Framo, a leading manufacturer of submerged pumping systems for the Shipping and Offshore industry, operates in a high-cost environment, manufacturing all pumping systems locally for global markets. This challenge requires the most efficient use of expensive equipment and labor, where every percentage point of increased utilization translates to substantial financial benefits.
Framo turned to Ignos, known for solving industrial data challenges in a high-cost manufacturing environment that faced a near-identical challenge to its own operations. Ignos was established in 2021 following a long-running and successful digitalization project within Aarbakke AS, which leveraged the Cognite AI and Data Platform to develop data-driven applications that increased production, improved maintenance, and achieved sustainability goals.
The Challenge: Disconnected Data and Low Machine Utilization
The core challenge for Framo was the inability to get a holistic, real-time view of machine utilization and operator activities across the shop floor.
- Siloed Systems: 15+ systems were disconnected, meaning crucial data about machine state, work orders, and quality checks could not be linked together for analysis.
- Manual Processes: Operators relied on manual exports, expert judgment, and complex workflows for job execution and downtime logging, resulting in a significant amount of time spent on non-productive work and poor data quality in the ERP system.
- High-Cost Environment: The global, highly cyclical nature of the oil and gas (O&G) and marine markets, combined with high-cost labor and expensive machinery, demanded maximum scalability and utilization, which the existing setup could not provide.
Although Framo attempted to implement digital solutions to automate processes and improve utilization, this fragmentation and complexity led to slow, expensive, and non-scalable custom integrations for every use case. To overcome these challenges, Framo needed a robust industrial data platform that could ingest, contextualize, and deliver data in a user-friendly, application-ready format.
Solution: Ignos Data Platform Powered by Cognite
Ignos offers an OEM solution of the Cognite AI and Data Platform, The Learning Factory, which enables a suite of operator-first applications to improve operator workflows with unprecedented speed and impact. By utilizing Cognite, Ignos was able to skip building and maintaining the industrial data backbone, focusing instead on developing highly valuable, domain-specific applications.
Ignos builds its applications using the Cognite AI and Data Platform as the industrial data foundation.
- Ignos Pulse: Acts as the "factory heartbeat" to provide real-time status, uptime, and downtime categorization, as well as contextual data for machines and resources, enabling operators to identify and categorize downtime causes for targeted improvements.
- Ignos Engage: Integrates with ERP (D365) and ProArc, simplifying work orders and registration with up to 80% fewer clicks, ensuring higher quality production and inventory data flow back into the ERP.
- Ignos Move: Coordinates and visualizes material flow in real-time to ensure the right material is at the right machine at the right time, with ERP write-back functionality coming in an upcoming release.
- Ignos Keep: Stores and organizes programs, tools, and valuable production experiences in CNC machining, preserving knowledge for future use and supporting continuous improvement.
- Ignos Inspect: Digitize inspections and deviation management with an operator-first workflow, ensuring consistent quality reporting and traceability and reducing administrative overhead.
Key Cognite Capabilities Leveraged by Ignos:
Data ConnectivityIgnos used Cognite’s tooling (MT Connect, OPC-UA, MQTT) to connect 62 machines and systems, including ERP and quality systems, achieving machine connectivity and launching Pulse dashboards in under four months.
ContextualizationCognite automatically combines raw time series data from machines with structured data from the ERP (work orders, materials) to provide real-time context to operators and supervisors, a critical step for diagnostics.
Rapid App DevelopmentBy relying on Cognite’s industrial data APIs, Ignos's team moved from contract signing to a fully deployed solution (Pulse and Engage) in nine months, realizing initial value quickly.
Real-time Data DeliveryCognite enabled the powerful and fast delivery of machine and resource data, allowing supervisors to have a real-time, remote overview for immediate action.
AI ReadinessWith the Cognite AI and Data Platform, Ignos future-proofed their backend infrastructure, enabling them to implement new platform functionalities, such as Cognite Atlas AI, and evolve their own offering to deliver more value to their customers.
Impact: Developer Agility and Multi-Million Customer Savings
The partnership between Ignos and Framo delivered measurable, high-value outcomes, resulting in massive operational savings and industry recognition.
Developer Impact: Speed and Agility
By offloading the burden of building and maintaining a complex industrial data backbone to Cognite, the Ignos team achieved maximum developer leverage, freeing them to focus entirely on rapid deployment of operator-first applications for Framo:
| Metric | Before Ignos (Estimate) | With Ignos (Realized) |
|---|---|---|
| Time to Deploy Solution | Years | 9 Months (For Pulse + Engage Apps) |
| Developer Focus | Required to build connectors, data cleansing, security, and API design | Focused entirely on building operator-centric applications and AI/ML optimization |
Customer Impact: Measurable Business Value
The focused development and innovative capabilities led to shop-floor transformation, directly driving measurable, high-value outcomes for Framo's manufacturing operations and financial gain:
| Metric | Before Ignos (Estimate) | With Ignos (Realized) |
|---|---|---|
| Increased Machine Uptime | Baseline (low utilization) | 150 hours per day for 62 connected machines |
| Increased Blue-Collar Productivity | Baseline | 6,350 hours per year |
| Reduced White-Collar Follow-up | Baseline | 3,175 hours per year |
| Operator Efficiency | Complex manual input | 80% fewer clicks for core job functions |
Key Business Outcomes:
- Millions in Annual Savings: The combined increase in machine uptime and reduction in non-productive labor hours translated directly into substantial annual financial savings for Framo.
- Operator Empowerment: The improved operator workflows simplified work, transferred knowledge between workers, and drove improvement upwards, creating a culture of data-driven change.
- Norway's Smartest Industrial Company: Framo's successful digitalization journey, powered by Ignos, earned them the prestigious "Norges smarteste industribedrift" award.
By leveraging the Cognite AI and Data Platform, Ignos provided Framo with the digital foundation it needed to connect its people and machines in harmony, transforming its high-cost operations into a model of industrial efficiency and earning it recognition as a leader in smart manufacturing.