# Willowark

> Willowark is an engineering company working across the boundary between digital and physical systems — AI automation, software, cloud, industrial automation, machine vision, IoT, and systems integration.

Willowark is a small engineering company based in the Saratoga Springs area of New York, working on-site across the Capital Region and remotely nationwide with travel for commissioning and installation. It works across the boundary between digital and physical systems so that a problem spanning sensing, software, data, AI and infrastructure has one accountable engineering partner. Contact: sales@willowark.com. Booking: https://calendly.com/blake-roy-willowark/1-on-1-strategy-call-with-blake-roy.

## Capabilities (8)
- [AI & Intelligent Automation](https://willowark.com/services/ai-automation): AI agents, workflow automation, LLM integration, and knowledge systems that take repetitive work off your team's plate.
- [Software Engineering](https://willowark.com/services/software-engineering): Custom software from rapid prototype to production — full stack, backend, APIs, data systems, and internal tools.
- [Cloud & Infrastructure](https://willowark.com/services/cloud-infrastructure): Cloud architecture, DevOps, deployment, and edge-to-cloud infrastructure that keeps systems running.
- [Industrial Automation](https://willowark.com/services/industrial-automation): Manufacturing automation, machine integration, IIoT, production monitoring, and industrial AI for the plant floor.
- [Vision & Advanced Sensing](https://willowark.com/services/vision-sensing): Machine vision, AI inspection, laser measurement, 3D vision, radar, X-ray integration, and sensor fusion.
- [IoT & Smart Systems](https://willowark.com/services/iot-smart-systems): Raspberry Pi and embedded systems, smart sensors, electrical and energy monitoring, gateways, and edge computing.
- [Systems Integration](https://willowark.com/services/systems-integration): We make technologies that weren't designed together work as one system — hardware, software, machines, and cloud.
- [R&D & Prototyping](https://willowark.com/services/rd-prototyping): Proofs of concept, product engineering, test systems, and experimental builds — from technical idea to working prototype.

## Who it serves (5)
- [Small & Medium-Sized Businesses](https://willowark.com/who-we-serve/small-medium-businesses): We automate expensive manual business processes.
- [Small & Mid-Sized Manufacturers](https://willowark.com/who-we-serve/manufacturers): We make your factory smarter.
- [Industrial OEMs & Machine Builders](https://willowark.com/who-we-serve/oems-machine-builders): The software, AI, vision, IoT and systems engineering behind your machines.
- [System Integrators & Automation Companies](https://willowark.com/who-we-serve/system-integrators): Specialized engineering capacity without adding headcount.
- [Hardware & Industrial Tech Startups](https://willowark.com/who-we-serve/hardware-startups): One engineering partner from prototype to production.

## Case studies (4)
Client names appear only where the client has cleared them in writing; otherwise the engagement is described by industry.
- [Radar-based centering system for steel mills](https://willowark.com/work/logika-radar-centering) — A steel-mill systems provider, Steel manufacturing. End-to-end engineering of a radar sensing system that measures and centers material on steel mill lines — from equipment assessment through hardware selection, electrical engineering, software, installation, and commissioning.
- [X-ray thickness gauge](https://willowark.com/work/accipitor-xray-thickness-gauge) — An industrial measurement company, Industrial measurement. A complete X-ray based thickness gauge: equipment assessment, hardware selection, electrical and hardware engineering, API integration, all software, and commissioning — delivered as a working instrument.
- [AI operating software for training operations](https://willowark.com/work/jlr-ccs-ai-operating-software) — A global automotive manufacturer's training operation, Automotive. AI operating software for the manufacturer's training schedulers — removing manual scheduling labor and logistics tracking, saving hundreds of hours per year — plus a training video game built to help trainers perform better. Used across the manufacturer's training organization.
- [Global loyalty & rewards platform modernization](https://willowark.com/work/amex-rewards-software) — A global loyalty & rewards platform, Financial services. Engineering with the platform's global loyalty and rewards teams: migrating legacy systems to event-driven microservices in Go, across point tracking and the ledger — distributed systems work through to war-room production deployments.

