optimization to intelligent automation and cybersecurity, Optix 2026 is where ideas become actionable strategies that drive measurable results.
Case Study: Leading Life Sciences company slashes timelines with One-Click Automation
This case study highlights how a global biopharma company automated GMP software change validation, cutting project timelines in half and improving compliance.
Overview
Under increasing pressure to improve the efficiency of GMP software change validation, the automation team at a leading global biopharmaceutical company partnered with Apperture Solutions to transform their specification and validation workflows. Initially deployed for control system elements, a solution based on Informetric’s AgileDoc System Lifecycle Management (SLC) has since been extended to cover manufacturing execution.
Prior to AgileDoc manual updates to design specifications and test plans took weeks and were susceptible to human error. With AgileDoc, the team established repeatable, validated procedures to generate redlines, update specifications, create test plans, and route them for approval—all in less than half the time for large projects, with even greater savings for routine changes.
“We use it for everything, all the time, always… Our ability to decrease project execution time has been more than worth the effort of implementation.” – Senior automation engineer
Discover the Details
See how a global biopharma leader cut validation timelines in half and accelerated production with AgileDoc.
“Just like with cruise control on your car, our operators don’t want to take it out of APC mode (nor do they have to), because it allows them to ride smoothly through the minor disruptions of the day.”
Ease Variations in Steam Header Pressure
This customer was looking for ways to optimize their production with Advanced Process Control using Model Predictive Control (MPC) technology. MPC is used to manipulate multiple variables—like boiler loads, turbine loads, and let-down valves—to maintain stable steam pressure and minimize steam venting or downgrading.
Leveraging this technology, the Apperture Solutions experts were able to:
Optimize economic targets for key equipment, energy flows, and fuels
Optimize how the high-pressure header is keeping up with steam demand across the facility
Optimize the pressure reducing valves to maintain the appropriate pressures for each steam header
To ensure continued results, we actively maintain the system every six months to fine-tune the model based on metrics and operator feedback.
Technical Expertise that Raises the Bar for User Satisfaction
For PLCs, SCADA, or any DCS, our consultants deliver factory automation services across all brands and industries, ensuring seamless control system integration and operation. We specialize in a full range of project execution and lifecycle services—from design, configuration & integration, and commissioning through ongoing operational support.
By leveraging our expertise, manufacturers gain improved system performance, reduced downtime, and enhanced operational insights.
PLC Configuration for all leading manufacturers, including Emerson, Siemens, Allen-Bradley/Rockwell Automation, Schneider Electric/Modicon, Mitsubishi Electric, Omron, and others.
Upgrades and Migration for existing PLC systems, as well as newer technologies to improve performance and reliability.
Installation, Start-up & Commissioning, and Qualification—everything you need to make sure your process comes online and operates as designed.
Control System Integration to supervisory, SCADA, data historian, and Edge devices, including Emerson DeltaV™, Movicon™, Inductive Automation Ignition®, Rockwell FactoryTalk® View, AVEVA Wonderware, Siemens WinCC, Schneider/Foxboro, and others.
Ongoing Support Services, regardless of vendor with guaranteed response times for emergencies, on-line monitoring, and routine services to optimize automation processes, enhance productivity, and ensure the reliability of manufacturing operations.
Trust Apperture Solutions to unlock the full potential of your automation systems.
Apperture understands your unique challenges—regardless of where you are in the product/production lifecycle. From establishing a technology infrastructure and information security, through the management of equipment, documents, and materials, to facilitating the use of data for analytics and visualization, we have the expertise and knowledge to support a variety of solutions to meet your needs.
Automation & Scalability
By utilizing automation to support production scale-up, our solutions help ATMP manufacturers meet these challenges to ensure consistent quality and performance.
Current quality control methods may not be robust enough to detect subtle variations in ATMP products. Our solutions ensure the process is accurate, consistent, and reliable—facilitating data integrity and regulatory compliance throughout the product lifecycle.
Capturing real-time data from Life Sciences processes is critical for optimization and compliance. Our solutions help you capture, contextualize, and analyze manufacturing data to ensure product quality, regulatory compliance, and operational efficiency.
Our clients can trust that we are the right organization to partner with—now and for the long term. We not only have the expertise to engineer and deploy these solutions but also the industry-specific knowledge and experience to ensure they are architected in a reliable, scalable, and forward-looking manner.
Customer Use Case: Audit Trail Data From 100 Devices Across 8 Manufacturing Areas
Data integrity plays a critical role for any life science manufacturer, so imagine having to collect and discern audit data from almost 100 devices across eight manufacturing areas. It’s nearly impossible to generate audit trails on all the various devices with different HMIs and islands of information everywhere.
Solve Your Compliance Vulnerability Issues With Informetric Systems’ InfoBatch® InfoETL Apperture Solutions has partnered with Informetric Systems to provide an advanced technology solution that can:
Accommodate disparate and, frequently, siloed data
Remove the entire human data collection and analysis headache
Automate and streamline the entire process
Eliminate data integrity vulnerabilities
Include reporting and routing for electronic approval
Be GMP-compliant
Save Time & Money
by eliminating human data collection
Eliminate Audit Trail Vulnerabilities
with a secure, automated solution for collection and reporting
Gain GMP-Compliance Confidence
with access to comprehensive, reliable audit trails
Learn More About the Data Integrity Benefits of InfoETL
Address Your Cybersecurity Challenges and Concerns
Accomplish a culture of cybersecurity through a combination of technologies, strategies, and processes. Our assessment is an integral part of the continuous improvement process that comprises a sound cybersecurity program. We start by identifying risks and areas for improvement. Then we use network monitoring tools to identify real vulnerabilities, provide tactical recommendations, and create a roadmap for remediation.
