Building an Ecosystem Together at Operations Calling

In the world of manufacturing, transformation doesn’t happen in isolation. It happens when innovators, builders, and visionaries come together to push the boundaries of what’s possible. This spirit of openness and partnership was on full display at Operations Calling 2025, Tulip Interfaces’ annual gathering that has become the heartbeat of the connected manufacturing community.

At Operations Calling 2025, this shift came vividly to life. Over two days in Somerville, the conversations, demos, and partnerships reflected a shared understanding across the manufacturing community: no single system can do it all.

This year’s event was less a showcase and more a living ecosystem in motion. More than forty partners, spanning software, hardware, and integrators, filled the Partner Pavilion, Tulip Experience Center (TEC), and Hardware Wall, turning theory into practice.

At the Partner Pavilion, more than twenty-one partners came together to demonstrate what an open ecosystem truly looks like in action. Across the space, attendees could see how solutions from across the manufacturing technology landscape, spanning AI, analytics, knowledge capture, and industrial hardware, seamlessly connected with Tulip to solve real problems on the shop floor. Each demo, unique in its focus, shared a common theme: interoperability without friction, collaboration without barriers.

Cognite showed how AI systems from different platforms can now communicate directly to accelerate problem-solving. In a live bioprocessing scenario, a Tulip AI agent and a Cognite AI agent collaborated to detect and address a production deviation using real time context. It was a glimpse into a future where engineers guide intelligent systems through natural interactions, resolving issues in minutes rather than days.

DeepHow’s demo centered on how organizations can preserve and scale the expertise of their workforce. By capturing tribal knowledge and transforming it into structured, reusable content, DeepHow enables manufacturers to embed critical know-how directly into their Tulip apps, which can be run on Zebra tablets. Through this three-way integration, operators get media-rich guidance, videos, and interactive lessons directly at the point of work. Manufacturers can learn and adapt on the job while maintaining consistency across shifts and sites. For manufacturers, it means faster onboarding, seamless knowledge sharing, and continuous reinforcement of best practices within Tulip’s connected ecosystem.

Extending this spirit of connection beyond software, the Hardware Wall offered a device-focused complement to the Pavilion’s digital collaborations. Here, attendees witnessed an array of industrial hardware devices, scanners from ProGlove, scales from Mettler Toledo, and tools from other leading manufacturers, all connected to Tulip in real time. Whether through Tulip’s Edge Driver SDK or the growing library of pre-built Edge Drivers in the Tulip Library, every integration underscored the same principle that defined the Pavilion. No barriers. No proprietary roadblocks. Just effortless interoperability.

These demonstrations, and the many others across the Pavilion, captured the essence of Tulip’s open architecture: diverse technologies working side by side, connected by a shared commitment to openness, adaptability, and empowering the people who make, build, and improve the world around us.

Inside the Tulip Experience Center (TEC), the concept of openness took on a physical form. Designed to showcase what’s possible with Tulip, the TEC demonstrated some of the most powerful examples of what’s possible with connected systems in real-world applications.

The new aerospace engine assembly demo, developed in partnership with Zebra Technologies, showcased how a connected ecosystem of devices and digital workflows can transform complex assembly operations. By integrating Zebra tablets, scanners, and vision systems, alongside Kolver torque drivers, with Tulip, manufacturers gain real-time traceability, error-proofing, and unified visibility across every step of production. For aerospace and defense manufacturers, where precision and compliance are paramount, this interoperability ensures that operators are guided, parts are verified, and quality checks are automated.

As Zebra showcased how an ecosystem can redefine discrete assembly, Sartorius demonstrated how Tulip apps can bring greater agility and efficiency to bioprocessing operations alongside their STR Gen 3 bioreactor. This demo illustrated how manufacturers can replace paper-based processes with digital workflows that make it easier to monitor, document, and control complex equipment. By combining Sartorius’ advanced bioreactor technology with Tulip’s platform, teams can develop Composable HMIs to streamline operations and accelerate process improvement across the shop floor.

Meanwhile, an integration between Litmus and Tulip tied the collaborations across the TEC together with a how Unified Namespace (UNS) demo. By connecting machines, sensors, and systems across the Tulip Experience Center through OPC UA, MQTT, and other protocols, the demo unified data into a shared structure. For manufacturers, this represents the promise of a truly connected operation where data flows freely between the edge and the enterprise, insights are immediate, and teams can act with clarity.

Beyond the Pavilion and Hardware Wall, the spirit of the ecosystem was alive across Operations Calling. A series of sessions and interactive demos showcased how partnerships across industries are redefining what connectivity and collaboration can mean in manufacturing.

In a session with Smith + Nephew and HighByte, speakers explored how the combination of Tulip’s platform and HighByte’s industrial data infrastructure is helping Smith + Nephew bridge IT, OT, and Quality to build more resilient, regulated manufacturing operations. By unifying data from on-prem systems and cloud sources, Tulip and HighByte enable Smith + Nephew to turn raw data into actionable insights while maintaining integrity across their GxP environment.

Another highlight came from Eli Lilly, alongside Frontwell Solutions, who shared how they built a scalable digital logbook framework using Tulip’s platform. As an expert in life sciences, Frontwell leveraged Tulip to streamline data capture and governance, helping Eli Lilly replace hundreds of paper forms with dynamic, compliant digital workflows that deliver real-time operational insight.

Meanwhile, speakers from Echodyne and Arena delved into the critical connection between Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) and Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES), discussing how a single source of truth is critical to ensuring efficiency and quality. Their session underscored how cloud-native platforms and collaborative cultures help teams in highly regulated industries, like aerospace, move faster while maintaining compliance.

Attendees got to see the power of PLM and MES in practice through the coffee bar. Visitors ordered drinks through a Tulip app that pulled eBOM data from Arena PLM, surfacing ingredient and quality details for each beverage. Behind the counter, a Tulip dashboard visualized real-time trends, drink popularity, dairy choices, and orders per minute, illustrating how even lighthearted experiences can embody the principles of connection, transparency, and creativity that define Tulip’s ecosystem.

The ecosystem showcased at Operations Calling 2025 wasn’t about competition or ownership. It was about partnership and possibility. Each connection, from AI to analytics, sensors to software, added another layer to a growing network of innovation. And as that network expands, the whole community benefits.

Because the future of manufacturing won’t be built behind closed walls. It will be built, openly and collaboratively, by everyone willing to connect. Manufacturing is evolving too quickly for closed systems to keep up. The old playbook, protecting the stack with walls and rigid integrations, no longer works. Today’s leaders win by connecting, not controlling.

At Operations Calling 2025, one message stood out: innovation thrives through openness. The most successful manufacturers aren’t trying to own every layer. They’re building ecosystems that let ideas, data, and tools flow freely.

From AI to analytics, sensors to software, every connection strengthens a shared network of possibility. The future of manufacturing won’t be built behind closed walls. It will be built together, openly and collaboratively.