Digitalization in manufacturing is indispensable today
Many industrial companies are still struggling with heterogeneous system landscapes, manually maintained data silos, and a lack of seamlessness between OT and IT. As a result, valuable efficiency potential is lost, for example in maintenance, process optimization, or knowledge management. While modern software platforms are intended to help network machines and data more flexibly, a decisive factor is often missing: the intelligent use of collected experiential knowledge in everyday production. This is exactly where FLECS and MADDOX come into play, two technologies that complement each other perfectly. FLECS Technologies provides the technological basis for providing industrial software solutions in a modular, secure, and hardware-independent manner. Based on the principle: apps instead of project effort. MADDOX from Peerox extends this digital basis with AI-supported knowledge management that makes experiential knowledge from malfunctions available, thereby reducing downtime. Together, FLECS and MADDOX show how digital flexibility and human experience can be combined into a powerful system: efficient, adaptive, and future-proof.
Innovative basis: How FLECS rethinks automation
FLECS pursues a radically modular approach: Based on a Linux-based, open operating system, the FLECS Core forms the runtime environment for apps, from local visualization to AI-based services. Apps exchange data with each other via the integrated service mesh in a standardized and secure manner. This decouples the classic automation architecture and opens it up for modern software solutions. A central unique selling point: FLECS not only enables the simple installation of standard apps but also offers a complete development and release infrastructure for proprietary industrial applications. With the help of pre-made app templates (including Docker, manifest, and CI/CD configurations), companies can develop their own solutions in a very short time, whether for connecting special PLCs, for proprietary machine modules, or customer-specific interfaces. The fully automated release process via GitHub, including versioning and target group control, ensures that new functions and updates reach the operator quickly and safely. At the touch of a button, via the FLECS Marketplace or an individual white-label portal. In this way, FLECS becomes the optimal platform for rolling out tailor-made software solutions ready for operation, without the complexity of traditional development and distribution processes. Via the WebApp, users always maintain control over installed applications, access rights, and updates, locally or remotely, with just a few clicks. The big advantage: More than 70 immediately usable apps are already available on the FLECS Marketplace today, which can be installed directly on machines. From data loggers and OPC UA gateways to AI modules. The more apps used on a machine, the more a networked, intelligent data space is created. This is precisely what is essential for systems like MADDOX.
Practical example: Increasing efficiency through AI-supported knowledge management with MADDOX
MADDOX from Peerox is an AI-based software solution that increases production efficiency in the manufacturing industry by over 15% through innovative knowledge management and the reduction of downtime.
When a malfunction occurs, operators look for the cause—but even if the best database were available, the problem often remains unsolved. The reason: To use knowledge from a classic database, you have to know and correctly use keywords. But often exactly that is missing—the correct name for the component or the type of malfunction.
This is exactly where MADDOX comes in. Instead of laboriously searching for keywords, MADDOX compares the current data patterns of the malfunction with historical data patterns and knowledge entries on which the machine learning algorithm was trained. The system then directly suggests the appropriate knowledge card, which contains a concrete solution for the current malfunction. This reduces machine downtime without losing valuable time through unsuccessful search processes.
From the pharmaceutical industry to the beverage industry to building materials: MADDOX proves its success in numerous sectors—wherever complex systems and experienced employees work together.
Efficiency is created when digital flexibility is linked with intelligent knowledge management.
The combination of FLECS and MADDOProviding data in the required quality was a major practical challenge as a cross-sectional task of the entire digitalization strategy. In some cases, machine data interfaces were incompletely or incorrectly documented, load and latency issues occurred, and internal machine states had to be mapped to OEE-relevant states (e.g., PackML standard).
This integration into the complex data and IT landscape was significantly driven by the integration experts from Peerox. They took over the coordination with six different machine manufacturers as well as a globally active external IT service provider, thereby considerably relieving the project managers and on-site technical teams.
As a result, MADDOX is integrated as a distributed server application into a complex network structure consisting of four partitions—from the PLC to the cloud server—and captures more than 26,000 variables from over 50 production machines through monitored, fault-tolerant data interfaces.
In addition to being used for internal AI training, MADDOX also makes this data available for other applications within the IT infrastructure (e.g., for production dashboards).
X is a prime example of modern OT/IT integration. FLECS makes it possible to provide all data points relevant to MADDOX, from sensors to the PLC, in a service mesh, aggregated via apps that can be developed individually or obtained as a standard solution. This data is then made available locally or server-based so that MADDOX can apply its AI models with precise context. MADDOX itself will soon be available as an app on the FLECS Marketplace, including automatic updates, versioning, and compliance checks. Furthermore, plant operators benefit from all functions of the FLECS ecosystem: white-label marketplaces for individual customer portals, Cyber Resilience Act (CRA)-compliant security mechanisms, vulnerability scans and app hardening, app templates for rapid development of proprietary functions, and an Industrial Control Platform for virtualizing complete automation architectures. This close integration of FLECS and MADDOX creates a scalable, future-proof system that strengthens people and processes alike. Intelligent, flexible, and secure. The combination of an open app platform and learning AI shows how digitalization in production not only creates efficiency but also makes knowledge sustainably usable. This is how modern software turns into real value creation: less downtime, more transparency, and a continuously learning production environment. FLECS and MADDOX demonstrate how the factory of the future can function today. Open, networked, and human-centered.
