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1. What do you do at SL Controls? I am a Validation Engineer working on projects for large multinational pharmaceutical companies. My role involves creating and reviewing documentation for the validation of utilities and equipment, procuring and setting up Linux servers, and completing various tasks on different servers to ensure they are set up correctly […]

Last week was Mental Wellbeing Week at SL Controls with a series of events and initiatives around the important issue of mental health in the workplace. This included an employee anchor day on Thursday 10 October, World Mental Health Day. Employees who were able to work from one of our offices enjoyed a pizza lunch […]

The SL Controls team has returned from the Ignition Community Conference 2024 where they got a better understanding of how the new release of Ignition scheduled for January will benefit our customers in the life sciences sector. Systems Architect Brian McLaughlin also participated in an integrator panel discussion covering the technologies and trends that are […]

It is just a few days to go now until Pharma MES 2024, and the SL Controls team will be there. Taking place this year in Berlin, Pharma MES 2024 is one of the most important events in Europe for pharmaceutical and biotechnology manufacturing. In addition to the focus on manufacturing execution systems, this year […]

It is now less than two weeks until ICC 2024 – the Ignition Community Conference 2024 – and SL Controls is delighted to be attending. In-person places are sold out for this very popular event in the industrial automation calendar, but Systems Architect Brian McLaughlin will be there to represent Ignition Premier Integrator, SL Controls. […]

1. Describe your job as if you were explaining it to a five-year-old. I work with machines to help make them manufacture products in a factory smarter or faster. This normally means programming the machines to share their data and present it to an operator who can then make better decisions based on that information. […]

1. Describe your job as if you were explaining it to a five-year-old. My job is similar to building a house. First, I speak to the house owners to get to know them and understand their requirements. From there, we agree on the price and the amount of time it will take to build it. […]

Members of the SL Controls team got together recently in Athlone for our annual company outing. The day started with a puzzle solving challenge called Beat the Box organised by Orange Works. We had to work together as a team to identify the code which turned out to be our employee appreciation tagline: Celebrating Wins […]

Promoting good physical and mental health is an important priority for SL Controls, and it never hurts to add in a bit of friendly competition. So, throughout the month of June, 30 members of the SL Controls team split into five teams to compete in our summer activity challenge. Participants could engage in any type […]

SL Controls engineers recently completed an engineering education programme with 5th-class primary school pupils at Youghalarra National School in Nenagh, County Tipperary, Ireland. SL Controls Systems Architect Volker Winhausen and Senior Validation Engineer Andrew Ryan took part in the programme which is run by STEAM. STEAM is an organisation that partners with industry to inspire […]

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) is a central priority for SL Controls, so we took the opportunity last week on National Diversity and Inclusion Day to reinforce our commitment to making positive changes. This included launching company-wide unconscious bias training as well as our second DEI employee survey. The survey aims to capture the views […]

International Women in Engineering Day takes place this weekend, on Sunday. The theme for International Women in Engineering Day 2024 is Enhanced by Engineering, so the focus is on women who have enhanced by engineering “people’s everyday lives and are helping to build towards a brighter future”. SL Controls is an engineering company. The majority […]

1. Describe your job as if you were explaining it to a five-year-old. I’ll describe my job as kind of like baking a cake. So, in order to bake a cake, a project manager would have to see how we get to the end goal, which is we want a cake, but in order to […]

1. Describe your job as if you were explaining it to a five-year-old. I manage projects for various medical and life science clients. My role involves supporting commercial activities, understanding customer requirements, and building a project team and scope to deliver to those requirements. 2. What types of projects are you working on at the […]

The 21st May is World Day for Cultural Diversity 2024, an initiative to highlight the richness of the world’s cultures and encourage intercultural dialogue. To celebrate, we asked the SL Controls team to share information and reflections about their country and culture. Watch the video now.

SL Controls has been certified as a Premier Integrator for Ignition, the digital transformation platform for industrial automation. Ignition by Inductive Automation features flexible and fully customisable SCADA and MES (manufacturing execution system) functionality with comprehensive integration capabilities. NNIT Group company SL Controls is one of only three Ignition Premier Integrators in Ireland and the […]

SL Controls is marking Workplace Wellbeing Week 2024 with a number of initiatives and events, culminating in Workplace Wellbeing Day on Friday 26 April. Hosted by Ibec, the aim of Workplace Wellbeing Week/Day is to promote social, mental, and physical wellbeing in the workplace. We have initiatives and events taking place throughout the week: Mindful […]

