Eigen innovations Inc., a Fredericton company specializing in the Industrial Internet of Things, or IIot, has unveiled its Eigen Quality Workbench, a software product that optimizes quality control in industrial manufacturing. 

The company, which has been working with large partners in and outside Atlantic Canada, issued a statement Thursday saying the Quality Workbench is designed to help manufacturers “achieve true defect avoidance.”

Eigen’s Intellexon platform helps manufacturers improve production efficiency and reduce waste. The system uses algorithms developed under the guidance of researcher and co-founder Rickey Dubay at the University of New Brunswick. Everett worked with Dubay and has been the technical expert developing the product for the past few years.

Intellexon selects data from sensors and other sources in a customer’s plant and sends the relevant data to the cloud, where it is analyzed. Finally, it sends information back to the plant, where action is taken. All of this happens in real time, so the actions are precise. With offices in Fredericton and Toronto, From an early stage, Eigen was working with such partners as Oregon’s FLIR Systems Inc., the world’s largest thermal camera and sensor maker, to develop Intellexon to suit these customers’ needs.

“As manufacturing becomes more complex, many companies are struggling to enable a workforce that uses factory floor data to drive efficiency and productivity on a daily basis, which is a constant threat to their ability to remain competitive,” says Scott Everett, the company’s CEO.  “The Quality Workbench fills a gap between this data and the machines, by working with operators to discover new insights for efficiency on a continuous basis.”

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The Quality Workbench works on the Intellexon platform. It revolutionizes the way manufacturers improve quality by capturing and analyzing data with artificial intelligence to discover breakthroughs in operating efficiency.

Eigen saw the need for the new software while working with its their customers and other manufacturers.  The company is increasingly focused on providing solutions for automotive manufacturing and food processing, embedding its technology within Tier 1 and Tier 2 manufacturers, and suppliers of industrial equipment throughout North America.

A graduate of the PropelICT tech accelerator, Eigen is making a habit of working with large partners. It made the announcement in Austin, Texas, where the company is featured at Dell EMC World 2016, the computer maker’s flagship event.  In April, Dell announced their Internet of Things Solutions Partner Program, including Eigen in the initial group of members.

“Dell believes [independent software vendors] are critical in building the bridge between the exciting industry potential of IoT and profitable market reality,” said Jason Shepherd, director, IoT Strategy and Partnerships at Dell. “We value our partnership with Eigen Innovations and look forward to our continued collaboration.”

Last week at the Big Data Congress, Nestor Gomez, Manager Global Information Services at McCain Foods, included Eigen in a slide showing the companies that the food giant is now working with. And late last year, Eigen won a US$25,000 cash prize by placing third at the second annual Cisco Innovation Grand Challenge in Dubai. Because of the bronze showing, Eigen was given a long-term relationship with Cisco, the global maker of networking equipment and a huge proponent of the Internet of Things.

Eigen, which raised $1.4 million this year, is also the only Atlantic Canadian startup listed among the graduates of the University of Toronto’s Creative Destruction Lab, one of the most demanding accelerators in the country.