Automation that starts on your floor and shows up in your numbers
More throughput, better quality, more uptime, lower cost, safer work, and faster changeovers: that’s how automation should be judged, and it starts on your floor. Where does work in process stack up? What does the operator do between cycles? Which alarm keeps tripping that nobody has logged? We answer those questions first-hand before choosing the technology. As automation system integrators, we take it from that first walk through design, programming, panels, installation, and commissioning.
From the first walk to sustained improvement
- 1
Discovery.
We walk the floor, inventory what’s running, and talk with operators, maintenance, and leadership to find the problems worth solving. You get a recommendation on what to change, what to leave alone, and which technology fits.
- 2
Design engineering.
We identify the time, materials, and people the project needs, then build the documents everyone works from: P&IDs, functional description specifications, control strategies, schematics, and commissioning checklists. SCADA master planning and the HMI style guide are set here.
- 3
Implementation.
PLC, DCS, SCADA, and HMI programming and configuration, with data tags flowing from field devices through the control system to the reporting and visualization tools your operators and project leaders use. Control panels are built in our UL-listed shop, tested point to point, powered up, and programmed before they ship.
- 4
Testing and startup.
Factory acceptance testing with you, loop checkout and calibration, startup procedures, and on-site control engineers who stay through the first production runs.
- 5
Sustained improvement.
After startup, we keep tuning: reviewing performance data, closing the losses it reveals, and evolving the system as your product mix and plant change.
What working with us is like
Most integrators quote, program, and commission projects in much the same way. The difference is who you work with. Our engineers specialize by industry, so they already know how operations like yours run and where they get stuck, and the work moves without friction from the first walk. They love what they do, and they care about the success of the people they work with, not just the project in front of them. That’s why so many of our customers stop shopping around and keep bringing us their next project.
What our industrial automation capability covers
GrayMatter’s controls teams work from offices across the United States, Canada, and India, in food and beverage, life sciences, water and wastewater, process manufacturing, and high-speed discrete and packaging lines.
Architecture and control system integration
Which technology fits your process, and how it connects: PLCs, DCS, MES, and ERP, and the industrial network underneath them, built to modern security standards from the start and ready for the capabilities you’ll add next. As control system integrators, we have no stake in which vendor you choose.
PLC programming services
Programming for new lines and modernizations, written and tested offline before it reaches your line. When we replace a controller, we write the new program from scratch around what the process needs to do now.
Data collection and remote monitoring
Getting data off your machines and in front of the people who run them, in the plant or across remote sites. As a SCADA system integrator, GrayMatter designs, migrates, and supports these systems, from master planning to radio telemetry.
HMI programming
Operator screens built to the ISA 101 standard, with alarm structures your operators can act on, plus a high-performance graphics style guide your team owns, operator workshops, and beta testing with your team before go-live.
Panel design
Control panels designed, built, and tested in UL-listed panel shops in the US and Canada, with factory acceptance testing before anything ships.
High-speed line and machine control
Tuning code and control parameters on fast discrete lines, from cans to consumer packaging, so the same equipment runs faster once the machine builder’s scope is done.
Process and machine control
Batching and continuous control, reactor control, fired equipment, safety instrumented systems, materials handling, motion, and high-precision cutting.
Validated and regulated systems
Specification, coding, commissioning, and startup for life sciences: chemical formulation, sanitized and sterilized processes, qualified utilities, filling and capping, freeze dryers, and inspection, plus serialization for regulated packaging lines.
Where the line falls
We handle moving a valve, starting a motor, and getting control-system data into the historian. If it’s reports, dashboards, and analytics built from data already in the historian, Brilliant Operations takes the case.
Solutions built on platforms you already own
GrayMatter doesn’t steer you toward a platform. What we bring is what you only learn from doing the projects: where each platform has its traps, and how to work around them before they break something downstream. Where you have a standard across your sites, we build to it. Where you don’t, we help you choose one you won’t have to unwind later.
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What we build, by industry
Controls work looks different in every plant. These are the settings our industrial automation integrators know best.
Discrete Manufacturing
Line and machine control tuning for cans, consumer packaging, and other lines that run hundreds to thousands of units a minute.
Food and Beverage
Packaging lines, process control, and batching, from soft drinks to infant formula to the liquid sugar systems that coat breakfast cereal.
Life Sciences
Validated process control, formulation, filling and capping, freeze drying, and serialization for packaging lines, from inspection cameras to the data-linkage software that keeps the record intact.
Water and Wastewater
SCADA design and master planning, PLC and RTU replacement, radio telemetry, and ISA 101 screens for treatment plants and remote sites.
Specialty Chemical
Batching and continuous control, reactor control, fired equipment, and safety instrumented systems, with offline testing and commissioning support through the first production runs.
Oil and Gas
Documenting and modernizing control systems, including fail-safe emergency shutdown upgrades, for well pads, compressor stations, and pipeline segments.
Consumer Goods
Controls modernization and line tuning for growing product mixes.
Show us where the line falls short.
Bring the line that’s running below what it should, the plant you’re about to build, or the controls cutover you can’t get funded. An automation engineer will talk it through with you.
Talk with a Factory Advisor
FAQs
Programming is one phase. A GrayMatter project starts with discovery on your floor and also covers design documents, panel build and testing, factory acceptance, loop checkout, installation, and on-site startup support.
Questions about your process before questions about your platform. Documentation you keep. Testing before anything ships. Engineers who stay through the first production runs.
Yes. Where you already have a standard across your sites, we build to it. Where you don’t, we help you choose one you won’t have to unwind later.
Yes. We design and build panels in UL-listed shops in the United States and Canada, with UL and cUL listing and a factory acceptance test with your team. For field work, we bring in and manage electricians, installers, and network crews, so you have one order and one accountable team.
Yes. Our life sciences engineers handle validated systems from specification and coding through commissioning, plus serialization for pharmaceutical packaging lines.
Our engineers stay through burn-in and keep improving the system as your plant and product mix change. For ongoing monitoring and support, GrayMatter’s OT managed services, Command24, can take over.
Security is designed in from the start, with network segmentation, access control, and alignment to standards such as IEC 62443. When security is the project itself, our OT Cybersecurity team leads.
