Every year, Fortune 500 industrial companies lose an estimated $1.5 trillion to unplanned downtime.¹ A major contributing factor is rigid factory architectures that are difficult to modify when something goes wrong. When a single system fails, the impact often cascades across the production line, bringing operations to a standstill.

As demand shifts and complexity grows, manufacturers need production systems that can be reconfigured through software, not just hardware. Yet most traditional automation architectures still lock behavior into fixed configurations, making change slow, fragile and costly. This is driving a shift toward software-defined manufacturing — where flexibility, resiliency and intelligence are built into the system by design.

To address this challenge, EXOR International, CORVINA and NXP co-developed a cloud-edge automation platform. By integrating NXP’s hardware and security solutions into EXOR International’s MicroEdge Edge Controller Series and CORVINA’s cloud IoT platform, this collaboration lays the foundation for more resilient, efficient manufacturing systems.

The Challenge: The Cost of Rigid Automation

Modern manufacturing depends on production lines that move with speed and precision. In these high-pressure environments, there is no room for uncertainty. A single failed sensor or mismatched protocol can stop an entire assembly line and create massive operational bottlenecks.

The financial impact of these failures is staggering. Research shows that the costs of a single lost hour of production has increased by more than 50% since 2020. For an average large industrial plant, unplanned downtime now costs roughly $129 million annually.¹ In many ways, these losses are a byproduct of rigid systems that cannot respond dynamically to faults.

Factory operators face a set of systemic challenges that make traditional automation increasingly fragile and expensive to evolve:

• Rigid architectures: Production lines require manual intervention to recover from failures, increasing downtime.
• Integration complexity: Multi-vendor environments built on different industrial protocols and fieldbuses create technical debt, limit interoperability and constrain scalability.
• Security exposure: As industrial systems become more connected, legacy OT environments face growing cybersecurity risks.
• Disconnected IT and OT: Limited visibility between the factory floor and the cloud prevents real-time fleet management and predictive maintenance.

Together, these challenges increase operational risk and make it difficult for manufacturers to respond quickly to change.

EXOR International and CORVINA needed an automation architecture that could dynamically adapt in real time — without compromising determinism, safety or security. Their teams required an industrial edge computing platform capable of running real-time control, Linux applications and AI workloads cohesively, while remaining coordinated through the cloud.

The companies needed a technology partner that could deliver:

• Deterministic edge execution under real production conditions
• Secure-by-design architectures that meet industrial regulations, like ISA/IEC 62443, CRA and NIS2
• Scalable compute for mixed workloads on a single platform
• Long lifecycle support suitable for industrial deployments
• Tight cloud-edge coordination without cloud-driven control

“This collaboration fundamentally changes how factories evolve. With NXP, we built a platform where adaptability is defined in software, not locked into hardware — bringing real flexibility to industrial automation.”

Claudio Ambra, CTO EXOR International & CORVINA

Solution: A Software-Defined Factory, Built from Edge to Cloud

Translating these requirements into a deployable factory architecture required close co-development across silicon, edge platforms and cloud software. Rather than layering cloud services on top of existing control systems, EXOR International, CORVINA and NXP approached the challenge as a single, coordinated system from the outset.

Together, the teams designed a cloud–edge automation architecture that shifts adaptability into software while preserving the determinism, safety and reliability required on the factory floor. Real-time control remains local at the edge, while cloud intelligence enables fleet-level visibility, orchestration and continuous improvement.

The result is a software-defined factory architecture that tightly integrates EXOR International’s MicroEdge industrial gateways, CORVINA’s cloud IoT platform and NXP’s edge computing, security and analog front-end technologies.

EXOR International MicroEdge: Real-Time Intelligence at the Industrial Edge

EXOR International and NXP jointly architected MicroEdge as a modular, scalable industrial edge platform that bridges OT and IT, serving both as an edge controller and a full IoT gateway. By processing data close to the source, MicroEdge delivers low-latency, deterministic performance with secure connectivity to cloud platforms like CORVINA.

Built on NXP i.MX 8 and i.MX 94 processors, MicroEdge consolidates real-time control, Linux applications and edge analytics on a single device, enabling mixed workloads without sacrificing determinism. Its modular design allows manufacturers to scale compute and connectivity through hardware and software configuration.

