Tulip Reviews

Tulip is a composable MES platform that can tackle multiple use cases. We primarily use it for digital shop floor applications designed for frontline operators who need a screen and user interface to interact with both machine data and business data. This enables us to create various use cases including digital work instructions and overall equipment efficiency for machines. Tulip also serves as an additional layer for integrating with laboratory information management systems or ERP systems, making it highly versatile.

At one of our customers, we are currently creating the blueprint to replace their complete MES with Tulip, which represents a very different approach with composable MES compared to monolithic products. Using Tulip for this customer, we start by blueprinting the order initiation through integration with an ERP system and focusing on the workflow of an operator who starts an order on the production line. We then work on order execution, covering everything an operator does and needs to enter into a system when the order is being executed. After passing through the order registration, the system confirms back to the ERP what raw materials were used.

Tulip is definitely a platform that should be used in an agile way. After creating the first application, you start learning things about the platform and can reiterate that application while moving to the next one. Tulip is really about empowering people to build applications, and those people who build the applications are not necessarily only technical experts or developers. These are business process users who are now capable of making their own applications. Tulip can be considered the new Excel of the new era.

Tulip offers a no-code design editor to build apps and a wide range of connectivity features to connect to both IT systems and OT systems. The platform includes AI features so that you do not have to build AI on top, because AI is embedded inside the platform. This not only assists the application builders or architects but also enables frontline operators with AI capabilities without the technical burden or needing to subscribe to another platform or buy tokens. Everything is included in the same subscription.

The no-code designer feels as though you have PowerPoint. You design your application step-by-step, similar to designing PowerPoint slides. You drag visual components onto your presentation or application and then start configuring the visuals as well as the background logic in a very user-friendly manner. This enables everyone to understand what has been built by experts or start building their own applications. The AI-enabled features include automatic translation of applications to other languages using AI translation, or creating basic applications from a functional description or a standard operating procedure that gives you an automatically AI-generated application you can then start tweaking. AI can also be used to scrape documents, allowing operators to use a chat to converse with the documentation or manuals of their machines if available. Finally, AI can be applied in vision use cases, such as drawing a rectangle over a zone where your hand needs to pass before Tulip understands that you have taken a piece out of a bin, and then it moves to the next work instruction.

Tulip can be improved to have a lower entry point. Currently, it is a SaaS solution that starts with 10 interfaces minimum, and an interface is a screen where you operate Tulip applications. A lower entry model would allow small to medium enterprises to start using Tulip faster, whereas now Tulip focuses more on big enterprises.

Regarding the technical part, the data model inside Tulip needs improvement. Tulip works with Tulip tables which have a database in the backend, but the user only sees the Tulip tables where they can easily create tables and add new columns. While auditing features exist inside so you can see who has done what inside the table design, one of the shortcomings is relational mapping between tables. One-to-many and many-to-many relations are still quite unclear without the use of primary keys and foreign keys.

I have been using Tulip for two years.

Previously, we primarily built custom software applications for MES use cases. Now we are shifting towards no-code, low-code, and Tulip has been our platform of choice to build MES solutions for our customers efficiently. We also see the benefit for our customers since we have built those first MES applications, and now they are able to continue the development and work themselves using citizen developers. We are also applying a center of excellence strategy and really starting the snowball effect.

We are a partner of Tulip, so we are verified or certified Tulip partners. We buy it directly and sell it directly to our customers.

The time to value is drastically reduced; I would say more than 50 percent. In a typical monolithic project, you start by drafting all the requirements and making an analysis design, and you are easily one or two years further before you see the first results. With Tulip, you start building with very small blocks, and every two or three weeks, you have results. You then iterate faster because you can feel the results, and people become enthusiastic, so they are motivated to continue. Therefore, the time to value is reduced by 50 percent. Additionally, the application life cycle management is embedded in the portal, so you do not have to develop this from scratch, which leads to a total cost of ownership that will be reduced by 30 to 40 percent.

I would rate this review an 8 out of 10.

I had a university project to create a particular MES application using Tulip for a project. I mainly worked on creating MES applications for assembly processes, resource management, and machine maintenance using Tulip, which proved to be very useful for that.

Tulip is very easy to use because you can customize your own app or create your own app without having much knowledge about the programming aspect. You only need basic logic and very basic programming skills to create the applications. All you need to take care of is the user interface and the function of your app, so you can focus most of your time on the function rather than developing it.

