Smart firm, smart idea smart win ... smarter visibility
Shortlisted in a line-up of 15, the Cork-based company eventually emerged the overall winner in a keenly contested showdown by the top three.
The finalists were measured on three areas: usability, business benefit and innovation. “We went to Las Vegas already very pleased to have an opportunity to share the stage with the other contestants, but to win the whole thing outright was a dream come true,” said Will Wilmot, of an idea that went from concept to reality in just over six months. The app allows manufacturers to improve the manufacturing process by accessing real-time information from both production machines and enterprise systems using smart devices like an iPhone or iPad.
“Using SMART Visibility, I can simply point my device at a piece of equipment and it will tell me what’s happening now; as well as allowing me to analyse what happened yesterday, last week, or even last year,” he explained. Smart Visibility partnered with US SAP consultancy company, Neoris Inc, in presenting the product at the Las Vegas competition.
In 2008, Wilmot co-founded Milestone Solutions, providing consultancy to help multinational manufacturers improve their competitive advantage by automating and streamlining their manufacturing and production processes. The company’s clients included MSD, Pepsico, Pfizer and Boston Scientific. SMART Visibility, formed in 2012, aims to transform the way manufacturing companies can view, analyse and interact with their production processes, by allowing users to access real time data from machines and enterprise management systems data using handheld smart devices.
The app has multiple applications for users, including viewing order status, work centre data and equipment information. Integrated features with camera functionality can read barcodes to manage and control inventory on the plant floor, backed up with GPS providing data central to a specific location. “Some basic examples of how users of SMART Visibility can access information, as part of its many functions, include allowing a user to look at virtual gauges on machine via their device, see how full a tank is, or to obtain a running total of how many units that machine has produced; all there on the screen, by simply pointing and viewing.” Interaction with systems is constantly changing, and this app represents another step in this direction, he said. “People are now expecting all interactions with systems to be as intuitive and simple as common apps. This is driving an expectation of simplicity and performance, and manufacturing systems need to adapt to these new expectations.”
Winning in Las Vegas has given the company an overnight profile across a number of sectors. “It has given us great credibility across the industry and opened up so many doors with SAP, and with our US partner because it is a great news story for them to be involved with it,” he said. “Having been obviously very focused on developing the product leading up to Las Vegas, winning the competition outright has certainly got us a level of subsequent attention that would otherwise have taken a considerable period to build.” The next phase of the project is to develop an iPad version, resulting from a request by SAP in the US.
“They want an iPad version for their sales team to demonstrate what the vendors and partners are actually doing in manufacturing.” Wilmot was also invited to present the product by the App House in Dublin at their Developer Kickoffs meeting: “It was a tremendous honour to be asked to present, and resulted in very good soundings that will probably take us down the road of doing something in a co-innovation sense.” With the prospect of increased employment within the company now a definite reality, Will Wilmot is already plotting the next phase of expansion. “We have the award, we have a product ready for market, and the next step is to engage with potential high profile customers to develop functionality that they want. Focusing our efforts on the needs of a number of specific clients is definitely the way for a small company like us to go at this point,” he believes.
At a time when some sectors in the Irish economy continue to grapple with depressed sales and moribund activity, Will Wilmot sees opportunities increasing for those operating in IT sphere. “There are two Irelands out there — there is the domestic economy and the foreign direct investment and those who work within that sector. Nobody has been immune to the changes of the past few years, and certainly 2009 was a cliff where spending stopped. But while the multinational sector has taken a hit, there has been more recent spending there. Certainly compared to the domestic economy, it’s a hundred times better,” he added. “Everybody has experienced some level of financial difficulty these past few years, but it is clearly of a much more challenging nature for those operating within the domestic economy.”
Formed in 2008, Milestone Solutions has operated in the Life Sciences, FMCG and chemical processing industries. Having worked as end users, engineering consultants and system integrators, Wilmot and his team bring a perspective to project implementation covering process optimisation, system integration, equipment automation and project management. “We saw a niche in the market where large multinationals were spending a lot of money, and we could see where we could add value to that by aligning them on automation strategies and capital spend.” Indeed, it was out of this ethos of adding value that SMART Visibility eventually emerged. “Basically, we offered customers a means of spending their money more effectively with low risk and schedule certainty. We started as a pure consultancy, we weren’t selling hardware, software or licensing. Our motto has been about always making decisions that are in the best interests of our customers,” he said. “Ultimately, this approach and attitude is what has kept us going and thriving.”
Name:Will Wilmot
Occupation: Founder, SMART Visibility & Milestone Solutions
Background: A chartered engineer, he has been a manufacturing consultant for 14 years. In 2008, he co-founded Milestone Solutions, providing consultancy to multinational manufacturers. He developed SMART Visibility, a manufacturing mobile solution that allows users to access real time data. Last month, it won the annual SAP Innovation Challenge at the Manufacturing 2013 Conference in Las Vegas.
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