Feasibility Study into Remote Plant Monitoring via Smartphone
Cambrian Printers are a commercial printing company in Aberystwyth, specialising in short run colour printing for magazines, catalogues, books, brochures and journals. They run 24 hours a day, producing journals, magazines and brochures for customers across the UK.
24 hour operation means that the top expertise cannot always be on-site, and management wanted to investigate the technical feasibility of taking data from the commercial monitoring systems, and making it available to managers on smartphones.
Challenges
The feasibility study by ASTUTE and Cambrian Printers resulted in a system that provides up to date information to managers about the performance and status of all machines, which staff are working at any time, and the status of all orders and invoices. The managers are able to set the software to actively contact them by phone if specific conditions occur, e.g. if a critical printing machine is down for more than two hours.
Impact
The monitoring software has demonstrated that it is possible to enable operations management staff to keep better track of what is happening in the factory from their smartphones. This is improving efficiency and up-time for printing machinery. It is also giving management the tools to keep better track of what is happening in the factory, and making Cambrian Printers even more competitive as a result.
