Transcend

Background

Setup in 2017 and with equity investment of ~£10M, Transcend Packaging produces paper straws. It has partnerships with several fast-food outlets and hospitality chains. With the EU-wide banning of plastic straws, Transcend are well-positioned for expansion.

Problem

To support growth, the company recognises a need for digital transformation - production management to be data-driven through automated machine monitoring processes. They have recently hired a new IT director to implement this. However, many of the production machines don’t produce digital information or require software development to process it.

Solution

TEKTowr is undertaking work to extract machine data and derive an internet-of-things (IoT) approach to monitoring. This includes:

• Exploring MQTT data and derive KPIs from this (e.g. number of straws produced per hour, level of waste, etc.)

• Developing a strategy for whole-plant monitoring

• Gamification - ensuring staff engage in improvement measures

• Machine learning techniques for automated measurements

Outcomes

TEKTowr has won follow-on work to implement the overall monitoring solution and other ongoing, mission-critical embedded software engineering initiatives.