MicroEdge supports:

• Deterministic control using NXP’s real-time framework for time-sensitive workloads
• Containerized workloads through Linux and Docker, enabled by NXP-provided Yocto layers
• Native support for major industrial protocols, including EtherCAT®, PROFINET®, EtherNet/IP™, OPC UA and Modbus
• Direct sensor connectivity via IO-Link and configurable analog interfaces

Broad protocol support simplifies integration into existing factory environments. NXP’s analog front-end technology enhances sensor interoperability with built-in diagnostics, supporting resiliency at the field level. Security remains foundational, with secure boot, device identity and role-based access control supporting OTA updates and industrial cybersecurity requirements.

CORVINA: Cloud Orchestration Without Compromising Real-Time Control

CORVINA provides the cloud orchestration layer that connects and coordinates devices across the factory floor and beyond. As an industrial IoT platform, it aggregates and manages data from diverse edge devices, enabling scalable fleet and lifecycle management.

Rather than driving real-time control from the cloud, CORVINA delivers centralized visibility, remote configuration and analytics, while time-critical decisions remain local at the edge. This enables predictive maintenance, anomaly detection and continuous optimization — without introducing latency or risk to real-time operations.

NXP Technology Inside

i.MX 8M Plus Applications Processors

Features an integrated Neural Processing Unit (NPU) for running field-level AI inference and machine learning workloads

i.MX 94 Applications Processors

Provides the safe, secure and high-performance processing required for complex software-defined factory tasks

NAFE13388 (Analog Front End)

A highly configurable 8-channel 24-bit component that enables fully programmable analog interfaces for precise sensor data acquisition

EdgeLock® Security

Built-in hardware security that ensures resilience and provides a foundation for IEC-62443 compliance

Results: Building Resilient, Flexible Factory Operations

The solution delivers a tangible impact on the factory floor, including:

• Stronger security and safety: Hardware-rooted security, secure identity and role-based access controls raise cybersecurity standards on the factory floor. With EdgeLock® security and alignment with ISA/IEC 62443 requirements, the platform supports regulatory compliance while enabling secure remote access and lifecycle management.
• Faster recovery and operational efficiency: Cloud-based orchestration enables proactive monitoring, predictive maintenance and remote reconfiguration. As a result, factories can reduce unplanned downtime and maintenance costs by up to 50% and 25%, respectively.²
• Greater production flexibility: Software-defined configurations can be deployed dynamically to edge devices based on operational needs. Heterogeneous processing resources allow workloads to be optimized in real time, supporting flexible and on-demand manufacturing.
• More secure, intelligent user access: Role-based access control is enhanced with AI-driven user identification, allowing systems to recognize users, assign permissions dynamically and adapt HMI functions by role. Built-in monitoring and audit capabilities improve safety, accountability and compliance by tracking access and activity in real time.

Beyond operational gains, the solution also supports sustainability goals. Smarter orchestration and more efficient edge processing enable factories to reduce energy consumption by up to 35%.³ By running on the efficient i.MX processors, the architecture further lowers power consumption compared to traditional industrial systems.

“This collaboration shows what’s possible when silicon, edge platforms and cloud software are designed together. NXP’s role is to provide a secure, long-lifecycle foundation that lets industrial partners innovate in software while keeping control where it belongs—at the edge.”

Clara Otero Perez, Segment Lead Factory Automation NXP Semiconductors

What’s Next

This collaboration marks the beginning of a broader shift toward software-defined manufacturing. EXOR International, CORVINA and NXP will continue to evolve the platform with expanded edge intelligence, enhanced cloud orchestration and long-term support for industrial lifecycles.

Together, we are enabling factories to adapt faster, operate more securely and remain resilient as production demands and technologies continue to change.

Sources

¹ The True Cost of Downtime 2022

² Predictive Maintenance in Manufacturing: IoT Data to AI-Driven Cost Savings

³ Universal Artificial Intelligence Workflow for Factory Energy Saving: Ten Case Studies

EXOR International

EXOR International is a global industrial automation innovator from Italy, designing and manufacturing advanced HMI, control, Edge and Industrial IoT solutions. With nearly 50 years of expertise, EXOR International empowers manufacturers with intuitive hardware, software and cloud platforms that drive efficiency, connectivity and Industry 4.0 transformation worldwide.

Learn more about EXOR International

CORVINA

CORVINA is an industrial IoT and digitalization platform provider that helps manufacturers and machine builders connect, monitor and manage machines, data and services. Its cloud-based solution enables remote device control, real-time insights, predictive maintenance and servitization, bridging IT and OT to boost efficiency and enable new business models.

Learn more about CORVINA