Ignition Gold Certified / Inductive Automation

Where others see problems,  I see data to connect. 

Machine downtime, Excel sheets, systems that don’t talk to each other: I turn them into reliable KPIs for better decisions. I build SCADA, MES and AI automation starting from how production really works: shop-floor data becomes clear numbers, ready for your CEO and CFO.

Let’s talk about your plant +39 347 610 4714

Based near Bergamo and Brescia, Italy · projects across Europe and worldwide

Operator in helmet and face shield, seen from behind, measuring the melt in a ladle hanging from the crane
Ignition Gold Certified · Inductive Automation
  • 20 years on site In the steel industry since 2006, without a break
  • WORLD plant commissioning Steel plants and furnaces commissioned in person, worldwide
  • 10 + SCADA platforms From Ignition to WinCC, with no vendor lock-in
  • GOLD Ignition certified Gold certification by Inductive Automation, 2023
Plant commissioning carried out in
  • Italy
  • Europe
  • Middle East
  • Latin America
Ladle hanging from the overhead crane in a steel plant, with the furnace lit in the background
Steel plant · ladle and furnace
01 — Expertise

From the field sensor
to the data decisions are made on

Four levels, one point of contact. Most problems don’t start inside a level but in the handover between two: that’s where I work.

  1. L0 — L1 01

    Field

    PLCs, drives, instrumentation, weighing, process sensors. This is where data is born, often in continuous processes.

    • Siemens S7 / TIA
    • Rockwell
    • ABB
    • Schneider
  2. L2 02

    Supervision

    HMI and SCADA operators actually use: readable at a glance, on the night shift, with gloves on.

    • Ignition
    • WinCC
    • FactoryTalk
    • AVEVA
  3. L3 03

    Traceability

    Heat tracking, recipes, consumption reporting, quality. Every piece becomes a record you can query.

    • Custom MES
    • SQL Server
    • Historian
    • Reporting
  4. L4 04

    Intelligence

    Automations and AI agents on top of plant data: analysis, anomalies, data entry that disappears.

    • AI agents
    • OCR and documents
    • Voice interfaces
    • Predictive analytics
02 — Industries

Where I’ve already worked

Every industry has its unwritten rules: cycle times, tolerances, what can be stopped and what can’t. You learn them on site, not from manuals.

  • Inside a steel plant with overhead cranes and metal walkways

    Steel

    I know the process, not just the data.

    EAF and LF furnaces, AOD, continuous casting, rolling mills, reheating furnaces, presses, forge shops. Twenty years of on-site commissioning: I know how a furnace reacts before I see it on a trend, and I design the system around the process.

    Steel plants commissioned around the world

  • Stainless steel machinery and piping in a pharmaceutical plant

    Pharmaceutical

    Standardise, don’t replicate.

    Machine supervision for equipment builders in the sector, with standardised SCADA in Ignition Perspective: one base, configurable per machine, instead of an adapted copy every time.

    Standard SCADA for a machine builder

  • Automatic filling line with aluminium cans

    Food & beverage

    Fewer manual steps, more time to produce.

    Business process optimisation and automations that connect the shop floor with the office: line data reaches where it is needed without being retyped, and repetitive tasks run on their own.

    Process optimisation and automations

  • Engine block clamped on an assembly station

    Automotive

    Every part, its process data.

    Process data acquisition and sampling for traceability: the parameters of every operation stay linked to the part, so a quality check or a customer claim is settled by querying an archive, not by reconstructing from memory.

    Process data acquisition, sampling and traceability

  • Precision-machined metal parts in an industrial setting

    Defence

    Traceability with no gaps allowed.

    Development of the production tracking system for ammunition, in a context where every batch must remain reconstructable and confidentiality on the details is part of the requirement.

    Ammunition production tracking

  • Water treatment plant with filtration basins

    Public utilities

    Oversight on behalf of the contracting authority.

    Consulting for a public company verifying the work of the tender winner: compliance with the specifications and with the estimated schedule, under the additional constraint of EU recovery (PNRR) funding. Project value: €2 million.

    Verification consulting · €2M contract · PNRR funds

  • Industrial stacks releasing white vapour into a blue sky

    Energy and environment

    Efficiency and compliance.

    Monitoring of atmospheric emissions from production plants, energy consumption tracking and department-level efficiency optimisation, with real-time alerts on the phone of whoever needs to act.

    Emissions and consumption, real-time alerts

  • Modern hotel room with a double bed and two lit lamps

    Tourism and hospitality

    Custom management software, even for small properties.

    Accommodation businesses where data comes from too many places: booking portals, POS, bank, e-invoices, statistics and police guest reporting. I bring it into a single system, with the day’s summary ready every morning.

    Custom hotel management system, in production

03 — Platforms

No vendor lock-in

I choose the platform for the plant, not for the price list. When the choice has already been made, I work with what’s there.

  • Ignition Gold certified
  • WinCC / TIA Portal Expert
  • FactoryTalk Expert
  • System Platform / InTouch Expert
  • 800xA Intermediate
  • Cimplicity / Proficy / iFIX Advanced
  • EcoStruxure / Vijeo Advanced
  • zenon Advanced
  • Citect Advanced
  • SQL Server Expert
04 — Projects

Four real problems

The problem we started from, what I did and what changed on the plant floor. One of them probably looks like yours.

