Industry leader at Cameron Price optimizes production by using Factbird

The Cameron-Price and Factbird Journey

Cameron-Price is constantly looking to invest in new technologies. This allows the company to deliver first-class injection molding and a real-time, fully traceable service. In their search for new and innovative production solutions, Cameron-Price discovered Factbird and contacted the team in March 2017 to learn more about the system and its capabilities.

The first step towards a collaboration with the Factbird team was to evaluate the benefits of access to real-time data on the production of injection molding machines and assembly stations. Factbird supplied Cameron-Price with the plug-and-play solution for production data collection/analysis. Cameron-Price installed this solution easily into their production process.

The ease of the plug-and-play capability of the Factbird system enables a seamless implementation during production without interrupting the process. Cameron-Price added one line after the other in a stepwise approach to accommodate a busy production schedule without the need for any external support. Cameron-Price now manages its factory of 40+ machines and assembly stations more efficiently with real-time data.

Custom Development Improves Data Accuracy

After the installation of the Factbird system, the team developed a custom development project that enables Cameron-Price to follow the live production status of more than 40 of their molding and assembly lines on the factory overview dashboard on the Factbird Cloud Application.

During the course of this customization, the Factbird team realized that Cameron-Price had a Navision based ERP-system that had no connection to the production data. This finding was swiftly remedied by the Factbird team. Now, the production schedule data of Cameron-Price is automatically sent to the Factbird system. Thus, cutting down a significant amount of manual work while also improving data accuracy.

The setup of the Factbird system was smooth and efficient, and the team at Factbird added huge value in both the design of the factory overview and the seamless integration with our ERP system. We are now able to manage our factory much more efficiently and effectively having data at our fingertips rather than just ‘gut feel.

Lewis Pepall, Finance Director at Cameron-Price

Staying Competitive in the Global Market

Factbird sends the production data directly to the cloud server. The next step was adding a number of Factbird Views – a video option that connects a camera to visually identify errors in the assembly stations. If the real-time production data from sensors show variations in production, the associated video allows us to visually analyze the root causes. This video data becomes useful in improving the yield of the production, enabling Cameron-Price to meet the high demand of the various industries in which they operate.

Staying competitive in an industry requires one to have the courage to make changes and innovate. Cameron-Price showed that having a strong management initiative makes anything possible. Introducing a new technology like Factbird earlier than its competitors has enabled Cameron-Price to successfully pursue continuous improvement in quality, productivity, and service. This pursuit of new technology allows Cameron-Price to stay competitive in the global market.

Many of our customers told us it is difficult to introduce Industry 4.0, because their legacy equipment is old, they are using different types of control systems, there are many automation layers that cost a lot to change and there is no time for shut-down to rebuild or expand. This made us develop the plug-and-play, retro-fitting tool, which enables our customers to immediately start using the production data to improve their process. Cameron-Price was one of the early adopters of the new technology and successfully took a step forward into the Industry 4.0 era.

Finn Hunneche, Factbird founder and partner of Emendo Consulting Group