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Rowi GmbH Rowi GmbH Stuttgart · Est. 2009
§ 01 PRODUCT DEEP-DIVE · FlowEngine

INDUSTRIAL AI · STUTTGART · SINCE 2009

The proprietary runtime that takes a retrofit line from kick-off to a passing FAT in 4.2 weeks.

Rowi FlowEngine™ is the edge-to-control-to-cloud runtime behind every line we commission. One deterministic core, deployed on 1,180+ bottling, filling, and discrete-assembly lines across fourteen countries — with a documented mean-time-between-incidents above 9,400 hours and an average Overall Equipment Effectiveness lift of 11.4 points within the first ninety days of go-live.

  • 11.4 ptsAvg. OEE lift, 90 days
  • 4.2 wksMean commissioning time
  • 9,400+ hMean time between incidents
  • 1,180+Lines deployed, 14 countries
§ 02 ARCHITECTURE

EDGE → CONTROL → CLOUD

One C++ runtime that lives on the sensor, on the PLC, and in the dashboard — without translation layers.

FlowEngine is not three products glued together. It is a single deterministically-scheduled core that compiles down to each tier, so a recipe authored once at the engineering workstation behaves identically on the edge IPC, the line controller, and the cloud analytics layer. That is why commissioning drops from eleven weeks to 4.2 — there is no separate MES, SCADA, and historian stack to reconcile.

  • One source of truth. Tags, recipes, and interlocks authored in IEC 61131-3 + Python, compiled once.
  • Drop-in to existing PLCs. Certified system integrator for Siemens, Beckhoff, and Schneider — gold-tier since 2017.
  • Air-gapped by default. Cloud layer is opt-in and read-only; the line never depends on it.
  • Vendor-neutral I/O. OPC UA server/client, PROFINET, EtherCAT, Modbus TCP — all native.
L1
EDGE
Sensors · Vision · Drives
  • ARM Cortex-A IPCs
  • Deterministic 1 ms cycle
  • On-prem historian
L2
CONTROL
PLC · Recipes · Interlocks
  • Siemens · Beckhoff · Schneider
  • IEC 62443-4-1 secure boot
  • FlowEngine™ scheduler
L3
CLOUD
Analytics · Dashboards
  • Read-only event stream
  • OEE · FPY · downtime roll-ups
  • EU-only data residency
§ 03 INDUSTRIAL STANDARDS

ENGINEERING DATASHEET · § 03

Built against the four standards every specifying engineer checks first.

No marketing prose — just the industrial-grade compliance anchors that decide whether FlowEngine drops into your existing architecture without a retrofit of the retrofit.

  1. 01

    OPC UA Companion Spec compliance

    Native OPC UA server and client across all three FlowEngine tiers, including the Packaging & Containerisation, Machine Tool, and Robotics companion specifications. No protocol gateways, no translation tables — the same address space is visible from the line PLC and from the cloud dashboard.

    Profiles
    Standard · Transport · SecurityPolicy Basic256Sha256
    Methods
    Read/write · subscriptions · historical access
    Auth
    X.509 + role-based ACLs, IEC 62443-4-1 compliant
  2. 02

    PackML state machine, packaged

    FlowEngine embeds the full OMAC PackML state model (Clearing, Starting, Ready, Producing, Stopping, Stopped, Aborting, Aborted, Holding, Held) and exposes the PackTags interface natively. Any line controller you already run — Siemens S7, Beckhoff TwinCAT, Schneider M580 — can speak PackML to FlowEngine on day one.

    Modes
    Automatic · Semi-automatic · Manual · Maintenance
    Tag map
    113 standard PackTags, plus 9 OEM extensions
    Audit
    State transitions hash-chained and tamper-evident
  3. 03

    Weihenstephan standard event stream

    Every micro-stop, OEE gap, and efficiency loss is emitted in the Weihenstephan standard format — the lingua franca of brewing, beverage, and pharma-adjacent filling lines across the DACH region. Drop FlowEngine into an existing PI Ignition or Influx pipeline and historians accept the stream with zero custom mapping.

    Schema
    Weihenstephan v3.4 with line-speed and product extensions
    Granularity
    100 ms micro-stops, 1 s macro-stops, 1 min roll-ups
    Transport
    MQTT-SN, OPC UA Pub/Sub, or CSV flat-file
  4. 04

    IEC 62443-4-1 cyber-security posture

    FlowEngine is developed under a certified IEC 62443-4-1 process — audited 2024 by TÜV Süd — and ships with secure boot, signed firmware, role-based access, and a documented incident-response runbook. The 24/7 NOC follows SL-2 policies; air-gapped deployments can opt out of remote attestation entirely.

    Security level
    SL-2 target, SL-3 ready
    Patching
    Monthly cumulative patches · 5-year LTS window
    Pen-test
    Annual third-party, results disclosed under NDA
§ 04 BY THE NUMBERS

Runtime maturity, audited

Four numbers that earn FlowEngine its place on a specifying engineer’s shortlist.

1,180+
Lines running FlowEngine
across fourteen countries, audited across 47 reference plants in DACH and the Benelux.
9,400+ h
Mean time between incidents
documented across the last 84 deployments, 2021–2024. 97% on-time delivery rate.
+11.4 pts
Average OEE lift, 90 days
range 6.8–17.2 pts across bottling, filling, and discrete-assembly lines.
14 min
P1 on-site response
38 control engineers across the in-house 24/7 NOC, Stuttgart-based.

Independently audited by Fraunhofer IOSB-INA in 2023 · ISO 9001:2015 certified · IEC 62443-4-1 certified (TÜV Süd, 2024).

§ 05 REFERENCE ARCHITECTURE

VDMA WORKING GROUP 4.0 · ENDORSED

Rowi is the sole industrial AI vendor to publish a public reference architecture endorsed by the VDMA Working Group 4.0.

The 2.1 MB PDF is the document your control-engineering team will be asked to sign off on. It gives you the layered diagrams, the integration patterns, the security model, and the bill-of-materials for a typical retrofit — written by engineers, for engineers, and reviewed by the VDMA Working Group 4.0 before publication.

  • 01Layered architecture (L1 edge → L2 control → L3 cloud)
  • 02Integration patterns for Siemens / Beckhoff / Schneider
  • 03OPC UA / PackML / Weihenstephan mapping tables
  • 04IEC 62443-4-1 security model & threat surface
  • 05Reference BoM for a 3-cell bottling line retrofit
  • 06Commissioning checklist (FAT · SAT · Site Acceptance)

PDF download is gated with a work email. The link above is a placeholder — wire it to your asset in the page settings.

§ 06 NEXT STEP

SPECIFYING A RETROFIT?

Take the next 42 pages to your control-engineering review.

If FlowEngine looks like the runtime for your next line, the reference architecture is the document you need to circulate internally. If you already have a scoped project, a sixty-minute discovery call with a Rowi solutions engineer is the fastest route to a fixed-price proposal.