Modernization Strategy
Plant Systems Assessment and Obsolescence Risk Baseline
A fixed-scope baseline of your control systems: what you run, how exposed it is, and what to act on first.
A plant systems assessment answers three questions most sites cannot answer from one document: what control systems are installed, how close each one is to losing support, and which of them would stop production if it failed tomorrow. Joltek runs that assessment as a fixed-scope engagement. We inventory the controllers, HMIs, drives, networks, SCADA and MES layers, check their lifecycle status, score the risk against production impact and hand you a prioritized action list your leadership can fund.
Proof. Before founding Joltek, Vladimir Romanov led the migration of more than 120 servo axes off the discontinued Rockwell 1394 platform to Kinetix 6200 on an FDA-regulated packaging line, inside a planned two-week shutdown. That project started the way this assessment does: with a platform at end of life, scarce spares and a decision to act before the failure did (case study). At Joltek, we stabilized a packaging line where three OEM machines on Omron control fed a Rockwell cartoner with no source projects on site, which is the kind of documentation gap an assessment is designed to find early (case study).
For the background, see our guide to the Allen-Bradley lifecycle and migration, how we approach control system modernization strategy, and the Rockwell lifecycle states we check every catalogue number against.
Why it matters
What this costs when it is left alone
The reasons this work gets deferred are usually the reasons it gets expensive.
Nobody has the full list
Most plants know their critical controllers by memory and the rest by surprise. Firmware versions, spare counts and which HMI talks to which PLC usually live in a few people's heads, not in a document anyone can plan from.
Lifecycle status changes quietly
A controller family can move from Active to Active Mature to End of Life while the line runs perfectly. The status change is the warning, and it arrives years before the failure if someone is watching for it.
Capital requests need a risk ranking
A list of old equipment does not get funded. A ranked register that ties each item to the production it puts at risk gives a capital committee something it can approve in order.
Old systems are also a security finding
Unsupported operating systems, flat networks and unpatchable controllers are part of the same inventory. Assessing them together avoids two separate studies of the same plant.
Our approach
How the work runs
The assessment is a fixed scope agreed up front: the sites, lines and systems covered, the deliverables and the schedule. We walk the floor, read the programs and talk to the people who keep it running.
Inventory the installed base
- Controllers, I/O, HMIs, drives, networks, SCADA, historians and MES, with versions and firmware
- Lifecycle status per catalogue number, checked against the vendor's published lifecycle data
- Spares on the shelf, spares in the market and the lead time for each
Map the dependencies
- Which systems talk to which, over what network and protocol
- Software, licences and PCs the control layer depends on to run or to be changed
- Undocumented links, single points of failure and knowledge held by one person
Score the risk
- Each item scored by likelihood of failure or loss of support against production impact
- Cyber exposure noted alongside, from unsupported operating systems to flat networks
- Quick wins separated from items that need a capital project
Prioritize and report
- A prioritized action list, sequenced by risk and by your shutdown calendar
- An executive summary written for capital planning, not for engineers
- A clear handoff into a roadmap or a migration where the findings call for one
What we deliver
What you end up holding
- Installed base register with versions, firmware and lifecycle status
- System dependency map across controls, networks, SCADA and MES
- Spares exposure summary with sourcing risk and lead times
- Risk register scored by likelihood and production impact, with cyber exposure noted
- Prioritized action list sequenced against your shutdown windows
- Executive summary for capital planning, presented to your leadership team
Who we support
Who this is for
- Plant and engineering managers
- who inherited a controls estate nobody fully documented and need to know where the real exposure is before the next budget cycle.
- Operations and finance leaders
- who are asked to fund modernization and want a ranked, defensible list instead of a wish list.
- Corporate engineering teams
- comparing several sites on the same basis so capital goes to the plants and lines that carry the most risk.
Why Joltek
What you are actually buying
Independent of what comes next
We do not resell hardware or software and no integrator pays us, so the register reflects risk, not a sales pipeline. Sometimes the right answer is to keep running what you have.
Read by people who have run plants
The scoring comes from people who have commissioned lines and carried maintenance on them, so production impact is judged the way your operators would judge it.
Built to lead somewhere
The output is structured to become a modernization roadmap or a PLC migration plan without starting the analysis again.
Questions
Answered before you ask
What does a PLC obsolescence assessment include?
It includes an inventory of controllers, I/O, HMIs, drives, networks and SCADA or MES layers with their versions and lifecycle status, a map of what depends on what, spares exposure, cyber exposure, a risk register scored by likelihood and production impact, and a prioritized action list with an executive summary for capital planning.
How long does an assessment take?
For a single plant with a handful of lines, expect roughly two to four weeks from kickoff to the final report, including time on site. Larger sites or several plants take longer, typically four to eight weeks. We agree the scope and schedule before we start, so there are no open-ended studies.
Is this an audit?
No. Nobody is graded and nothing is reported to a third party. It is an assessment done for the plant, so people can tell us what actually happens on night shift without worrying about how it reads.
Do you need access to our network?
Not remote access. We work on site, with your team, and read controller and HMI projects from engineering workstations or backups you provide. Where a passive network review makes sense, we agree it with IT and OT in advance. A deeper look at the network itself is our OT network assessment.
What happens after the assessment?
That is your call. Many clients use the register to build a modernization roadmap or to plan a PLC migration. Others take the action list to their integrator. The report is written so either path works.
Can you assess a plant we are about to acquire?
Yes, with a scope adjusted to the time and access a transaction allows. That work is described under technical due diligence.
Do you travel to US plants?
Yes. Joltek is based in Laval, near Montréal, and works with plants across Canada and the United States. Site visits are part of the scope we agree up front.
Have a project that needs technical ownership?
Send us the situation. If it is not something we should take on, we will say so.