Planning and scheduling production is one of the most complex tasks in global manufacturing, yet it remains reliant on human decision. London-based Flexciton is using AI to build a powerful production planning and scheduling solution for manufacturers, making the process 30x faster.
Flexciton has just raised €2.8 million in a round led by Backed VC, with participation from JOIN Capital and Entrepreneur First.
Flexciton uses artificial intelligence to optimise the way manufacturers plan and schedule multi-step production lines – an incredibly complex task for all manufacturers. Mathematically, planning and scheduling the next three days of production in a typical manufacturing plant presents more options than there are atoms in the universe, according to the startup.
Currently most of the day-to-day planning and scheduling is done by a person, yet the sheer complexity of the problem makes it impossible to find efficient solutions and is very slow. As a result, manufacturers are running their facilities inefficiently – and are sometimes unaware of the true extent of capacity they have available if planned optimally. Flexciton’s optimisation technology makes production decisions in minutes (30x faster than current methods) and can bring more than 10% efficiency gains to manufacturing sites of all shapes and sizes.
Since its launch in 2016, Flexciton has experienced overwhelming demand in the market, and now works with an impressive array of clients across the food, textiles, semiconductor and automotive industries.
The team at Flexciton are world leading experts in the field of industrial optimisation and AI. Combined, the Flexciton team has published over 140 peer-reviewed academic papers, all of which focus on the practical application of this technology in eight different industrial use cases. Flexciton’s senior optimisation scientist, Dr. Giorgos Kopanos, has published a book on the topic.
Jamie Potter, CEO and Co-founder of Flexciton, said: “I’m really excited to have closed this round because it represents the tremendous progress we have made here at Flexciton, and the incredible trajectory we are on. Over the past year we’ve experienced extremely high demand for our technology, and our clients include some of the most advanced manufacturers in the world. This has only been possible because we have built a truly world class team and our technology is cutting edge. We are looking to rapidly hire talented people to grow our team, so we can deliver our product to market even faster.”
Partner of Backed VC, Alex Brunicki, said: “Jamie and his team have ambitious plans to transform manufacturing and their beach-head product, which lies at the heart of planning and scheduling, positions them effectively to grow their sphere of influence right across the factory. The team have commercialised faster than any Industry 4.0 company we have seen to date, so it is hugely exciting to continue our support in a much more material way.”
