Cantier Systems Prabakar Selvam Disruptive Technologies IndustryWired

Headquartered in Singapore, Cantier Systems provides Cantier MES 4.0 Software (Manufacturing Execution System) with Execution, IIoT, and Intelligence Capabilities. The software is a Smart Factory solution designed for collecting, analyzing, and predicting data from IoT-enabled devices. It provides real-time and accurate information leading to data-driven insight and actions. Cantier MES 4.0 is an easily configurable, highly scalable, and Cloud-ready manufacturing software that includes Product Configuration, Planning & Scheduling, WIP Tracking, Inventory, Quality Management (SPC, DCC), Recipe Management, Equipment Maintenance and OEE.

Cantier MES 4.0 is designed for Discrete and Process Manufacturing industries and has diversified client base across multiple industries such as Semiconductor, Electronics, Automotive, Metal Precision and Fabrication, Aerospace, Food and Beverages, Modular Construction, Sugar and Bio-Energy. Cantier Systems also offers Industry 4.0 Transformation Solutions such as Industry 4.0 Transformation Readiness Assessment, IX Journey Roadmap, Business Justification & ROI, Equipment Automation, Big Data, and Cloud Solution, Artificial Intelligence (AI, ML, DL, and NLP), Mixed Reality (AR/VR) and Robotic Process Automation.

Cantier Systems has been serving leading companies for the past 10 years including Littelfuse, Texas Instruments, Cypress, ROHM, Asurion, Mitsubishi, Asian Transmission, Sohbi kohgei, Hewtech, Shin-Etsu, Toshiba, Hitachi Cables, Sunpower, and AG&P.

An Incredible Journey Towards Manufacturing Automation

Cantier Systems started with the mission of Customer First, Automation in Shop-floor, Easily Configurable, Faster implementation, and Affordable Cost.

At the beginning when Cantier Systems worked with its manufacturing customers as a consulting solution company, it found that there were a lot of manual and paper-based systems on the manufacturing shop floor. Cantier Systems partnered with leading Manufacturing Execution System (MES) providers to help manufacturers in the APAC Region. However, unfortunately, it was difficult to sell those applications as manufacturers found it very expensive, not user-friendly, had a longer implementation timeline, unaffordable, and with an extensive ROI timeline. So, the company decided to develop its own Cantier MES (Manufacturing Execution System) to mitigate those challenges during that time.

When the 4th Industrial Revolution started a few years back, Cantier’s R&D and Product Innovation Group worked with market research companies and used customer feedback to incorporate those functionalities and launched Cantier MES 4.0 with Execution, Intelligence, and IIoT Capabilities as a SMART Factory Solution. The company is very proud to say that it has already provided a handful of Industry 4.0 Transformation solutions to help its global customers with their IX 4.0 Journey and they already reaped the benefits with this transformation. Further, Cantier Transformation Solution group has been doing a lot of implementations with its customers even in this COVID-19 situation.

A Dynamic and Recognized Leader

Prabakar Selvam is the Founder and CEO of Cantier Systems. He has over two decades of profound experience in the technology and manufacturing domain. He also worked with top-notch manufacturing operations and quality consultants to gain extensive experience in the manufacturing domain. With his strong foundation in Software development, Prabakar was able to closely work with Research & Development Team to come up with the MES Software to improve Traceability, Visibility, Quality, and Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) of the Manufacturing Shop-Floor.

Since the 4th industrial revolution started to happen, he has been actively involved with industry peers and customers to understand the needs of Disruptive Technologies (IIoT, Cloud, Machine Learning, and AI) in the Manufacturing Industry. This brought a significant transformation to Cantier MES that transitioned into Cantier MES 4.0 with Supply Chain, Execution, IIoT, and Intelligence Capabilities.

Prabakar is also the Chairman of MESA (Manufacturing Enterprise Solutions Association) APAC Board, an International Non-profit organization that bridges IT and Manufacturing and helps manufacturers to drive clarity on the role and value of modern information technologies in production operations. His leadership in MESA created several Special Interest Groups (SIG) in APAC Countries such as Singapore, India, Philippines, Taiwan, and Thailand. The SIGs focus on Industry 4.0 road map and guidelines for the countries. For example, MESA PHILIPPINES SIG developed a SMART Manufacturing Maturity Index (SMMI) to measure manufacturing companies and where they stand in terms of SMART Manufacturing. This index then was adopted by a Government Entity to measure its manufacturers in the country.

