A huge part of CareGo’s corporate culture is around innovation and research and development. We actively work with all our employees to generate ideas which will impact our customers facilities and their experience with TELIA, our flagship product. We pull ideas from our internal R & D program called Minds in Motion, research new and emerging technologies which could positively impact our solutions and engage with our clients to understand their pain points and needs. Through this process new products are then prioritized and scheduled within our product map to bring them to market.
Last year we completed 13 new product development projects which are available to our clients who are active on TELIA. They are also available to new potential clients. In addition, in the first two quarters of 2021 we have 9 product development projects in the pipeline.
The newsletter / blog will focus on a few of the core offerings we have brought to the TELIA core and why we developed them.
One of the key drivers for a lot of our product development is to develop components, features or functionality which will help drive the return on investment for our customers. The program looks to develop our product in a direction that will allow our customers to gain a competitive advantage in the marketplace by reducing their costs and improving their productivity.
Several years ago, we started down the path of machine learning and machine vision technology to identify and locate objects of interest. Today this has evolved into a full smart system which will automatically detect trucks and associated coils for pick up and put away in TELIA automation. This new functionality has the potential to increase the ROI for our clients who have a coil receiving function which is currently staffed. We are expanding this capability through machine learning to identify rail cars and unload from them too, as well as other commodity shapes such as plate, sheet, pipe and tube.
In January 2021, CareGo installed and commissioned the world’s first automated Dual Magnet Bundle Lifter. To achieve the desired instantaneous run rates required off of a mill a dual magnet bundle lifter was required. The dual magnet bundle lifter also reduces the number of cranes and bays required to achieve the overall plant throughput, maximizing the return on investment.
We have another 6 product development projects in progress which will provide further ROI potential for our clients including a coil magnet with faster cycle times and more storage density, as well as the opportunity to stack single piece round pipe and tubes in automation to minimize manual intervention.
We continuously improve our technology to ensure high uptime with communications, improved localization of the crane and other moving equipment within the automation space. As such, two new product development options are available for crane communications and localization.
Whether retrofitting an existing facility or commissioning a new facility, the goal is to get back up and running as soon as possible. We have several new product development functions which are designed to reduce the interruption to your operations and commission as quickly as possible, even under a global pandemic. These include augmented reality capabilities to allow for remote commissioning teams, automated rack / upright mapping to reduce commissioning times, and enhancements in our software to improve how TELIA can optimize your facility’s storage space and throughput while minimizing the time required to implement.
Our projects don’t end after go-live; we continue to work with you to improve your operations and adapt as your business changes and grows. We offer several components which will ensure your on-going success with Crane Cameras, PLC historians and automated email notifications. The components improve your overall equipment uptime and ensure your material handling systems are working on the right task at the right time right task at the right time.
We are focused on improving our customer user experience, whether that be during the commercial phase of the relationship or once you have TELIA up and running. Our product development team has developed a Coil Capacity Calculator to provide an estimate of the coil storage density you could experience with TELIA. Likewise, for pipe and tube customers an automated bundle capacity model generator will significantly reduce the time it takes from first contact to understanding the benefit our solution might provide to your facility.
For our existing TELIA customers, significant improvements to the TELIA UX include the introduction of a new Help Center to allow on-site access to User Manuals, Frequently Asked Questions for problem solving, as well as Training videos to teach new operators how to interact with the TELIA system.
Finally, one for the plant managers, supervisors and upper management: our new big data analytics platform analyzes operational data gathered by TELIA to provide insights and trends into your facilities operations – what’s working, what could be improved, and to ensure that TELIA continues to work towards your business goals.
And if all of this wasn’t sufficient, many clients aren’t ready for a full automated environment but would like to take advantage of many of the features of TELIA, including the inventory tracking and management, inventory placement optimization, and to ensure that their operators are always working on the next priority task. TELIA Handheld does just that by utilizing existing technology to track coil movements, providing warehouse inventory management, and directing and prioritizing tasks through a handheld device for your operators. TELIA Handheld provides full facility visibility through our Dashboard and can also take advantage of our Big Data Analytics platform to provide in-depth insights to your operations.
Schedule a demonstration of any of these new key product development initiatives by contacting our team today.
*All hardware and commissioning of new hardware is not covered by on-going license fees.
** Some new products incur a small monthly addition to cover cloud-based licensing and services.
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