Condition Monitoring in Heavy Industry
A documented, secure MQTT data-collection reference the site team can validate before broader rollout.
Scope & approach
Heavy-industry plants such as brickworks run continuous processes in heat and dust, so condition data has to be collected securely and without disturbing production control. Austral Bricks is one of Australia's largest brick manufacturers, operating multiple production sites across the country. At their Wollert facility, the team wanted to evaluate MQTT as a modern connectivity protocol for extracting machine data and enabling condition monitoring at scale. Metromotion Controls designed and delivered a structured MQTT trial, establishing secure certificate-based connectivity, documenting the architecture, and providing a completed implementation the site team could validate and extend. The project gave Austral Bricks a working reference implementation for MQTT-based data collection on industrial equipment.
What was delivered
- A functioning MQTT connectivity implementation was delivered at the Wollert facility with full documentation.
- Secure certificate-based architecture ensured the trial met industrial cybersecurity requirements.
- The completed implementation gave the Austral Bricks team a validated reference for broader rollout decisions.
Scope items
- MQTT connectivity design and implementation for condition monitoring at the Wollert production site
- Secure certificate and credential architecture for industrial IoT data collection
- Full implementation documentation covering architecture, configuration and data flow
- Trial validation support to allow the site team to assess performance before broader rollout
Services and sectors behind this work
OT networks and industrial networking
OT network design, industrial Ethernet, secure remote access and SCADA server connectivity.
Plant Intelligence: factory data and OEE
OEE, reports, quality, CIP, maintenance and energy data from the team that builds and programs the lines.
Building products automation
Process control, kiln and dryer stability, material handling and data for bricks, tiles and heavy clay plants.
IIoT and condition monitoring
Condition monitoring to ISO 17359 and ISO 13374, the P-F curve, MQTT and OPC UA data acquisition, and how condition data ties into OEE.
OT network security
IEC 62443 zones and conduits, the Purdue model, segmentation, secure remote access and the ACSC Essential Eight in an OT context.
OEE and production monitoring
Live OEE, line status and stop reasons read directly from the PLCs on food and beverage lines.
Maintenance from plant data
Plant events that raise CMMS work orders, condition alerts before a stop, and runtime counts for preventive maintenance.
Process plant automation
Process control for chemical, process and utility plants: loops, sequences, batch, boilers, steam and utilities.
PLC remote access: eWON, Tosibox and VPN
How remote access to PLCs works, what Australian cyber guidance expects and how to control vendor access.
Have a similar project? Talk to our engineers
Tell us the site change, support issue or upgrade target and we'll respond with the practical next step.