Newstack · industrial process automation

A mechatronics engineer, not an agency

Xavier Rion — I design and install the automations I sell myself, in manufacturing SMEs of 20 to 250 people.

Thirty minutes, no commitment

You describe your flow, I tell you what can be automated, what cannot, and where I would start. If I'm not the right person, I'll say so during the call.

I am a mechatronics engineer. I have spent my career in industrial production environments, on the technical side: machines, automation, instrumentation, safety, and the organisation around them. Newstack is the company through which I am building a process automation practice for manufacturing SMEs.

What brought me here is unremarkable: year after year, I watched technically excellent companies lose considerable time on administrative tasks nobody had the mandate to remove. Not for lack of ideas — for lack of someone whose job it was.

What I can do, and why it matters here

Automation and controllers

Programmable controllers, sensors, industrial networks, retrieving states and counters from equipment of very different generations. That is what lets me say quickly, standing in a workshop, what can be retrieved without replacing anything — and what cannot.

Simulation and mechatronic design

System modelling and simulation, sizing, behaviour analysis. Useful here for one specific reason: knowing what a model is actually worth, and therefore recognising an optimisation promise that will not survive contact with the shop floor.

Machine safety

Risk assessment, safety functions, conformity of work equipment. It is precisely why I refuse to touch the safety functions of your machines within an automation project: I know exactly what that would entail, and it is a different profession.

Software development and integration

Integration with ERP and production systems, document processing, shop-floor entry applications, databases. That is the part I practise daily and have done for several years, including outside industrial settings.

Why work with someone like me

I know the shop floor. I know an operator wearing gloves will not fill in a twelve-field form, that a tablet in a washdown area does not survive three weeks, and that a team leader who was not consulted will always find a way around a tool. Those things are not learned from a specification.

I work alone. That is a drawback — limited capacity, three clients in parallel at most — and it is an advantage: the person who comes to your workshop is the person who writes the code, and there is no sales layer between you and the work.

I do not sell licences. No software vendor pays me to steer you towards their product. When I tell you your current ERP is sufficient, there is no hidden interest behind it — on the contrary, it reduces what I can invoice you.

What I would rather tell you straight away

I am starting this practice. I do not yet have publishable references in this specific field, and I am not going to manufacture any: no client logos shown without permission, no invented testimonials, no results figures pulled out of thin air. Ask me during the call and I will answer precisely.
My capacity is limited. Three projects in parallel at most. If you need a team reachable at all times, with on-call cover, a services firm will suit you better and I will say so on the first call.
I do not take on every subject. PLC programming in production, safety functions, predictive maintenance and projects above €15,000 are outside my scope. That is not false modesty: it is what allows me to hold the deadlines I quote.

The questions I get asked

What is your real availability?

Three clients in parallel at most, and three to five weeks' notice before I can come and run an audit. Those figures are real: when I say six weeks, it is six weeks. If a lead time does not suit you, say so on the first call — I would rather turn a project down than deliver it late.

Why don’t you name the companies in your background?

Out of respect for the confidentiality obligations I have towards the companies I have worked for. You can judge my competence on what I tell you during the call and on the quality of the audit, which is charged for precisely so that you can assess it before going further.

What is your training?

Mechatronics engineer — the discipline combining mechanics, electronics, automation and industrial computing. It is exactly the combination missing in most manufacturing SMEs: someone who can talk to the setter, the quality manager and the ERP integrator in the same day.

What languages do you work in?

French and English. Dutch is not a working language for me; that is why I focus first on Wallonia and Brussels.

Where do you work?

In Wallonia and Brussels, with no travel charge. Elsewhere in Belgium it is possible where the conversation can be held in French or English, and costs are agreed before the quotation.

Are you insured?

Yes, professional indemnity insurance. The detail is in the quotation, along with the code assignment and confidentiality terms.

Let's talk for thirty minutes