Incuity Software, Inc., founded in 2004, is the developer of Incuity EMI, a software product that applies business intelligence to manufacturing environments, helping with plant floor-to-enterprise integration efforts, as well as tying together manufacturing equipment from multiple vendors.
"Incuity helps businesses to be agile by enabling them to leverage existing information assets and avoid a 'rip and replace' approach," says CEO Doug Lawson. "The complexity of the manufacturing information landscape makes it extremely difficult for people to access the information they need. Every day across the enterprise, well-intentioned personnel are forced to make less-than-optimal decisions on the basis of incomplete data."
Incuity's software assimilates information scattered across the enterprise into a single view called the Unified Production Model. This model lets users access, combine, correlate, and interpret information from multiple sources without requiring knowledge of application-specific interfaces or data locations. Users can analyze information using a standard Web browser, Microsoft Office, or via a manufacturing analytic application, and collaborate by publishing reports, graphs, and dashboards to the Incuity portal.
Hexion Specialty Chemicals uses the EMI software to provide a common platform across its North American and some international sites to access its process data, says David Holmes, North American resin process technology manager at Hexion. "One advantage we've seen is the ability to provide 'virtual' technical support to remote sites," he says. And "the capability to pull historical process data across the business network has been instrumental in helping our Six Sigma organization identify improvement opportunities."
Going forward, Lawson says, Incuity and its partners will develop more and richer composite applications to address a broader range of manufacturing problems.
- YEAR FOUNDED: 2004
- PRODUCT NAME AND CATEGORY: Incuity EMI/manufacturing intelligence
- INDUSTRY SEGMENTS SERVED: Oil & gas, specialty chemicals, beverages, metals
- KEY PROBLEM SOLVED: Integrates silos of data across the enterprise; provides timely, clear, and context-rich information
- DIFFERENTIATOR: Enables creation of data models in a "point and click" environment; writes associated XML code on the back end
- TOP CUSTOMERS: 3M, General Mills, Hexion Specialty Chemicals
- FUNDING: $5 million investment from American River Ventures and Palomar Ventures, August 2006