Services
Automation and modernization consulting services
Joltek is an independent, vendor-neutral automation and modernization consultancy based in Montréal. We act as the manufacturer's technical lead on control system modernization, SCADA, MES, plant data and OT network work across North America, with a focus on food, beverage and CPG plants.
Plants call us when a legacy PLC or SCADA platform is running out of support, when a project with an integrator has stalled, when plant data cannot be trusted to make a decision, or when downtime keeps coming back after every fix. Investors call us before they buy a manufacturing asset, to find the automation and obsolescence risk that a financial review does not see.
The work below groups into four areas, from setting the strategy to delivering and sustaining it. Each service page sets out the problem it solves, how the work runs, what you end up holding and who it is for.
Modernization Strategy
Decide what to modernize, in what order and at what cost, before money is committed. This is where most engagements start, and where investors bring us in before a deal closes.
Manufacturing Modernization Roadmap
Define what to modernize, in what order, and who owns it.
Plant Systems Assessment and Obsolescence Risk Baseline
Know what is installed, what is at risk and what to fix first, before the next failure decides for you.
Control System Modernization
Migrate off obsolete platforms without inheriting a fragile system.
PLC Migration Consulting
Move off SLC 500, PLC-5 or S7-300 with a planned cutover, not an emergency.
MES Selection and Implementation Oversight
Choose an MES on your requirements and your data, then make sure it gets delivered that way.
Technical Due Diligence for Manufacturing Acquisitions
Technical due diligence and post-close operational assessment.
Delivery Governance
Keep projects and plants on track once the work is moving: plant data operations can trust, and the losses behind unplanned downtime found and removed.
Owner's Engineer for Automation Projects
Independent technical oversight of your integrator, from scope of work to handover.
Downtime and OEE Improvement
Find the losses, fix the ones that pay, and make the gain stick.
IT/OT Integration
Plant data that operations will actually trust and use.
OT Network Assessment for Manufacturing Plants
Find out what is actually on your plant network, what is putting uptime at risk, and what to fix first.
Engineering and Integration
Controls work delivered directly when that serves the plant better than handing it to another firm, under the same independence rules as our advisory work.
Workforce Development
Build the internal capability to run and support the systems, so performance stops depending on one person being available.
How an engagement starts
A conversation, then a defined scope
Work starts with a free consultation about the problem in front of you: a platform going end of life, a project that has drifted, a line that will not hold its rate. If there is a fit, the next step is a scoped piece of work with named deliverables, a duration and a price agreed before it starts, not an open ended retainer.
Most clients begin with an assessment or a roadmap. Some bring us in mid project to take technical ownership alongside their integrator. Either way you know what you are buying before it starts.
Who we work with
The people accountable for the plant
Engineering and automation managers who own PLC, HMI, SCADA, MES and OT network decisions. Plant and operations leaders running multi vendor projects without disrupting production. Corporate engineering teams standardizing across sites. Private equity operating partners and deal teams assessing manufacturing assets.
Our core sectors are food, beverage and consumer packaged goods, along with general discrete and process manufacturing. We are based in Montréal and work with plants across Canada and the United States.
Why independence matters
Paid by the plant, not the vendor
Joltek does not resell software or hardware and takes no vendor commissions or referral fees. That is what lets us recommend Rockwell, Siemens, Ignition or whatever else fits the site, and tell you when the right answer is to keep what you have. When we deliver integration work ourselves, the same rule applies: the design is chosen for your plant, and the code and documentation are handed over in a state your own team can maintain.
The work is led by Vladimir Romanov, an electrical engineer with an MBA from McGill who delivered capital projects at Procter & Gamble, led maintenance and operations at Kraft Heinz and ran a greenfield expansion at Post Holdings. Read his background, or see the case studies.
Have a project that needs technical ownership?
Send us the situation. If it is not something we should take on, we will say so.