| Success stories
NOXEM: Optimizing production has never been easier
Congratulations on winning the business incubator! Could you introduce us to NOXEM and your main mission?
Thank you so much, we still can't believe it. Not long ago, almost no one knew us, but after the win, our situation changed radically. For the better, of course. Rather, we should thank you.
But our goals and values remain the same. We want to help companies digitize and optimize production. We have created a tool that can identify production weaknesses, find out their cause and then eliminate them. Thanks to this, our clients save.
What was your journey to this innovation? Were there any specific issues in the industry that motivated you?
During the implementation of our system, we encountered situations in which the assistance of several employees of our clients was needed. We needed permission from different branches of the work plant. From IT experts to project managers. We therefore had to adapt our solution to this situation and eliminate actions that prolonged the implementation of the project. We have created a solution that is mostly dependent on one maintenance worker. In this way, we avoided the involvement of the IT department and the project team otherwise needed for sensor cabling distributions.
Do you have a concrete example for us of how you helped the company to save money with this particular solution of yours?
Our first customer, who implemented our monitoring in his company, was able to increase the efficiency of production by 12 percent in less than a year precisely because our system helped him discover the cause of bottlenecks in production. The financial savings compared to the costs of our system cannot be compared, as it was huge.
How do you plan to develop and scale your solution?
We are currently dealing with production monitoring, but in parallel we are developing another module designed for corporate maintenance management. It will be a similar web application, which we call simply - Smart maintenance. Customers will transfer complete enterprise maintenance to this application. The application consists of several parts and will include management of equipment and assets, management of corporate maintenance, i.e. redistribution of individual tasks and control of their fulfillment, through elements of predictive maintenance. We are now in the beta testing phase and are looking for partners to participate in co-development. Mostly manufacturing companies, which we will listen to. If they tell us what problems are bothering them, we will find a common intersection using modern technologies.
What challenges did you have to overcome during the development of your technology and how did you solve them?
There were several challenges in the beginning. First of all, finding the right solution in terms of hardware and accessories. The new technologies are just coming to the market and we have burned ourselves several times when choosing the right device and its reliability. This was related to the financing of the project in the beginning. We were looking for equipment that we could adapt to our specific solution at a reasonable cost.
And speaking of challenges – how difficult is it for a company to implement your solution in production?
Implementation is very simple and takes minutes. Our solution is wireless, i.e. there is no need to run cables around the production hall. Furthermore, we do not need access to the company's internal network. Access to the internal network has two main obstacles. The first is security, and the second obstacle is that you employ the entire IT department at the customer. We found a solution that bypasses all of this. We don't need anyone from the IT department and IT security will be maintained.
You were part of our business incubator - how did you find out about it and, above all, what did it give you in retrospect?
We learned about ICUK from a friend. I solved the problem of promotion and mentoring with him. An acquaintance reported that they help start-up entrepreneurs in the innovation center, so they could also help us. ICUK was a faithful colleague who introduced us to the beginnings of business. We naively thought that we would write to ten companies and that they would sit on our ass. Of course, that didn't happen. It strongly demotivated us and we began to doubt the whole project. ICUK helped us take a broad look at the problem. He helped us the most by connecting us with the right people who helped us reach customers. We also learned how to present our product.
Winning Startup Go Grill is not only about a quality product and business plan, but also about a great quality self-presentation - what is it like to stand in front of an experienced jury and a wide experienced public and start "selling" your own business?
It was a huge challenge for us. There is a difference between presenting our product to one person in a meeting room and presenting it to a crowd of people including an expert jury. It was one of the many aspects that we wanted ICUK to help with. We had a whole series of lectures on the topic of acting, presentations, etc. But one thing is theory and the other is reality. We jumped headfirst into it and it turned out the way it did.
Tell us about your upcoming plans?
We would like to focus on the development of the company and the expansion of our product. After our joint success at ICUK, a number of companies contacted us with the possibility of cooperation, so we have a lot of challenging but enjoyable work waiting for us after the new year. At the same time, we would like to complete another smart maintenance module and offer it to potential customers. Last but not least, we want to focus on data analysis using artificial intelligence.