Prabakar has been recognized with numerous awards. Recently, CIO Views recognized him as “10 Best Entrepreneurs with Inspiring Story 2020”. He is also honored with “10 Best CEO’s of 2017” by Industry-Era Magazine and was featured among “30 Entrepreneurs of the year 2017” by The Silicon Review magazine, published from Silicon Valley, California.

Driving Industrial Innovation with Key Alliances

As 50% of the MES Solutions are expected to include IIOT by 2024, according to Gartner, Prabakar says, Cantier’s disruptive innovation product, Cantier MES 4.0, has already integrated not only IIoT but also Intelligence features as a Cost-Effective SMART Factory Solution.

Apart from Cantier owned MES 4.0 disruptive product, Cantier Innovation and Solution group collaborates with Partner Ecosystem of global leaders to offer Industry 4.0 disruptive solutions. Some of the major partners include:

  • MESA – IX Road Map, ROI, and IX Training
  • Ignition – Connectivity & Edge Devices
  • Microsoft, Google, and AWS – Cloud Computing & AI
  • Microsoft, Oracle, SAP – ERP Integration
  • Salesforce – CRM integration
  • IBM – Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and Intelligent Automation (IA)

Powering Machines with Disruptive Technologies

Prabakar strongly believes that disruptive technologies such as Big Data Analytics, Artificial Intelligence, Cloud Computing, IoT, and Robotics are key ingredients which are playing a major role in Industry 4.0’s Transformation Journey and SMART Factory Solutions.

Cantier Systems incorporated AI, Machine Learning, IoT, and Big Data Analytics in its MES 4.0 to help manufacturers set up SMART Factories. Cantier MES 4.0 supports both on-premise and cloud-hosted solutions (Public/Private).

With IIoT Technologies, companies can communicate with machines in real-time and provide insights to decision-makers. Through this, overall factory efficiencies and effectiveness can be monitored in real-time from anywhere and anytime and make immediate actions as the event happens. When needed, machine to machine communication and control can also be established.

Striving to Thrive in the Competition

Prabakar said Cantier Systems focuses more on organic growth and less on risky investments/and did not utilize venture capital funds offered in the past, else it would have been a global player a long time ago.

As Cantier Systems is managing without any VC Investments, new market and country expansion, brand awareness, and business development related activities are managed with a very lean budget and team. With many disruptive innovations in Cantier MES 4.0 solution, the company now focuses to be more aggressive with the right team size to grow faster as there is a huge opportunity available in the market.

However, Cantier Systems is in the process of overcoming these challenges through Series A fundraising activity.

Exceptional Feedback from Customers

Since its inception, Cantier Systems has been delivering innovative services to its clients and helping its valued customers in their quest for success. Below are some of the notable feedback received from clients:

“We had a very good experience with Cantier on MES 4.0 and SCADA implementation in our facility in Lipa, Philippines. Some of our machines are as old as 45 years old and we thought it is pretty difficult to connect them to get the live data but Cantier team has proved us wrong by bringing in experts from other parts of the world and solved the problem with negligible cost. I would say Cantier team is well equipped both in hardware and software knowledge.”- Mr. Prasad Reddy, Senior Manufacturing Director, Littelfuse

“The color-coding of the dashboard elements helps us to prioritize the issues and drill down for the details. Technicians can analyze the problem and attend to it immediately. The historical information helps them to learn and apply in future recovery. With the trends and analysis, we can predict the issues in advance and this is driving to minimize the downtime much more than how we used to do before.”- Mr. Richard Tacla, Engineering Manager

The Future Ahead

As the Industry 4.0’s transformation opportunity in manufacturing is likely to reach more than trillion-dollars in 2025, Cantier Systems would like to play a major role in this market share.

Prabakar says, though the company’s current customers are global manufacturers, Cantier Systems is presently working with them for their APAC locations. From 2020 to 2025, the company plans to expand its business activities in North America, Europe, and Africa Market.