The mission: “Solve the CNC machinist shortage while increasing your machine uptime”
Manufacturers operate busy shop floors – by directing optimal pathways for operators, they can boost production and make the most of the time they have. “We believe that a CNC machine should never be stopped,” says Frederic Scherer, CEO, JITbase. “This is why, in the context of the labour shortage, we seek to make the interaction between humans and machines as efficient as possible.”
The problem we’re addressing
Skilled staff shortages have long been an issue for manufacturers. But the pressures to increase production have not gone away.
“Our industry has dealt with a shortage of skilled labour for a decade now,” says Frederic. “In a typical factory one operator is assigned to each CNC machine. When using JITbase, the software helps the operator know where to go and when. So one operator can be responsible for many machines.”
What we do
JITbase offers a software solution that enables manufacturers to boost productivity by reading data coming from Computer Numerical Control (CNC) machines in any factory. JITbase’s optimal path system finds the optimal path for each operator.
“The optimal path means the optimal sequence of manual operations that operators have to perform on different machines, in order to increase overall machine uptime,” says Frederic. “Operators tend to go to the first machine that stops, while it can be more efficient to prioritise another machine that stops a few minutes later, but can then run lights-out after a short human intervention.”
Our history
Frédéric worked for several years at Air Liquide in continuous improvement where he experienced the transition to Industry 4.0 from a large industrial group. He founded JITbase to facilitate this transition, for large companies as well as manufacturing SMEs.
Interesting fact about JITbase
JITbase started as a digital work instruction tool for knowledge sharing. As the company got its first customers in the aerospace industry who were striving to find solutions to fight the machinist shortage, JITbase collaborated with them to finally pivot and focus a new product known as OPS today.
What we hope to get from Sixth Sense
“The Sixth Sense program is the perfect opportunity for us and Hexagon to collaborate, learn from each other and accelerate the introduction of new Smart Manufacturing solutions. We hope to use this experience to leverage our and Hexagon’s respective strengths and release an offering that helps the industry address enduring challenges.”