Celestia TST enables factories to monitor the position of assets and personnel using indoor location technology based on Bluetooth Angle of Arrival (BLE AoA), linking this data to actual productivity and production costs. This capability — which has already delivered savings of between €50,000 and €100,000 in labour — is at the heart of the IMOP project, developed in 2023. IMOP offers an advanced model for automatically allocating labour to manufactured products, powered by Industry 4.0 technologies and high-precision RTLS systems.
Project Overview
The IMOP project (Advanced Model for Automatic Labour Allocation to Manufactured Products) focuses on developing an advanced indoor location system to automatically assign working hours to production orders.
To achieve this, it combines Industry 4.0 technologies, Bluetooth Low Energy Angle of Arrival (BLE AoA), and advanced signal processing and Machine Learning techniques, transforming positioning data into actionable business insights for planning, cost control and continuous improvement.
Tracking people, assets and products within the plant enables solutions that boost productivity while improving workplace safety. This gives the factory a precise view of which resources are involved in each order, for how long and under what conditions.
The Challenge
IMOP’s goal was to develop a robust, accurate and scalable indoor location system capable of operating in complex industrial environments. To do this, it relied on Bluetooth Low Energy technology and Angle of Arrival estimation (BLE AoA), reinforced with processing techniques such as fingerprinting and Machine Learning models.
Starting from raw location data provided by the BLE AoA engine, the challenge was to apply these models and techniques to improve system accuracy and reliability — and, crucially, to transform those coordinates into automatic labour allocations for manufactured products. This creates a direct link between productivity, actual costs, quality, traceability and human resources within a single information flow.
The Solution
To meet the project’s objectives, Celestia TST focused on converting location data into actionable information and knowledge, developing advanced algorithms for position calculation and correction using BLE AoA technology. The result is an innovative indoor location solution supported by a tool that learns from its environment and progressively improves accuracy.
This solution has been deployed in real-world environments at companies such as CLR (Compañía Levantina de Reductores) and Gráficas LERSI, validating its performance under actual plant conditions.
The project also involves organisations such as MESBOOK, CEIV (Cluster of Innovative Companies in the Toy Valley) and the Packaging Cluster of the Valencian Community, contributing MES system capabilities, industrial ecosystem expertise and specialised consultancy.
Celestia TST’s Vision
Next-generation technology based on BLE AoA is a natural fit for meeting factories’ indoor location needs. Thanks to the algorithms developed, it is possible to calculate in real time the effort invested at each workstation and exclude situations that should not be counted as effective work, such as brief passes through other areas, material collection trips or short assistance to colleagues.
Francisco Alcalá, CEO of Celestia TST, explains: “BLE AoA-based location allows us to integrate the position of operators and assets into the very heartbeat of the factory, with data precise enough to drive business decisions. We’ve designed a system that measures real effort at each workstation and filters out movements that are not effective work, so labour allocation better reflects what happens on the shop floor and becomes a direct lever for improving productivity and cost control.”
Impact on Costs and Management
Tests carried out with partner companies have shown that this initiative can deliver savings of between €50,000 and €100,000 in indirect labour and overheads, thanks to automatic hour allocation and better visibility of non-productive time. These savings are particularly relevant for industrial SMEs seeking low-cost, highly autonomous solutions to advance their digital transformation.
IMOP demonstrates how precise location technology can become a catalyst for transforming factory management models. Automatic labour allocation reduces administrative workload, improves cost control and provides full operational traceability — a key enabler for Industry 4.0.