Industry 4.0 is a hot topic.

In case you didn’t know, the idea behind the concept of Industry 4.0 is that we are in the Fourth Industrial Revolution with ever-accelerating technological advances dramatically changing the way we live and do business.

As manufacturers work hard to get to grips with this changing world, a company in Barrow has put itself at the heart of efforts to use technology and data to maximise productivity.

David Herington started Nixor Solutions, based in the town’s Trinity Enterprise Centre, about four years ago.

He has developed the Fast Pass app, which is helping companies apply the principles of lean manufacturing to complex projects incorporating entire supply chains as well as individual businesses.

It gives everyone who is involved in the process the ability to monitor its status in real time - either via computers, smartphones, tablets or screens on the walls of workplaces.

In particular, it is focused on reducing waiting time when no one is working on the process or it is stopped due to breakdowns or other delays.

The company ran a successful six month pilot of the app with a major blue chip company which ended last year.

“It completely proved the concept such that the company has now decided they want to roll it out across their business,” said David, who is the company’s chief executive.

“It completed the product development and enabled us to both define and develop the product, both from the app side from the user interface and from the browser based side.”

Following the trail, Nixor officially launched the product at the Smart Factory Expo in Liverpool in November.

It is now working with the Made Smarter initiative to help businesses use the system to increase efficiency and working practices.

Made Smarter is a Government project being piloted across the North West providing support and funding to help manufacturers improve their productivity by investing in new digital tools and technologies.

So far Cumbrian companies have invested a total of £1m in new technologies with support from the project.

Twelve businesses have secured £300,000 worth of match funding, including LED specialists Forge Europa and Astec Precision, both based in Ulverston, and Playdale Playgrounds, in Haverthwaite.

“Britain lags behind other countries in terms of productivity and the Government have laid down the challenge to help businesses improve that,” said David.

“It’s a tool that we can use to really help businesses improve their productivity.

“We are looking at their business processes and we are taking out cost to improve productivity and we’re also aiming to undertake the processes faster and deliver them earlier.”

The company is now focusing on marketing the product to large companies such as BAE, Rolls-Royce and Babcock, as well as their first-tier suppliers, including the likes of James Fisher, Morgan Sindall and Jacobs.

“We also have an offer to the SME market and that’s where we are supporting the Made Smarter digital transformation programme,” he said.

“We want to make it easy for people to implement and easy for people to pick up and use, but the amount of data we collect is awesome.

“We are exactly what Industry 4.0 is all about, we are collecting a lot of data and we’re doing some very clever statistical analysis to help businesses predict outcomes and improve performance.

“The thing that we think is unique is that we are engaging with the people.

“We are bringing lean manufacturing to life and engaging with people and that’s what makes it a sustainable capability.

“It’s not something that’s just going to go away when we finish.

“It’s going to remain at the business and give them a capability to keep improving.”

David uses a rugby analogy to explain one thing that the data has revealed, namely that there can be a lot of time when rather than the “ball being passed around” during a manufacturing process it spends time “on the ground”.

“It’s about picking up the ball and making sure all the balls are being picked up and moved and progressed through the system and not left on the floor or missed,” he said.