The automation functions in Tulip were very cool and easy to add to our programs. Managing all the tables and everything was very easy to do.

Tulip was the core software which I had to use, so it was indispensable for my project and had a big impact on it.

Tulip made the process faster and it already had built-in templates. If you wanted to do machine maintenance, equipment maintenance, or track available equipment, there were already predefined templates. All you have to do is plug it in and customize it to your needs. It was very easy to use and made the process much faster. If I wanted to build it from scratch, it would have taken more than two months or one month, so it was relatively fast this way.

Some of the templates in Tulip had very few FAQ sessions or knowledge base information, especially the automation section. If there were more information on many of the templates available, it would be helpful. I could easily plug it in and understand the plugin rather than finding out how it works through trial and error.

The user interface of Tulip is very good, but performance-wise, it sometimes feels laggy when I am trying to undo my activities. When I do something and want to go back to the previous state, sometimes it may take a bit of time to do that. However, it is acceptable; it is nitpicking, basically.

I chose eight out of ten for Tulip because it is not perfect, but it is almost there. The only thing that would have made this an eight a ten would be the knowledge base. If it was a bit more updated or maybe a bit more detailed, it would have been an easy ten.

I have used Tulip for maybe four or five months.

I believe Tulip is stable.

Tulip's scalability is easy. If you want to add additional modules to it, it is easy to do. I think you have to go through the subscriptions and the purchase models. If you want to expand it, it is easier to expand or downgrade.

Customer support for Tulip is very good; it is excellent and very fast.

I have not previously used a different solution for this kind of project; this is my first time using Tulip.

I have not evaluated other options before choosing Tulip.

My advice for others looking into using Tulip is to go through Tulip University, study all the materials, do the examples, and then start the work. I would recommend going through the knowledge base website as well.

It is very good, but sometimes the logic had to be changed because I used Tulip not in a commercial application, but rather in an academic application. However, some of the questions were still asked in such a way that it seemed as though I was using it in a commercial application. Many of the questions were irrelevant to me, even though there was previous context that it was not in a commercial or business application.

I gave Tulip a review rating of eight out of ten.

My main use case for Tulip is creating applications for the pharma industry, which falls under GMP requirements, and this is the purpose of using Tulip in my current role.

Currently, I am using Tulip to create an application that involves different workflows and data insertion with associated alerts for different executions. It has been used mainly for application purposes across different parts of the industry, where we create smaller applications to serve our business case.

In terms of how my team uniquely uses Tulip, I have been using it in my role as a developer to create different steps and screens to capture different units and input from users while following GMP guidelines. We have been using it to store data into different Tulip tables as well as barcode scanner devices with optical input sections.

In my experience with Tulip, its best features include being a low-code, no-code platform that provides drag-and-drop features, so I do not need to spend too much time creating or writing code for showing different screens. It comes with audit compliance and an audit trail, which ensures I do not need to worry about the audit aspect because Tulip itself is certified for that context. Additionally, it provides very easy workflow solutions with pre-built functions and scripts, giving me the flexibility and confidence to write business cases quickly.

Tulip's audit trail functionality captures whatever activity we do, such as data insertions and logins, so all that information is captured. This helps because we do not need to worry much about development since Tulip has its own completion record and app record, which significantly aids us.

Tulip is an MES software that can be created and reused across different interfaces. When we create a Tulip application, we can run it in any player in different workspace areas without caring about the interface, allowing for reusability and flexibility.

Since using Tulip, my organization has positively transitioned from a lot of manual documentation for GMP compliance to digital, significantly reducing paperwork and now maintaining data retention within Tulip instead of manually. Moving from manual to digital with Tulip has resulted in cost savings, as we no longer have to manage excessive manual documentation. Since Tulip is a digital platform, all information, including automatic timestamping, is handled effortlessly, reducing human error, and its built-in audit trail mechanism aids in our compliance and overall processes.

One area Tulip can be improved is addressing the issue that arises when simultaneous data entry occurs in the same table using an auto-incremented process ID, data integrity constraints may lead to an error for one of the transactions. As a result, one record is successfully generated while the other process fails.

I have been using Tulip for six months.

For those looking into using Tulip, my advice is that it is great, particularly for anyone migrating from physical to digital documentation for MES software, especially those focused on GMP guidelines in the pharmaceutical industry. Tulip can be used for GMP-related work. I gave this product a rating of eight out of ten.