1. Describe your job as if you were explaining it to a five-year-old. I think probably the easiest way to describe what I do is I work closely with customers to provide solutions to their needs, such as improving their productivity, reducing their waste, and reducing their costs. 2. What are you working on at […]

SL Controls engineers Derek Loughlin and Conor Davey will be speaking at the Northwest’s Robotics & Digitalisation Event this week. The event is open to companies who want to embrace and learn more about implementing digitalisation technologies. It will feature experts from the digitalisation field, including SL Controls. The Northwest’s Robotics and Digitalisation Event will […]

Explore Engineering 2024 took place at Shannon Airport in Clare last week and the event was a huge success. The engineering showcase continues to go from strength to strength as young people and their families meet engineering companies in the region to explore the potential career opportunities that exist in the engineering sector. Deirdre Loughlin, […]

Today is International Women’s Day and the theme this year is Inspire Inclusion. It is a theme that we fully support here at SL Controls, and it is part of our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Policy. To mark International Women’s Day 2024 and this year’s theme, we spoke to some of SL Controls’ female employees […]

1. Describe your job as if you were explaining it to a five-year-old. I help machines and robots that make everyday items like your toys. I make sure the machines are running well, with no problems. 2. What types of projects are you working on at the moment? I’m working on a project implementing upgrades […]

Each month, Inductive Automation publishes the top integrators of its leading industrial automation platform, Ignition. For the period January to February 2024, SL Controls is 13th on the leaderboard out of more than 1,600 currently certified Ignition integrators. SL Controls takes a customer-focused approach when recommending and selecting technology stacks, but the features, pricing structure, […]

If you or someone close to you is considering a career in engineering, make sure you have 7 March 2024 in your diary. That is the date of the Explore Engineering Showcase in Limerick. SL Controls has been a proud supporter of Explore Engineering for several years and the team is looking forward to going […]

Two members of the SL Controls team, Chief Technology Officer Paul Clarke and Talent Acquisition & Onboarding Associate Aoife Burns, recently completed a 10-week STEAM teaching programme with a class of primary school children from Strandhill National School. STEAM is an organisation that partners with companies like SL Controls to deliver fun and interactive classes […]

1. Describe your job as if you were explaining it to a five-year-old. In my role as a Systems Engineer, I harness cutting-edge technologies, including data, software, and hardware, and seamlessly incorporate them into an existing platform and system to increase efficiency. 2. What types of projects are you working on at the moment? I’m […]

It has been a busy and interesting year for the SL Controls team as we welcomed new colleagues and got to know our existing colleagues better. Here are some of the stories we published throughout 2023 that give an insight into the people who make SL Controls the team and company it is. Embracing Equity […]

The SL Controls team has taken part in initiatives to support our local communities this Christmas. We had a Christmas Jumper Day on Friday 15 December to coincide with our monthly anchor day where staff come into the office rather than working from home. As part of the Christmas Jumper Day, staff made donations to […]

As SL Controls CTO, Paul Clarke is responsible for the technical capability of the business and its future direction via a technical roadmap. He also provides support to all our business functions. This includes supporting the commercial teams in generating new opportunities and providing technical consultancy to our staff and customers. You can find out […]

At this time of the year, there is a lot of focus on men’s physical and mental health with the annual Movember campaign taking place throughout November and International Men’s Day this Sunday, the 19th. The theme for International Men’s Day 2023 is “Zero Male Suicide”, so we asked men on the SL Controls team […]

The SL Controls team held a coffee morning on Halloween earlier this week to raise money for the Children’s Health Foundation. The Children’s Health Foundation supports sick children and their families in Children’s Health Ireland hospitals as well as the urgent care centres in Temple Street, Crumlin, Connolly, and Tallaght. Employees made their own donations […]

As this is World Mental Health Day 2023, we are taking the opportunity to promote good workplace mental health across SL Controls. This includes issuing an updated Mental Health and Wellbeing policy to all employees that includes expanded information on the supports the company makes available to individuals and managers in relation to mental health […]

1. Describe your job as if you were explaining it to a five-year-old. My job is to make sure that people actually do what they say they are going to do. We are dealing with companies that make medicine and medical devices, so it’s very important that we keep our standards high. We do a […]

This week is Dynamic Learning Week at SL Controls. Dynamic Learning is our Continuous Professional Development (CPD) initiative where we support our employees as they enhance their skills. The aim is to foster a learning culture that is dynamic, pushes boundaries, and facilitates innovation. During Dynamic Learning Week, we are hosting a series of events […]

A number of SL Controls staff attended a first-aid training course over the summer. The training days took place at our Sligo and Limerick facilities, and they were well attended by a broad section of the team. Senior Systems Engineer Conor Davey was one of the organisers of the training. He said: “I was happy […]

1. Describe your job as if you were explaining it to a five-year-old. I write programs or sets of instructions to create applications used in medicine-making factories or hospitals. 2. What types of projects are you working on at the moment? The current project I am working on involves creating a development environment to configure […]

We ran a Fitness Month at SL Controls this summer as part of our Live Well at SL programme. It brought out some friendly competitiveness as the participants were split into teams to earn points by walking, running, cycling, or swimming. Those taking part in the competition used the Strava app to record their activity […]

1. Describe your job as if you were explaining it to a five-year-old? I work on machines to get them to a point where they’re running well and making the products they are supposed to be making. I also find all the little problems with them and make them run better than they were the […]

Our ESG champions recently decided to celebrate the many fathers working at SL Controls, so we asked the dads on our team about their thoughts on being a father and what it means to them. We put this video together with the responses.

SL Controls has launched its first Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion policy, reinforcing our commitment to nurturing a workplace environment that promotes diversity, equity, and inclusion. The aim of the policy is to create an open and inclusive culture where everyone feels valued. Shauna Ryan, SL Controls Director of People and Culture, said: “Diversity, equity, and […]

Today is International Women in Engineering Day, so it is the ideal opportunity to celebrate the female engineers in SL Controls and the fantastic contribution they make to the company. We have women engineers working in a range of roles across all parts of the business. Days like International Women in Engineering Day also bring […]

The SL Controls company outing took place over the weekend as the team headed to Athlone last Friday. Despite the storms in parts of the country, the weather held up as we were split into teams to compete in an Urban Adventure competition. Armed with iPads, the teams set off to find various hotspots around […]

1. Describe your job as if you were explaining it to a five-year-old? An automated factory is a place where a lot of robots make things such as medicines. We write a list of steps for the robots to follow to allow them to make the medicines. 2. What types of projects are you working […]

1. Describe your job as if you were explaining it to a five-year-old. I work with cool technologies and provide innovative solutions to problems! I am a systems engineer and I work on new technologies and digital tools, including technologies related to augmented reality, virtual reality, and mixed reality. I also work on automating workflows […]

This week is workplace wellbeing week at SL Controls. We have a series of events planned throughout the week, culminating on Friday 28 April, the official IBEC National Workplace Wellbeing Day. According to IBEC, National Workplace Wellbeing Day is “Ireland’s biggest celebration of workplace health and wellbeing”. Shauna Ryan, SL Controls Director of People and […]

1. Describe your job as if you were explaining it to a five-year-old. I am an operations manager in SL Controls, so I am responsible for ensuring our portfolio continues growing through existing and new clients. I work with the commercial team to onboard new projects for our engineers to work on.   2. What […]

SL Controls is proud to support this year’s International Women’s Day theme, Embrace Equity. It’s an especially important message to get across in engineering as the sector seeks to attract more women. The International Women’s Day theme of Embrace Equity is about going beyond equality, where equality is the goal rather than the approach. After […]

Encouraging the next generation of employees and entrepreneurs to consider engineering is important to us at SL Controls, so we jumped at the opportunity to get involved with STEAM Education again. Last year, two of our engineers had a fantastic experience teaching children in a Sligo primary school about engineering topics and concepts. This time […]

The SL Controls team is looking forward to the annual engineering showcase, Explore Engineering. It takes place this year on Thursday 2 March and it’s back to its former home, Shannon Airport. Explore Engineering is aimed at students, teachers, and parents with the goal of showcasing the career opportunities that exist in the engineering sector […]

SL Controls is proud to announce the creation of 100 new highly skilled jobs in Ireland, helping us achieve our growth objectives and our plans for further expansion in target markets around the world. The new jobs will bring the SL Controls workforce to a total of 220. The roles will be based in Ireland, […]

We are delighted to have been selected as a finalist for the Innovator Excellence Award at the upcoming Sligo Chamber of Commerce Excellence Awards. We are one of three finalists for the award, which is sponsored by Atlantic Technological University. Keith Moran, CEO at SL Controls, said: “The Innovator Excellence Award category this year is […]

Describe your job in 5 words Trusted partner delivering technology transformation. What is a cool thing you are working on right now? Can’t tell you (client confidentiality and all)… but it’s cool. The tech is cool too. A lot of tech that I’m currently working with the SL team wouldn’t have seen. I’m working a […]

SL Controls staff wore Christmas jumpers to work on Friday to raise money for Ballybunion Sea & Cliff Rescue. Ballybunion Sea & Cliff Rescue was instrumental in the search for our friend and colleague Donal Kennedy who sadly passed away in September. Members of the SL Controls team searched side-by-side with the Ballybunion Sea & […]

The first in-person Christmas gatherings at SL Controls took place over the weekend as staff at our regional offices got together for a night out ahead of the seasonal break. Over 70 people attended the get-togethers which took place in Sligo, Galway, Limerick, and Maynooth. Shauna Ryan, Director of People and Culture from SL Controls […]

Are you able to recognise the signs and symptoms of common mental health problems? Would you know how to engage in a conversation with a colleague, family member, or friend you are concerned about? These were some of the topics covered in a recent Lunch & Learn session at SL Controls. Lunch & Learn is […]

Tomorrow is International Men’s Day, an event focused on celebrating and highlighting positive male role models as well as raising awareness of the importance of wellbeing in the lives of men and boys. To mark International Men’s Day, we are celebrating the many fathers who work at SL Controls, exploring how they juggle home and […]

SL Controls Validation Engineer Fiona Chung will be joining other STEM advocates (including an Irish astronaut candidate) this evening at an event promoting careers in STEM. The event, which is part of Science Week 2022, is organised by medical device company Abbott and is being held at the Atlantic Technological University in Sligo. Fiona will […]

1. Describe your job in 5 words Equipment automation and quality compliance 2. What is a cool thing you are working on right now? Factory automation would probably be the coolest right now. In one project I am working on, we are trying to get as much digital factory technologies onto the site as possible. […]

Describe your job in 5 words or less Challenging but very rewarding. What is a cool thing you are working on right now? Right now, I’m working for a pharma company in Germany. The project involves connecting about 100 machines to an MES system. It’s a big project but it’s interesting because there is such […]

Technology and pharmaceutical industry leaders came together this month at the Pharma MES conference to discuss, among other things, the development of the Factory of the Future. SL Controls CTO Paul Clarke was involved, hosting discussions on the importance of integration in the development of Smart Factories Pharma MES took place in Berlin, Germany, from […]

At SL Controls, we take the issue of mental health in the workplace and wider society seriously, so we are pleased to lend our support to World Suicide Prevention Day 2022. The campaigning day takes place tomorrow, Saturday 10 September. It aims to raise awareness, reduce stigma, and focus attention on the message that suicide […]

Describe your job in five words Matchmaker for company and candidates. What is a cool thing about your job? I help candidates get their dream job and achieve their career goals, which is a pretty good feeling. There is lots of variety too – no two days are the same. The jobs market is also […]

In the first in-person company outing since before the Covid-19 pandemic, the SL Controls team went back to school on Friday. Well, back to old-school sports day. The location was Willow Park FC in Athlone where the team-building activities included three-legged races, sack races, wheelbarrow races, and a tug of war. There was also a […]

Over the past few months, we have been following two SL Controls engineers as they delivered a STEAM educational initiative to a 5th class in Strandhill National School. The 10-week programme was devised by STEAM, an organisation that aims to inspire children about science, technology, engineering, the arts, and maths. STEAM partners with companies like […]

What do you do at SL Controls? The easiest way to put it is if something is broken on a production line at a client facility, I try to fix it. Most of the jobs we work on come from customers who are not happy with their current production processes, they want something improved on […]

Today is International Women in Engineering Day, an annual event to celebrate women working in the field of engineering. It is also an opportunity to encourage more women to consider engineering as a career, as well as encouraging all stakeholders in the industry to do more to achieve gender equality. After all, engineering remains a […]

Diversity and inclusion are central to everything we do at SL Controls, whether it is race, socio-economic background, religion, age, gender, or sexual orientation. Therefore, we fully support Pride Month here in Ireland and around the world. Shauna Ryan, SL Controls HR Manager said: “We do a lot of work around diversity and inclusion at […]

What do you do at SL Controls? I am a Validation Engineer. I work alongside the software engineers at SL Controls on many different client software implementations and solutions. As a Validation Engineer, I provide quality assurance and technical expertise. My role is to make sure the implementations and solutions that we develop at SL […]

Diversity and inclusion have never been more important in business, so we are proud to support IBEC’s National Diversity and Inclusion Day 2022. At SL Controls, diversity and inclusion aren’t just for the 14th of June, however, as they are a central priority for our company and the growth strategy we are pursuing. Norma Mulligan, […]

