Engineering ConsultingEngineering that starts with the whole operation.
EA&ID is an independent engineering and technology consultancy helping manufacturers turn operational goals into practical improvements—from process assessment and technical planning through implementation and support.
Our approach
Understand the whole. Then engineer the change.
We start by understanding how the operation works: the physical process, the constraints, the decisions people make, and the information behind them. Business, engineering, and physics each inform the technical plan. The aim is a simpler operation your people can run, measure, and maintain.
Clients bring their operational goals and chosen improvement approach, whether Lean, Six Sigma, total productive maintenance (TPM), or another program. We help translate those goals into technical requirements and practical changes, connecting the process, the measurements, and the systems that support it.
Independent, and specific about what that means.
We hold no reseller, referral, or partner agreements with any software or hardware company, and we don’t take a margin on anything we specify. That is not a slogan; it is what lets us start from the technology you already own and extend it, rather than steering the project toward a platform that pays us. When new software is the right answer, we say so, you buy it directly, and you own the license, the source, and the relationship with the vendor.
From goals to implementation.
Our work runs from assessments, specifications, standards, and owner's-engineer representation through design, programming, commissioning support, and ongoing maintenance. We are independent of any integrator, distributor, or OEM, so recommendations follow the needs of the operation.
That can mean modernizing legacy controls, collecting dependable process data, or preparing a useful application of AI. We work across major PLC, HMI, and SCADA platforms, current and legacy, and hold current licenses for the vendor tools we use.
Keep the operation dependable.
Security and resiliency are a specialty within that work. We harden the systems we engineer and design the failover, self-healing behavior, backups, and recovery plans that keep them running. The engineering accounts for both everyday production and the day something goes wrong.
Grounded in industry.
Most of our clients are in food manufacturing and the food supply chain, where lines run around the clock, downtime is measured in product lost, and the control systems were often installed in several generations over thirty years. We also work with other industrial clients who face the same realities.
- Based inBensenville, Illinois (Chicago area)
- ServingClients nationwide; on-site and remote
- ApproachWhole-process assessment through engineering, implementation, and support
- IndustriesFood manufacturing and supply chain; process and discrete manufacturing
- PlatformsThe major PLC, HMI, and SCADA platforms, current and legacy
- NetworksIndustrial Ethernet through the serial and fieldbus links still in service
- Vendor relationshipsNone. No resale, referral, or partner agreements; our fee is the only revenue on your project.
- SpecialtySecurity and resiliency of the systems we engineer and maintain
Leadership and security
Who is accountable
Rob founded EA&ID and has spent more than 25 years in industrial controls and automation, preceded by active-duty service in the U.S. military. His background in business, engineering, and physics informs the firm's whole-process approach. He has authored much of the control code the firm maintains and led migrations across several generations of hardware and software.
As Security Principal, Rob is accountable for OT/ICS security and resiliency across all of the firm's client engagements and for the firm's own security controls. He is the point of contact for clients, partners, and vendors on security matters, including vulnerability analysis, hardening, and secure lifecycle migration of systems EA&ID authors or maintains. He is accountable for reviewing security questions and reports within the agreed scope of an engagement.
Security point of contact
Robert Rinella
President and Security Principal
Discuss a security concern ↗
- Responsible for OT/ICS security on all client engagements
- Receives and acts on security and misuse reports
- Authorizes the scope of all security work the firm performs
How we work
Principles that don't change by project
The owner stays in control
We work from your written authorization on systems you own or have engaged us to maintain. Scope is agreed before work starts and documented when it ends.
Production comes first
Cutovers are planned around the schedule, rehearsed where possible, and always have a tested rollback. Nothing goes live on a line that cannot be brought back.
Use what you own first
We assess the installed base before recommending anything new, and extend it as far as it will honestly go. Replacement is a conclusion, never the starting assumption.
Subtract before you add
Every recommendation has to pass one test: does it make the operation simpler to run and understand? If it only adds a layer, it doesn't ship.
Leave it maintainable
Readable code, consistent standards, as-built drawings, and the exported project files in your hands. You should never need us to understand your own plant.
Start a conversation
What’s your next
engineering challenge?
Let’s work through it Aging hardware. A new line. A process that could be simpler.
Tell us what you’re working with.