Sheffield Forgemasters has launched an app which allows customers to view the company’s factory operations and aims to let them track their products through production.
The technology innovation provides 360⁰ camera footage and is supported on Apple and Androis smartphones and tablets.
The app also allows users to pick out ‘hot spots’ in the production process and gain information about those areas. Users can also enable news feeds and push-notifications about activities in these hot spots.
SFIL worked with Agent Public Relations on initial concept and developers RCKT to create the app.
The end goal is to let customers track their orders as they move through the manufacturing process and across Sheffield Forgemasters’ 64 acre Brightside facility.
Other Sheffield Forgemasters sites around the world are aslo represented on the ap which includes a global map and imagery showing components during different manufacturing procedures.
Graham Honeyman, chief executive and originator for the app idea, said: “This app is the first of its kind in our industry and will form another crucial means for us to engage with a worldwide audience and customer base.”
The first stage of the app is now live and can be downloaded by existing and potential Sheffield Forgemasters customers for free for tablet computers and smartphones.
“Creating the app is part of this company’s philosophy to embrace new technologies and to be the first to achieve many things,” continued Mr Honeyman. “No other forgemaster in the world can boast that they have an app, so this is just one more thing that is truly made in Sheffield.”
App viewers can take a virtual tour of SFIL’s Melting Shop, Foundry, Heavy Forge, Machine Shops, Pattern Making Shop and Rolls Department, finding information about features including furnaces, the firm’s vast 10,000 tonne forging press, its casting facilities, the electric arc furnace and its ultra large lathes.