It’s our anniversary this month at SL Controls, and this year we turn 20! It’s a significant milestone that we celebrated recently across our various office locations. Images: celebrating our 20-year anniversary at SL Control’s Irish offices – Maynooth, Sligo, Limerick, and Galway (playing Tekken!)   SL Controls was launched in Sligo in 2002 to […]

What do you do at SL Controls? I’m now a Project Manager working with local and international clients to ensure the smooth rollout of projects across sites in Europe and the US. This means having to reign in the different parties involved in the project, hosting multi-functional calls, and managing the different areas of expertise. […]

“Where do we start, as there have been so many highlights over the last five weeks?” That was Fiona Chung’s response when asked how the STEAM Engineering in a Box programme was going. The team and the children they are teaching have reached the halfway point of the programme. STEAM is an organisation that works […]

The SL Controls team was delighted to have been involved in this year’s Explore Engineering Showcase in Limerick. The event, which was formerly known as Limerick for Engineering, took place at the end of last week after a two-year absence because of the Covid-19 pandemic.   The Explore Engineering Showcase promotes engineering as a career […]

Like you, we have been shocked at the events taking place in Ukraine and the ongoing humanitarian crisis that the war has created. As a company, we wanted to do what we could to help the families and individuals who have been affected by the conflict in such unimaginable ways. We launched a fundraising effort […]

Employees at SL Controls took part in the Darkness Into Light fundraising event over the weekend. The money raised across Ireland as part of this event is for the suicide and self-harm prevention organisation, Pieta House. SL Controls has taken part in Darkness Into Light for several years, including the curtailed events that took place […]

The Explore Engineering 2022 Showcase event in Limerick is just two weeks away, and we are looking forward to attending. We have been at the event before when it was known as Limerick for Engineering, although this is the first time it has been held since the Covid-19 pandemic. What’s it all about, though? The […]

What do you do at SL Controls? I am a Systems Architect. My role involves working with the technical and engineering leadership teams in the business to deliver solutions for customers. Describe your job without using the words engineer or engineering. Making stuff do stuff, so the stuff is the right stuff. And fixing stuff […]

At SL Controls, we firmly believe in the collective responsibility of everyone to build a sustainable future for the planet. Continuous improvement is a core part of our business, and that translates through to sustainable development where we are fully committed to continuously working to improve how we operate. To achieve this, we have set […]

Talk to any business leader in the field of engineering and they will tell you we need more people to enter the profession, particularly from under-represented groups like women. So, when the opportunity came up to participate in a STEAM initiative, we were excited to get involved. STEAM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and […]

SL Controls are proud to have sponsored the Connacht U10 Blitz at Sligo Rugby Club’s Hamilton Park on Saturday. Over 420 enthusiastic under-10 players from 20 different clubs took part in what was a perfect day for playing rugby. Keith Moran, SL Controls CEO, said: “We are proud to have been involved in this fantastic […]

What do you do at SL Controls? I am a Quality and Validation Engineer working on projects for large multinational pharmaceutical companies. My role involves reviewing quality documentation for quality systems and documentation for the validation of facilities, utilities, and equipment. The documents I review include user requirements, design specifications, performance qualifications, etc. Describe your […]

There are lots of different paths you can take to become an engineer, so don’t just follow the traditional route of going to college to get an engineering degree. That’s the message from Fiona Chung on International Women’s Day. Fiona is a Validation Engineer at SL Controls. This year’s theme for International Women’s Day is […]

What do you do at SL Controls? I am a validation engineer. I work with clients to ensure their manufacturing systems are compliant with industry-specific standards and regulations. Describe your job without using the words engineer or engineering. My role is to plan, create, and execute tests that check if a company’s manufacturing system produces […]

We have a broad range of capabilities at SL Controls and a philosophy of being technology agnostic. This makes it possible for us to deliver equipment systems integration, automation, and smart manufacturing solutions to a diverse range of clients. We also have an approach at SL Controls of continuous improvement, both in the skills and […]

What do you do at SL Controls? I wear two hats. One is HR Manager, which means having responsibility for the full HR lifecycle. This includes everything from onboarding and induction to performance management, employee relations, and employee communication. My second hat is as a member of the SL Controls senior leadership team. This is […]

When we moved to remote working at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, one of our priorities was to maintain as high a level of team camaraderie as possible. Senior management also believed it was important to recognise the hard work of everyone on the SL Controls team as we continued delivering for our clients. […]

How do you have a Christmas Jumper Day at work when everyone is working from home? At SL Controls, we all met up in festive attire in our virtual canteen! We hold regular virtual canteen events to help everyone on the team stay connected with their colleagues. While not a perfect substitute for meeting up […]