What is Tulip?

Welcome to Tulip

Whether you’re a new user, a power-user, or a prospective app builder, this introduction covers what Tulip is all about and how you can use the platform to transform your manufacturing operations.

So, what is Tulip?

Tulip is a no-code frontline operations platform that includes:

• Intuitive drag-and-drop app editor to create operator-intuitive apps (no coding required)

• Easy-to-use logic building tools and automations that streamline your processes

• Real-time analytics and dashboards with machine learning

• Low-code capabilities that allow customization and integrations to 3rd party systems for your exact needs

• Configurable governance, approvals, user management and compliance settings

• Power AI tools for operator chat support, computer vision, generative AI, and more

• The Tulip Library with 200+ easy-to-download templates and solution examples that are easily configurable to your needs

These features let you build a comprehensive system of apps that integrates with the operator-experience, provides real-time tracking, and enhances compliance standards and quality checks.

What does Tulip actually look like in an operation?

Rather than describe what Tulip does, let’s show you.
In the video below we walk through one of our Tulip Experience Centers (TEC), a showroom and demonstration center that consists of several manufacturing and assembly demonstrations that show you some of the possible ways you can use Tulip:

What does it look like for operators?

As the end users of apps, it can be helpful to give operators and workers in your facility a starting point to get familiar with the new systems you are putting in place.

Tulip helps with continuous transformation

In order to build successful, scalable applications, you need to apply the following core principles:

Build for flexibility and interactivity

Composability is a system design principle that allows for the satisfaction of specific user requirements. Composable business is similar. It’s a way of thinking and being that allows for flexibility, which is uncharacteristic of operations that leverage traditional MES.

In the Tulip platform, a composable solution provides unique capabilities for frontline operators to interact digitally and enable them to be more productive. Composability as a principle means the physical and virtual world are interconnected. We believe that a composable approach to building apps and systems of apps is the best way to continuously transform your organization.

Empower manufacturing experts to lead and build

Adopting Tulip to fit into your operations requires flexible, scalable, and customizable applications. Our Frontline Operations platform enables manufacturing experts who are closest to operations to build those apps, giving the power to those who know a process best.

Anyone building apps in Tulip without a traditional software background is a citizen developer. Their ability to build solutions and analyze data sets on their own enables improvements to be implemented more quickly and efficiently. The iteration process eliminates reliance on technical experts and gives control to engineers on the shop floor.

Make gradual improvements

Tulip emphasizes continuously improving your digital operations so that you don’t need to master everything at once to see value. Continuous improvement starts from basic to more complex problems:

1. Stay Lean: empower your frontline employees to solve problems that add value and eliminate waste

2. Go to Gemba: understand firsthand what problems can benefit most from a digital approach

3. Find & unload from the bottleneck: use this model to identify areas for improvement and focus on increasing your lowest scoresFull use of digital tools and data collection allows you to effectively measure operational improvements starting with your first app deployment.

Focus on what you need

Concentrate building digital capabilities on areas that will yield high operational value. From targeting initial deployments all the way through full continuous process transformation, defining and tracking KPIs directly measures your progress to business objectives. This strategy provides actionable intelligence and further guides the adoption of digital technologies.

So where do you start?

Digital transformation, full leverage of digital technologies, is a process that builds overtime as you continue to deploy and improve applications. The graph below shows how you build value overtime incrementally, to improve upon your learnings.

You don’t need to be a pro at building apps to get started using Tulip.

Anyone with a simple understanding of if-this-then-that logic and software can start building in Tulip.

Don’t want to start from scratch? The Tulip Library provides ready-to-use content developed by Tulip experts. You can download complete apps, app suites, connectors, widgets, and examples, and configure them to your needs to get started as quickly as possible.

Ready to learn how to use Tulip?

Read through this Get Started guide to get acquainted with us.

For more hands-on learning, enroll in the Tulip Essentials online course, practice your skills with Tulip Challenges, and become a Tulip certified app builder.

Our resources

Familiarize yourself with Tulip by using these key resources:

Knowledge Base (You are here)

The Knowledge Base hosts product documentation, guides, and release notes. You can also find guides for using Tulip Library assets.

Tulip University

Tulip University is a free, on-demand resource for learning Tulip. Tulip University contains learning courses, certifications, and app-building challenges to help you take your app building to the next level.

Library

The Tulip Library is a collection of ready-to-use content developed by Tulip experts. You’ll find plenty of content to get you going, ranging from full applications and app suites to templates, custom widgets, and connectors.

Community

Have questions but can’t find the answer in the Knowledge Base or University? Got an idea for a feature that would make your life 100x easier? Need a way to keep up with the latest and greatest in the Tuliverse? Check out Tulip Community.Tulip Community is an active, online forum for users to post questions, have discussions, and help one another use Tulip to solve their problems.