Mahmoud Parto
Co-founder and CEO
Mahmoud Parto co-founded IoTFlows in Atlanta in 2020. He holds a PhD from Georgia Tech and grew up around the factory his father built.
Articles
Machines and connectivity
Rolling out machine monitoring with no IT team
Yes. Put sensors on a cellular router that never joins the plant network, or on a guest network. Compare the three paths, who does each step and what IT needs.
Machines and connectivity
What is machine monitoring, and what does it measure?
Machine monitoring records each machine’s run state, part counts, cycle times, stops and health. See where each signal comes from and what a plant does with it.
Operations and lean
Job costing with machine and labor hours
Job cost is measured machine and labor hours at burdened rates, plus material and scrap. Work one job, quoted against actual, and fix the jobs that lose money.
Machines and connectivity
Production line monitoring without PLCs
Yes. A laser counter at every step, read against Step 1, gives you line yield, the units lost at each step and the step that stopped first, with no PLC access.
Machines and connectivity
Connecting machine data to your ERP
Get machine hours and part counts into Epicor, SAP or JobBOSS: what the ERP needs per job, how to match runs to jobs, and which integration path fits.
Machines and connectivity
What IoT machine data adds to an MES
An MES is only as accurate as its machine data. Measured stops and part counts replace typed-in ones, so its downtime and OEE factor split come out right.
OEE and metrics
Manual vs automatic OEE tracking in the first week
Machine-reported stops move lost minutes from performance into availability. OEE itself moves only if part counts, ideal cycle times or planned time were off.
Downtime and utilization
How to calculate the cost of an hour of downtime
Price an hour of downtime from your own margin, crew and repair costs, with a formula, a worked bottling-line example and the test for when lost output counts.
Machines and connectivity
How to monitor an old machine with no network port
A sensor on the frame reads running, stopped and every cycle from outside, so a 30-year-old machine with no port reports uptime and part counts like a new one.
Machines and connectivity
How to monitor CNC machines of any brand or age
Put a sensor on every CNC for run state, cycles and stops on any brand or age, then read the control over MTConnect where it pays. Includes a worked shift.
Machines and connectivity
What Industry 4.0, IIoT and digital twins mean
Industry 4.0 is the goal, IIoT carries the machine data and a digital twin is a live copy that also acts. See what each means for a small plant, with numbers.
Machines and connectivity
MTConnect, OPC UA and Modbus compared
MTConnect reads machine tools, OPC UA models and secures plant data, and Modbus moves bare registers. See how each one works and when your machines need it.