Trellis Spotlight

For more than two decades, the team at PCG has lived and breathed manufacturing. With deep roots in operations, ERP, and industrial processes, their consultants have witnessed firsthand how digital transformation initiatives often promise sweeping improvements—but too often result in long timelines, burdensome complexity, and limited adoption on the shop floor. That history is exactly what makes their approach today so striking: PCG is proving that transformation can be fast, flexible, and deeply human-centered.

PCG’s Smart Factory™ solution, built on top of Tulip’s composable platform, allows their clients to see measurable value not in months or years, but in days and weeks. Through a customer-first philosophy, a close partnership with Tulip, and a relentless focus on the operatoroperator’s experience, PCG is helping manufacturers rapidly digitize their operations and create sustainable pathways to long-term transformation.

Their work earned them a 2025 Tulip Groundbreaker Award—recognition that celebrates not just their technical expertise, but the way they bring teams together across organizations to solve complex problems.

When asked what makes PCG’s approach different, both De Wet du Plooy and Sylvain Thauvette pointed to the same foundation: experience. Most members of the PCG team have spent 20–25 years in manufacturing, giving them insights that can’t be learned from textbooks or slide decks. They know the pressures operators face, they’ve lived through MES implementations that took years to deliver value, and they understand how essential it is to bring frontline teams along in the journey.

This background made their expansion into MES consulting a natural next step. “Growing and extending into MES for us was the natural next step,” De Wet explained. Tulip’s composable architecture provided exactly what they were looking for—a platform that enabled a crawl-walk-run approach aligned with their philosophy: customer first, do the right thing, deliver value early.

On top of Tulip, PCG built Smart Factory, a commercially ready solution that accelerates MES adoption. With this system, PCG can show value almost immediately, helping manufacturers map processes, implement apps, and integrate machines without the heavy lift required by monolithic solutions.

For PCG’s consultants—many of whom did not have traditional software development backgrounds—Tulip also opened new doors. Through Tulip’s enablement programs, PCG scaled a new team of certified builders and implementation consultants quickly. “We were able to train very rapidly,” Sylvain shared. “Now we have a large number of consultants who can build apps, work directly with customers, and bring their manufacturing expertise to life.” It was, in many ways, a transformation inside their own organization.

One project both leaders highlighted showcases PCG's strengths in execution, collaboration, and frontline empowerment.

The client—a manufacturer of environmentally sensitive construction materials—operated in conditions where variables like humidity and temperature directly impacted product quality. Achieving consistency requiredrequires precision, stability, and data visibility from end to end.

PCG implemented Smart Factory on Tulip as the backbone of their transformation. But what unlocked true adoption was their unwavering focus on the operator.

From day one, they worked side by side with frontline teams to understand the realities of their environment. Wet floors, dirty surfaces, and bulky protective gloves made touchscreens impractical. Instead of forcing a technology that didn’t fit, PCG adapted the interface to the operator: they designed a touchless interaction model, allowing operators to move through screens or trigger counts without physical contact.

This level of personalization was not an afterthought; it was a built-in phase of the PCG methodology. “We actually build into each one of our implementation plans a fair amount of personalization time,” De Wet explained. Operators were empowered to say what they needed—where buttons should go, what size elements should be, and how screens should flow based on their natural movements.

Alongside this operator-centric work, PCG addressed a highly unstable network environment with incremental improvements and continuous knowledge transfer. They deployed machine integrations and edge devices strategically, focusing on high-value points first and expanding from there.

The result: a fully autonomous production reporting solution, seamlessly integrated from the shop floor to the ERP system, with 100% adoption and zero failures at go-live. For a system touching every part of production, that level of stability and trust is exceptionally rare.

When discussing collaboration, De Wet didn’t start with a customer story—he started with Tulip. “I cannot give higher praise than to the partner support team,” he said. From rapid response times to transparency around opportunities, Tulip’s partner ecosystem has been instrumental in PCG’s success.

The two organizations operate as a seamless unit. Their teams conduct weekly reviews of customer opportunities, collaborate on open support tickets, and provide shared guidance on ongoing implementation strategy. When a customer contacts Tulip, one of the first questions Tulip asks is, “Who are you working with?”—a signal of the unified front they strive to present.

For PCG, this is what partnership should look like. “We’ve worked with many software companies,” Sylvain noted. “We don’t always feel like partners. With Tulip, we truly do.”

Visits to the Tulip Experience Center also play a crucial role. When customers witness the “art of the possible” and see what real-time, flexible manufacturing apps look like in action, PCG finds momentum accelerates dramatically.

PCG helps customers build early wins quickly: digitize operations, deploy apps, and stabilize core processes. But they also build the foundation for future innovation.

After initial MES functionality is delivered, PCG helps customers expand into machine integration, IoT data capture, and analytics. Once data is captured end to end—including quality, machine, and production data—manufacturers can finally explore AI-driven insights and advanced performance tools.

“It’s not just solving current challenges,” Gabriella observed during the interview. “You’re preparing them for what comes next.” And this is exactly the point: PCG ensures customers don’t just adopt new tools—they build a scalable digital backbone for the future.

When asked to distill their advice for others guiding manufacturers through digital transformation, De Wet summed it up simply:

• Don’t boil the ocean.
• Crawl, walk, run.
• Focus on quick wins with clear value.
• Communicate time to benefit.

It’s an approach grounded in experience—one that has resonated with customers, accelerated adoption, and empowered frontline teams.

PCG’s work demonstrates the power of combining deep manufacturing knowledge with a flexible, human-centered platform like Tulip. Their success is rooted in empathy for operators, commitment to rapid value, and a true partnership mindset that brings people, processes, and technology together.

It’s no surprise that their team earned the 2025 Groundbreaker recognition. Their achievements reflect not just technical excellence, but a philosophy: put the customer first, do the right thing, and deliver transformation that lasts.