Your machines aren't too old for Industry 4.0. They're just not wired for it — yet.
A machine retrofit doesn't have to mean stripping the machine or replacing the PLC. addanode retrofits legacy machines with sensors, counters and edge devices that put live output, downtime and OEE on a dashboard — while the machine keeps running exactly as it always has. Most South African plants run lines that are 15–30 years old; this is how they get modern data without a modern-machine budget.
Sense it, connect it, see it — without touching the controls.
Sense
Non-invasive sensors on the machine: output and reject counters, current clamps on the motor, vibration and temperature where it matters. No PLC contact, no control-loop changes.
Connect
An edge device wires the sensors into the addaNet platform — over your network, 4G or LoRaWAN — and buffers data through load shedding so the record survives the outage.
See
Live dashboards per line and shift: OEE, downtime with reasons, speed loss against design rate. The same view for the floor, the office and your phone.
Machines with a working PLC can additionally be read over Modbus/OPC-UA for richer state and fault data — still read-only, still no control changes. The full method is in our shop floor data collection guide.
What does a machine retrofit cost in South Africa?
For monitoring retrofits the honest answer is a range, because machine count and how many stop reasons you want captured drive the scope. Indicatively, per line:
| Retrofit scope | What's fitted | Indicative price* | Live in |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sensor-based retrofit | Counters, current clamps, edge device, dashboards | from ~ZAR 60 000 | 1–3 weeks |
| PLC-integrated retrofit | Read existing PLC tags (Modbus/OPC-UA) + sensors where tags are missing | from ~ZAR 120 000 | 2–4 weeks |
| Operator add-on | Shopfloor tablet so operators tag stop reasons | add-on | with either |
*Indicative starting ranges per line, consistent with our OEE monitoring pricing; final scope and price confirmed after a site walk. Most projects run as a monthly subscription covering platform, connectivity and support.
Digital retrofit vs mechanical retrofit — which do you need?
"Machine retrofitting companies" can mean two different trades, and it's worth being clear which one you're shopping for:
Digital / monitoring retrofit — what we do
Add sensing, connectivity and OEE/condition monitoring to a machine that mechanically still does its job. The machine is untouched; the data layer is new. This is where addanode works, end to end — hardware, edge and platform, built in South Africa.
Mechanical / control rebuild — what we don't
Re-machining, new servo drives, CNC conversions or replacing the machine's control system. We don't do mechanical rebuilds — and if that's what your machine needs, monitoring data is still the cheapest way to prove it first, and to verify the rebuild afterwards.
Why plants start with the digital retrofit: 30 days of real OEE data usually shows whether the constraint is the machine itself — or the changeovers, micro-stops and waiting that no rebuild would fix. Many "old machine" problems turn out to be visibility problems.
Five steps, no production stoppage.
- Site walk — we look at the line, the machines and what you want to know, then confirm scope and price.
- Sensor fit — counters, clamps and sensors go on during planned stops or changeovers; nothing invasive.
- Edge & connect — the edge device joins your network (or runs on 4G/LoRaWAN where IT approval is slow), with buffering through load shedding.
- Dashboards live — OEE, downtime and speed loss per line and shift, usually within 1–3 weeks of the site walk.
- 30-day review — we sit with your team over the first month of data and rank the losses worth fixing first.
Machine retrofit questions.
For the full story of what retrofitting an old line looks like in practice, read how to measure OEE on an old line without a new PLC.
Got a line that's overdue for data?
Tell us what it makes and what you wish you knew about it. A site walk takes an hour; the first real OEE number usually lands within three weeks.