Plug-and-play machine monitoring

Maher, which previously relied on job booking records to inform its production performance estimates, has installed FourJaw’s technology across critical production areas to achieve an accurate real-time view of how its machines perform. Following an initial benchmarking exercise, Maher is using the visibility of machine utilisation and machine-level energy consumption provided by FourJaw to inform continuous improvement, productivity and efficiency initiatives, and respond more quickly to production issues.

Maher rolled out FourJaw’s machine monitoring platform across key production areas, integrating live dashboards on the factory floor and exporting data via an Application Programming Interface (API) for deeper analysis. The team captured initial machine utilisation using FourJaw and validated the findings with job booking data to provide a reliable starting point for its annual 5% utilisation improvement goal.

Since adopting FourJaw’s technology in 2024, Maher has already improved Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) from 19% to 47% and increased Machine Utilisation from 29% to 46%.

Connor Blackshaw, machining supervisor at Maher, comments: “FourJaw is simple, effective and works the way we do. It provides the performance visibility we need, without overcomplicating things, and has quickly become the oracle for our factory improvement initiatives. Half of the work involves finding and analysing the data. FourJaw provides the baseline and the answers by providing the downtime reasons, which we can then use for root cause analysis. We see precisely what’s happening on the factory floor with FourJaw, even for lights-out manufacturing shifts, and spot immediately if something goes wrong.”

Charlie Stothard, automation and process improvement manager at Maher, comments: “It’s helping us move towards 4.0 and allows us to analyse with the directors to see our strengths and weaknesses and plan forward based on what we find. From a continuous improvement point of view, we now have concrete evidence of where to focus our energy, helping with costings, budgeting and machine utilisation.”

Chris Iveson, CEO at FourJaw Manufacturing Analytics, comments: “Our plug-and-play technology makes it possible for manufacturers to monitor every machine on their shop floor, and gain the insight they need to improve productivity and energy efficiency. We are proud to welcome Maher to the FourJaw family. They have joined a growing number of manufacturers globally that are achieving unprecedented productivity and efficiency gains by understanding precisely what is happening on their factory floors.” 

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