Within the manufacturing industry equipment downtimes can be quite costly. One way to lessen the risk of these costly downtimes is for companies to be aware of which assets are about to break down, which is where Enertics Inc. comes in.
Enertics is a Canadian technology company based in Milton, Ontario, offering online monitoring, diagnostics, and predictive technological tools for asset health monitoring applications in the industrial sector. The company’s solution-oriented applications assist medium-to-large industrial facilities to improve their asset availability and electrical equipment reliability.
The tech company was faced with the challenge of wanting to reduce the amount of time needed to market new product features. After careful analysis of its release process, the company found that its testing procedure lacked consistency and was extremely time-consuming. To remedy this, they leveraged the support of the Southern Ontario Network of Advanced Manufacturing Industry (SONAMI) and collaborated with the Lambton Energy Research Centre (LERC), at Lambton College.
SONAMI is a Niagara College-led network of post-secondary institutions, who, through their respective Research and Innovation Centres, collaborate with small- and medium-sized companies to tackle their manufacturing-related challenges. The organization provides innovative solutions, such as process optimization, designing and testing prototypes, evaluating new technologies, and developing and commercializing new or improved products. SONAMI leverages faculty, students, and state-of-the-market equipment, together with funding from the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario (FedDev Ontario), to support manufacturing in Canada.
By partnering with Lambton College, a SONAMI member, Enertics was able to take advantage of its expertise in manual and automated testing tools. LERC’s research team analyzed different methods for automated testing, identified a suitable framework for the company, and tested the framework on a part of the application. The goal of the project was to develop a web-based application and native mobile app that would give users the ability to monitor, control and configure the system remotely.
“The SONAMI project helped us tremendously in achieving product enhancement objectives for our company. The Lambton College team was very helpful in driving the program and achieving planned objectives. We look forward to the continued support from Lambton College and SONAMI while we accelerate our journey of launching new products and solutions in Canada and globally.”
– Bobby Sagoo, President and CEO, Enertics Inc.
The R&D collaboration resulted in several positive outcomes. Firstly, it enabled the company to develop a more user-friendly platform, which brought in new customers and satisfied existing customers’ demands for added features. Secondly, the expedited quality assurance testing of their technology platform resulted in a $500K boost in their global revenue. Lastly, the company had the opportunity to collaborate with a skilled Lambton coop student, whom they later hired.
Amandeep Kaur, recently graduated from the Mobile Application & Design Development Ontario College Graduate Certificate program at Lambton College and is currently working as a Software Developer at the company. Through her involvement in the applied research project, she was able to demonstrate her abilities while gaining technical experience.
“I am grateful to SONAMI and Lambton College for giving me the opportunity to work with Enertics Inc. and for helping students like me to get a job,” said Kaur. “This project taught me a lot both professionally and personally, and my manager inspired me to learn new skills in Android testing and development.”
The applied research collaboration marks an exciting new chapter in the relationship between Enertics and LERC, with both parties benefiting from the exchange of knowledge and expertise.
“Collaborating on this SONAMI supported project with Enertics Inc. has provided the College the opportunity to build on our expertise and capacity in the area of automated testing while providing student researchers the opportunity to work with industry and put their in-class learning into practice,” explained Joel Hodgson, Operations Manager of Research & Innovation at Lambton College.
“The SONAMI project helped us tremendously in achieving product enhancement objectives for our company,” said Bobby Sagoo, president and CEO of Enertics. “The Lambton College team was very helpful in driving the program and achieving planned objectives. We look forward to the continued support from Lambton College and SONAMI while we accelerate our journey of launching new products and solutions in Canada and globally.”
Following the applied research project, the tech company implemented the recommended quality assurance strategy for their asset health monitoring cloud-based solution, which enabled them to launch their product faster and set themselves up for future business growth.
If you would like to discuss your organization’s needs with a SONAMI representative, please contact [email protected].