Our advanced cybersecurity assessment measures practices and procedures against the industry standard, NIST SP800-82, to identify, protect/detect, respond, recover, and govern your organization’s cybersecurity risk. As part of our advanced assessment, we’ll also create an inventory of your OT assets.
Meeting the challenges of improving unit operations requires the use of OT data that spans multiple departments. Apperture’s Data Workshop is an ideal way to get to the most impactful use cases, quickly. We start by getting the right people in the room, diving into pain points, finding symptoms of variability, and then discussing how your data can drive analytics use cases. Armed with a sound plan, our team leverages a self-service analytics platform called Seeq. The Seeq platform is designed to work with your tribal knowledge of the process and leverages the power of connecting disparate data sources.
Data Analytics Workshop Addresses Big Challenges
Our data workshop is designed to address big, overall objectives, including:
Production yield
Production capacity
Production schedule adherence
Unplanned downtime
Equipment performance
Overall Equipment Effectiveness
Apperture ensures success throughout your data analytics journey by developing a strong relationship with your team. Using our Data Workshop format, we learn where we can complement your talent and drive the most impactful goals.
Start your Data Analytics journey more quickly using Seeq and the data analytics experts at Apperture Solutions. We can drastically cut down the amount of time spent fixing time-series data so you can spend more time coming up with brilliant ideas of solving problems faster.
Alarm Management is a timely topic for any process control manufacturer whose operators are inundated with alarm flooding, or who is looking to adopt an alarm rationalization strategy. At Apperture, we work with paper mills, chemical plants, life sciences companies, specialty chemical, nuclear facilities, and the mining/processing industry, so we have a breadth of experience to tap into, state-of-the-art tools to support our recommendations, and the experts to ensure that our customers experience a successful outcome.
Many companies upgrade to more current levels of their DCS for a variety of reasons—to take advantage of more features and modern technologies, as well as better integration and reporting. As part of this manufacturer’s migration journey, their alarm management data carried forward, but since it previously had not been part of an overall alarm philosophy, there was too much data and little prioritization of alarms. This impaired the operators from effectively and consistently responding; therefore, they needed to adopt a rationalization approach. The goal was to adopt a process that would allow them to move closer to the ISA standard, especially since many of their long-term operators (who had ‘tribal knowledge’) were retiring. Newly hired operators could not only benefit from this approach—but also needed adequate training to fully apply these new technologies, stay compliant, and ensure safety.
“Working with Apperture on Alarm Rationalization has been transformational in the sense that we now have our team focused on the alerts that they need to address, rather than be de-sensitized to what is happening.” – Operations Manager
AgileOps™ Operations Management Software was our technology of choice for our client. The software is designed to assist with the process of alarm rationalization—the systematic review and optimization of alarm systems to enhance their effectiveness, reduce alarm fatigue, and improve overall plant safety and efficiency—as well as move them toward the highly desirable ISA 18.2 standard. This software also ensures that our client gets the most value out of the alarm management system because every alarm is actionable; the alarm system loses its appeal when an operator wastes time sifting through nuisance alarms.
The objectives of their program were to:
Prevent (and eliminate where possible) alarm floods that can overwhelm operators
Increase operator effectiveness, by rationalizing meaningful, relevant, and actionable alarms, eliminating ‘bad actors’ (excessive alarms), and conditionalizing alarm logic
Incorporate state-based alarming, allowing them to dynamically manage alarms relative to a state change in the process
Focus on critical issues, ensuring that operators are alerted to those issues requiring immediate attention
Reduce downtime and maintenance costs
Stay compliant with standards and regulations—ensuring the safety of their people and equipment, as well as the community and environment
To address the training issue, Mimic™ Simulation Software allows us to create a real-time, dynamic simulation of plant behaviors, enabling new operators to gain hands-on experience in a controlled environment. Simulation technologies, such as Mimic, empower industrial manufacturers to mitigate the impact of the knowledge gap resulting from the aging workforce, upskill the current workforce, and ensure the continuity of operations and expertise in the long term. This program takes the operators through fifteen different exercises based on actual events—each one demonstrating a real issue they could potentially face in the field.
In the future, our client is considering replacing much of their current training with Digital Twin technology, as well as creating a larger-scale training program across the facility. Mimic can provide that capability, giving them industry exercises in the actual environment where they’ll be running a process.
Apperture Production Optimization Services
We offer a wide range of services to improve process performance and efficiency:
Planning, dynamically managing, and consistently measuring equipment utilization
Architecting and implementing strategies that deliver optimal control, reducing variability and minimizing disruptions and abnormal situations
Enriching the operator environment through digital simulation and assessment tools, while defining a work environment suitable to today’s technologies
Apperture Managed Services
Our Managed Services professionals are an extension of your team—focused on improving operations and lowering costs by minimizing process downtime and risk. That’s why we focus on your objectives, your timetable, your ability to do the work and get trained, and your organization’s appetite for change.
*Sources: ASM Consortium; World Oil, Economic Benefits of Training
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