PORTLAND, ME--(Marketwire - Oct 4, 2012) - Kepware Technologies, the leader in advanced automation for communications, announced today that it is teaming with ZPI, Inc. to drive industrial automation and improve the quality of business data delivered to the company's manufacturing customers. By leveraging Kepware as their OPC server provider, ZPI is meeting increased demand for reliable, operation-related metrics and achieving lean six sigma and continuous improvement initiatives. To learn the full details, download the ZPI case study.

Based in Ontario, Canada, ZPI provides enterprise manufacturing diagnostics software to help customers accelerate production while improving top-line performance and reducing waste. "With the economy struggling, manufacturers must focus on total quality management and six sigma initiatives," said Paul Mancini, Vice President of Marketing and Innovation at ZPI. "The truth is, it's just not possible without the right diagnostic tools in place. This places a premium on highly accurate, real-time, business-critical data."

ZPI frequently found that their manufacturing customers were leveraging a competitive industrial automation and control system that dropped connections and produced inaccurate data reads. These issues stemmed from poor network design and occurred when new data overtaxed the overall network configuration. As the flawed data reports continued to impact the manufacturing improvement processes, ZPI turned to Kepware and their award-winning KEPServerEX® offering.

KEPServerEX is specifically engineered to connect a wide variety of industrial automation devices and applications, from plant control systems to enterprise information systems. The flexible and scalable software can efficiently manage, monitor, and control diverse automation devices and software applications. Kepware also provides a highly effective interface, offering plant-level data, bottleneck analysis, and immediate problem identification.

In typical installations, ZPI creates a Kepware channel for each individual production asset, thus providing insulation from communications failures that may occur in other channels. When combined with the auto-demotion functionality, this feature results in near-perfect data. 

"Right away, we noticed improvements in the quality and usability of data we were receiving. Because Kepware provides a rich suite of drivers, you can connect to almost any device at any time. This lessens support requirements, lowers total project costs, and ultimately improves reliability of performance metrics," noted Mancini.

As a result of partnering with Kepware, ZPI has saved more than $500 million dollars in performance improvement projects worldwide -- at companies ranging from leading pharmaceuticals to food and beverage customers and chemical manufacturers. "Kepware delivers a level of quality no other company can match. For our customers' journey to total process improvement, the move to Kepware has made all the difference," concluded Mancini. 

To learn the full details, download the ZPI case study at http://www.kepware.com/casestudy/kepware-and-zpi-quest-data-perfection/.

About Kepware Technologies
Kepware Technologies, established in 1995, develops a wide range of communication and interoperability software solutions for the Automation industry. Our flexible and scalable solutions are for connecting, managing, monitoring, and controlling diverse automation devices and software applications. Our industry endorsed software solutions improve operations and decision-making throughout all levels of an organization. Kepware Technologies' mission is to be "Your Standard for Connectivity."