  1. Ladle moved by the overhead crane above a furnace in a steel plant
    01
    Steel Melt shop

    Complete steel production tracking

    Problem

    Order scheduling, scrap selection, department consumption and final cost lived on separate systems. At month end nobody could say what a single heat had really cost.

    What I did

    A level 2 system covering the whole cycle: order scheduling with scrap selection based on the analysis required for the product, tracking of every consumption and every addition along the process, through to final costing.

    Result

    Actual production cost reported heat by heat.

  2. Vial filling and sealing line in pharmaceutical production
    02
    Pharmaceutical Pharmaceutical machine builder

    One standard SCADA instead of N adapted copies

    Problem

    For every new machine the team started from the previous machine’s SCADA, copied it and adapted it. Every copy drifted from the next: slow development and a growing surface for errors with each project.

    What I did

    A single SCADA built in Ignition Perspective, so web-based. A section reserved for the machine builder lets them enable and disable individual features, so the same base covers different machines without duplicating the project.

    Result

    Configure instead of rewrite: faster development and far fewer chances for error.

  3. Technician at a laptop in front of a test bench with wiring and electrical panels
    03
    Revamping PLC and SCADA migration

    Twenty-year-old PLCs, brought onto current platforms

    Problem

    Machines that still run, but with discontinued PLCs and panels, spare parts that can’t be found and an undocumented program written by someone who has since retired.

    What I did

    AI reads the old program and explains it in plain language, rebuilds the table of inputs, outputs, signals and alarms, and proposes the code for the new platform. I verify everything in simulation and commission it on the plant: responsibility for the code stays with me.

    Result

    The same method is in use on a supervision migration of 39 projects and more than 2,400 screens.

  4. Hotel room with a double bed, sofa and lit lamps
    04
    Tourism Family-run hotel, 8 rooms

    A hotel that organises itself every morning

    Problem

    Bookings on the portals, POS takings, bank statements, e-invoices, statistics and police guest reporting: every piece of data on a different system, and copying between them fell to the owners.

    What I did

    A chain of automations collects data from every source and brings it into custom management software. At 6 am the owners get a Telegram message with arrivals, departures and what is still to be collected; at 7:30 a summary of the mail that matters: authorities, bank, suppliers.

    Result

    Custom software that five years ago would not have been affordable for 8 rooms. With AI as a development copilot, today it is.

05 — AI automation

AI where it actually helps:
on repetitive work

Not a chatbot on a website. Automations that remove the tasks someone still does by hand today, and that nobody will miss.

01

Operational agents

Agents that read plant data and turn it into action: consistency checks, contextual alerts, reports nobody needs to compile any more.

02

Documents and OCR

Systems that scan documents for defined information and automate data entry. Already in production: delivery notes, certificates, acceptance forms.

03

Voice interfaces

Command and query the system by voice, for people working with their hands full or gloves on. Configuration and lookup without a keyboard.

04

Accelerated configuration

The same tools applied to my own work: generating and checking repetitive SCADA configurations, with shorter project timelines.

05

Answers from verified sources

Assistants that answer only from indexed documents and always cite the source. In use at a law firm on one million rulings and 22,000 Constitutional Court decisions, with every citation checked automatically. The same method works on plant manuals and procedures.

06

Agent teams

Several AI agents working in parallel, each on its own area, on real data rather than invented data. In use for SME marketing analysis: competitors from the business register, real search volumes, scorecard and 90-day plan in about an hour.

I use the same techniques in my own work: if an automation doesn’t hold up in production for me, I won’t offer it to you.

Portrait of Giovanni Luca Bonomini

Ignition Gold

Inductive Automation · 2023

The highest level of the Ignition certification path. It attests advanced expertise on the SCADA platform increasingly chosen for new-generation industrial systems.

06 — About

Bonomini Giovanni Luca

I started in 2006 at a company that built steel plants, as IT manager and developer. I stayed for fourteen years.

In that time I did something worth more than any course: I went on site. Full commissioning of steel plants, EAF and LF furnaces, AOD converters, continuous casters and rolling mills, in Italy and around the world — from Europe to the Middle East and Latin America.

When I design a SCADA screen I know who will be looking at it at three in the morning, and what they need to be able to do in five seconds. That’s not something you pick up from reading a specification.

Since 2023 I’ve been working independently. I build supervision systems, MES and — more and more often — AI automation, because the repetitive part of this job can now be taken off people’s hands.

  • 2023 Ignition Gold Certified Inductive Automation
  • 2022 Ignition Core Certified Inductive Automation
  • 2002 Accounting and programming diploma ITC Ivan Piana, Lovere
  • 2005 Web Developer diploma Sineura S.p.A. — ESF course
LinkedIn profile
  • IT Native
  • EN Good
  • FR Basic
  • ES Basic
07 — Contact

Tell me
about your plant

A supervision problem, tracking that isn’t there, data locked inside a PLC. Write to me about what’s happening: you’ll get an answer from me, not from a salesperson.

Contact request Reply within 24h