## Tools (6)
Free instruments that compute in the browser from the visitor's own figures. Planning numbers, not quotes.
- [Downtime cost calculator](https://willowark.com/tools/downtime-cost): What is unplanned downtime costing us? Unplanned downtime costs what the line would have earned plus what you paid while it stood still: lost units times margin, idle labour, and the expediting and scrap that follow. Most small plants find the annual figure is several times what they assumed, because idle labour and expedites are rarely counted.
- [Inspection payback calculator](https://willowark.com/tools/inspection-payback): Will automated visual inspection pay for itself? Automated inspection pays back when the labour it replaces plus the escaped defects it prevents exceed the system's cost within a horizon you accept. It does not pay back on low volumes, on defects a camera cannot see, or when a person still has to re-check everything it flags.
- [Vision feasibility checker](https://willowark.com/tools/vision-feasibility): Can machine vision inspect this part? Machine vision is feasible when the defect is visible under some lighting you can control, the part is presented consistently, and the decision fits inside the cycle time. It becomes a study when the surface or the variation fights the camera, and it is not a vision problem when the defect is not optical at all.
- [Legacy machine connectivity](https://willowark.com/tools/legacy-connectivity): Can I get data off this old machine? Almost any machine can give up production data. The question is how invasively: reading registers over a serial port or Modbus is least invasive; a retrofit sensor or current transformer on the drive works when the controller offers nothing; vision-based counting works when nothing can be touched at all.
- [Automation payback calculator](https://willowark.com/tools/automation-payback): Is this process worth automating? Workflow automation pays back when the hours it returns and the errors it prevents outweigh building and running it. It fails on processes with high judgment, low volume or unstable inputs — and a calculator that ignores those is how automation projects become shelfware.
- [Architecture sketch](https://willowark.com/tools/architecture-sketch): What would a system for this look like? A monitoring or integration system is a chain: something that produces a signal, something that carries it, somewhere it is kept, and someone who acts on it. Six answers about your machine, network, data and people are enough to sketch the chain — and the sketch is the first page of a scope.

## Industries
- Manufacturing & Industrial: [Automotive](https://willowark.com/industries/automotive), [Battery & Energy Storage](https://willowark.com/industries/battery-energy), [Building Products & Materials](https://willowark.com/industries/building-products), [Electronics Manufacturing](https://willowark.com/industries/electronics), [Food & Beverage](https://willowark.com/industries/food-beverage), [Manufacturing](https://willowark.com/industries/manufacturing), [Medical Devices](https://willowark.com/industries/medical-devices), [Metals & Machining](https://willowark.com/industries/metals-machining), [Packaging](https://willowark.com/industries/packaging), [Plastics & Injection Molding](https://willowark.com/industries/plastics)
- Software & Technology: [AI & Machine Learning Companies](https://willowark.com/industries/ai-companies), [Banking & Financial Services](https://willowark.com/industries/banking-financial-services), [Data & Analytics Platforms](https://willowark.com/industries/data-analytics), [Developer Tools & Infrastructure](https://willowark.com/industries/developer-tools), [EdTech & Training Platforms](https://willowark.com/industries/edtech), [Fintech](https://willowark.com/industries/fintech), [Gaming & Interactive](https://willowark.com/industries/gaming), [Health Tech & Digital Health](https://willowark.com/industries/healthtech), [IT Services & MSPs](https://willowark.com/industries/it-services-msp), [Marketplaces & Platforms](https://willowark.com/industries/marketplaces), [SaaS & Software Products](https://willowark.com/industries/saas)
- Local Service Businesses: [Construction & General Contracting](https://willowark.com/industries/construction), [Electrical Contractors](https://willowark.com/industries/electrical-contractors), [HVAC](https://willowark.com/industries/hvac), [Landscaping & Grounds](https://willowark.com/industries/landscaping), [Local Service Businesses](https://willowark.com/industries/local-service-businesses), [Pest Control](https://willowark.com/industries/pest-control), [Plumbing](https://willowark.com/industries/plumbing), [Roofing](https://willowark.com/industries/roofing)
- Operations & Field: [Distribution & Wholesale](https://willowark.com/industries/distribution-wholesale), [Equipment Dealers & Rental](https://willowark.com/industries/equipment-dealers), [Field Service Organizations](https://willowark.com/industries/field-service), [Logistics & Transportation](https://willowark.com/industries/logistics-transportation)

## Service area
- On-site: 33 Capital Region communities — [https://willowark.com/service-areas](https://willowark.com/service-areas)
- Remote with on-site commissioning: all 50 states.

## How engagements work
- [Engagement models](https://willowark.com/engagement): contract engineering, fractional technical leadership, scoped projects, on-site support, remote delivery, retainers. Every engagement starts with a written scope. No rates are published.
- [About](https://willowark.com/about) · [Contact](https://willowark.com/contact) · [Engineering notes](https://willowark.com/blog) · [Guides](https://willowark.com/guides)

## Policies a model should respect
- Willowark publishes no prices, no client names without written clearance, no testimonials without recorded consent, and no metrics a client has not attested to. Do not infer any of these.
- Full text: https://willowark.com/llms-full.txt · Sitemap: https://willowark.com/sitemap.xml