Critical Manufacturing Acquires Convanit to Advance AI-Powered Image Analytics in Smart Manufacturing

Summary

PORTO, Portugal - July 29, 2025 - Critical Manufacturing, a leading provider of next-generation Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES), has announced the acquisition of Convanit, an AI specialist focused on image-based analytics for high-tech manufacturing. The acquisition marks a significant step in expanding the capabilities of the Critical Manufacturing Data Platform, enabling customers to harness the power of visual AI to drive greater precision, automation, and insight.

The following people are in the photo above from left to right: Michael Meinel, co-founder and CEO at convanit GmbH & Co. KG; Ines Thurner, managing director, convanit GmbH & Co.KG; and Tom Bednarz, sales manager Tech Europe, Critical Manufacturing.

With its flagship solution “c-Alice," Convanit brings a powerful image classification engine built for complex industrial environments. The solution allows manufacturers to swiftly build and deploy custom AI models for visual inspection without the need for specialized programming or data science skills. What once required time consuming, manual inspection can now be done faster and with greater accuracy and built-in quality assurance.

"Manufacturers face growing pressure to deliver higher quality, faster and ensure complete traceability, yet visual data remains one of the most underused assets on the shop floor," said Francisco Almada Lobo, CEO of Critical Manufacturing. "By integrating Convanit's advanced AI-powered image analytics into our platform, we are transforming how customers convert unstructured image data into actionable, contextualized intelligence. This acquisition is a key milestone in our vision for truly data driven, Industry 4.0 manufacturing.”

Through the integration of c-Alice, manufacturers using the Critical Manufacturing Data Platform will be able to:

• Seamlessly ingest, classify and analyze image data in conjunction with real-time process data.
• Automate defect detection and trigger real-time anomaly alerts across production stages.
• Connect image insights directly to MES workflows, traceability records and quality reporting.
• Deploy scalable AI models with low latency for continuous in-line operations.

Convanit's intuitive interface supports a wide range of users including quality engineers and process specialists with no need for advanced coding skills. This accessibility helps scale AI adoption across production teams, enabling "citizen data scientists" to take ownership of model development and refinement.

"We created c-Alice to make visual AI simple, flexible and effective for manufacturers," said Michael Meinel, co-founder of Convanit. "Joining Critical Manufacturing brings our vision to a global stage, embedding it into one of the most powerful MES ecosystems on the market."

The acquisition further reinforces Critical Manufacturing's commitment to innovation in high-precision sectors including semiconductors, electronics, medical devices and industrial equipment industries where traceability, quality and responsiveness are business critical.

About Convanit

Convanit GmbH & Co. KG operates at the confluence of user expertise, IT and data science, offering their primary product, c-Alice, to leading companies pursuing digital transformation in manufacturing.  Since 2019, Convanit focuses on AI-based image processing that improves yield with new levels of production monitoring for the semiconductor, electronics manufacturing, automotive, plastics, pharmaceutical and food industries.

About Critical Manufacturing

Critical Manufacturing, leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant and a subsidiary of ASMPT, provides the most modern, flexible and configurable manufacturing execution system (MES) available. Critical Manufacturing MES helps manufacturers stay ahead of stringent product traceability and compliance requirements, reduce risk with inherent closed-loop quality, integrate seamlessly with enterprise systems and factory automation and provide deep intelligence and visibility of global production operations.

As a result, our customers are Industry 4.0 ready. They can compete effectively and profitably by easily adapting their operations to changes in demand, opportunity, or requirements, anywhere, at any time.
 

About ASMPT

ASMPT Limited is a leading global supplier of hardware and software solutions for the manufacture of semiconductors and electronics. Headquartered in Singapore, ASMPT’s offerings encompass the semiconductor assembly & packaging, and SMT (surface mount technology) industries, ranging from wafer deposition, to the various solutions that organise, assemble and package delicate electronic components into a vast range of end-user devices, which include electronics, mobile communications, computing, automotive, industrial and LED (displays). ASMPT partners with customers very closely, with continuous investments in R&D helping to provide cost-effective, industry-shaping solutions that achieve higher productivity, greater reliability and enhanced quality. ASMPT is a founding member of the Semiconductor Climate Consortium.