ATC Group, headquartered in Tyne and Wear, has been prescribing smart solutions to CNC machine shops throughout northern England since 2006, announced its strategic partnership with Sheffield-based FourJaw Manufacturing Analytics whose cloud-based app and clip-and-play MachineLink hardware provides immediate real-time access to machine utilisation data from across the shop-floor.
ACT Group founder and owner, Michael Richardson, said: “We are delighted to be partnering with FourJaw whose smart App is a game changer for the UK’s precision engineering sector. Adding the FourJaw App to the ACT toolbox will enable our experts to quickly and accurately identify opportunities where our customers can boost shopfloor productivity, with immediate benefit.”
FourJaw – identified as one of the top tech start-ups in the world to watch in 2020 – is the brainchild of Chris Iveson and Robin Hartley whose mission is to reverse the decline of the UK manufacturing using digital technologies to unlock step changes in shop floor productivity.
FourJaw’s CEO Chris Iveson said: “Our partnership with ACT is a perfect fit for FourJaw. Michael and his team share our passion for helping UK manufacturers improve efficiency and productivity. We’ve developed our App with smaller and medium sized precision engineers in mind. That means it works on any machine, any make, any model and any age.
“From legacy kit to the latest machine tools, it’s as simple as clipping a small device to a power cable to provide instant access to data on how your machines are performing, all clearly displayed on a mobile phone or tablet. Installing the device is one small step for an operator, but a giant leap for the business in gaining accurate insights to improve productivity on the shopfloor.”
Michael agreed: “This App literally puts accurate, real time data in the hands of our expert engineers and our customers. This, combined with our decades of experience in precision engineering processes and products, puts us in a unique position to design the best fit solutions for our clients. “
“We know firms who say they are really busy and running behind on orders. and thinking of investing big six figure sums in new machinery, which can be disruptive and expensive to install. But if they were to use the FourJaw app they would discover that their existing machine utilisation rates are nowhere near as high as they imagine: by identifying and exploiting this spare capacity, there are serious savings to be made at a fraction of the cost of installing the link across a shop-floor.”
