Member Article

University partnership points to global success

A partnership between Sunderland University and one of the North East’s most successful new businesses has led to the USA launch of an innovative product.

Washington based OnePoint Systems Ltd produces software to improve production processes and factory floor communications. This month the company arrived in the USA as OnePoint Systems LLC, ready to exploit the overseas market - an impressive move for a project that began when Sunderland University student John Bartlett wrote a program to analyse shop floor timesheets.

Computing student John designed the product in 2000 whilst on placement at Washington Envelopes. The IT technician had been asked by Managing Director Dave McGuire to find a practical way of capturing and analysing timesheets from the shop floor.

After graduating John became IT Manager at Washington envelopes, and work began on the OnePoint Factory Floor system -a sturdy touch-screen machine accessible on the shop floor.

OnePoint has since collaborated with the university to create an advanced data streaming system, enabling factory floor machines to “talk” to other hardware - including PCs and telephones -meaning staff in offices, on the factory floor or offsite can gain access to data.

Dave says: “The OnePoint Factory Floor system was quickly established as part of everyday life at Washington Envelopes. A lot of customers started to ask where we got the system from and how much it cost. I started to see that there was a lot of commercial potential in the system.”

The system went live last year and Dave became MD of OnePoint System Ltd. Links with the university have been maintained: the company has worked with 8 Master students on their dissertation projects, which have provided practical input into the company’s cutting edge work.

Dave McGuire explains: “With a wealth of manufacturing knowledge on our doorstep, an experienced and enthusiastic development team and a partnership with the University of we have all the ingredients to develop first class software for manufacturers.”

To find out more about OnePoint System Ltd go to: www.onepointsystems.com

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .