A Manufacturing AI Portfolio — Not a Point Solution
EKAS is a coordinated set of intelligence capabilities built on a single governed data layer, a single evidence standard, and a single security pipeline. Each capability delivers immediate value. Together they compound: every shift of production data makes every capability more accurate and more specific to your operation.
What EKAS Delivers
Every customer starts with the Core EKAS platform. Each Foundation, Professional, or Enterprise tier includes the intelligence layer described below.
AI Assistant
Ask any manufacturing question in plain language. Every answer carries a full EvidencePacket tracing every number to its source record.
Learn more →Manufacturing Analytics
91 governed metrics across the ISA-95 hierarchy. OEE, downtime, FPY, and capacity — ISO 22400-2 ratio-of-sums enforced throughout.
Learn more →Financial Intelligence
Scrap cost, downtime cost, and OEE efficiency loss by workcenter — from confirmed production data, any day, without waiting for period close.
Learn more →Document Intelligence
Calibration certs, NCRs, work orders, and PPAP submissions — extracted, indexed, and queryable through the AI Assistant.
Learn more →Shift Handoff Intelligence
Structured shift briefings generated from live production data. Outgoing supervisors confirm. Incoming supervisors start informed.
Learn more →What EKAS Is Not
EKAS does not replace your MES, ERP, CMMS, or QMS. It reads from them. In any data conflict between your ERP and an EKAS calculation, your ERP wins. Scheduling, work orders, master data, and execution remain in your existing systems. EKAS is the analytical intelligence layer.
Add-On Modules
Add capability without adding vendors. Each module is purchased separately and integrates natively with your Core EKAS platform.
CE — Cost Estimation
Tooling cost models (T1–T5 die complexity), should-cost analysis, and scenario simulation.
Agentic Quoting
Autonomous RFQ ingestion, quote generation, and margin-aware pricing.
FMEA / Quality
Failure mode and effects analysis with integrated quality metrics.
Predictive Maintenance
Anomaly detection, machine-health scoring, downtime forecasting.
EBITDA / Financial Variance
Real-time financial cost variance and EBITDA architecture.
How EKAS Sequences AI Investment
EKAS organizes 16 AI capabilities across the McKinsey Three Horizons framework — a strategic allocation discipline introduced by Baghai, Coley & White in 1999. Each horizon serves a distinct purpose, and each capability scores against five selection criteria before receiving active investment.
The framework prevents the most common AI failure mode: organizations that pursue interesting use cases without a coherent selection framework, producing a collection of disconnected pilots that collectively deliver no measurable business value.
Horizon 1 — Extend & Defend
70% of investment focus
Quick wins. Certain returns. Proven data. Pays for the portfolio. Six capabilities live or near-live, including OEE diagnostics, downtime root cause, cost variance attribution, shift handoff intelligence.
Horizon 2 — Build & Scale
20% of investment focus
Emerging differentiators. Moderate risk. Six capabilities in design or build, with deeper plant-context grounding and longer feedback loops than Horizon 1.
Horizon 3 — Create Options
10% of investment focus
Transformational bets. Higher risk. Four capabilities funded only after Horizon 1 generates documented returns.
Five-criteria scoring before investment
Every capability is scored against five criteria before it enters the active portfolio. Capabilities below the scoring threshold do not receive investment, regardless of how interesting they appear.
- Strategic Relevance — does the capability advance a named business priority?
- Measurable Impact — can success be defined in dollar terms before investment?
- Feasibility — can it be built with available technology, skills, and budget within a defined timeframe?
- Data Readiness — is the required data accessible, structured, accurate, and of sufficient volume?
- Regulatory Implications — can compliance obligations (IATF 16949, EU AI Act, OEM contractual) be met within timeline and budget?
Governance cadence
EKAS embeds a quarterly governance cadence into the customer engagement, with binary decision criteria at every layer.
The portfolio approach traces to Markowitz's Modern Portfolio Theory (1952), awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1990. The core insight: a rational investor doesn't pursue the single highest-return option, but assembles a collection of options that maximize return for a given level of risk. EKAS applies the same logic to AI investment in precision manufacturing.
See It in Action
Bring a plant problem. We'll show you how EKAS approaches it.