Abingdon Acquires Intouch Monitoring to Accelerate Factory-Floor AI Development

Abingdon has acquired Intouch Monitoring, a Northampton-based leader in real-time machine performance tracking for the injection moulding and plastics sectors. The acquisition provides the capital and shared resources to speed up the development of a new AI module, Intouch Intelligence.

Founded in 1997, Intouch captures minute-by-minute production data across more than 300 manufacturing sites worldwide, providing something fundamental to effective factory AI: reliable, consistent production data. Its integrated hardware and software provide a simple way to monitor machines of any age or manufacturer, to create a common production record across the factory. By continuously capturing cycle times, tool changes, downtime and its causes, production performance and energy use, the platform builds a unique, rich historical dataset alongside live factory data.

Intouch Intelligence is designed to make this massive historical and live dataset actionable. A production manager can ask which machines are losing the most productive time and why, or identify recurring causes of downtime, receiving answers based on live factory realities rather than theoretical specs. This capability can extend to AI agents that can continuously monitor production, investigate emerging issues, and recommend corrective actions. These capabilities will allow customers to move from asking questions to proactively addressing problems in the manufacturing process.

Effective AI requires consistent, accurate data. Manufacturing presents a particular challenge because factories typically contain machines of different ages, manufacturers and technologies, each providing different levels and types of information. Intouch has been creating a consistent record across those machines for nearly three decades, combining live performance information with years of production history and operational context. This gives Intouch a uniquely powerful dataset for use of AI.

“We’ve been monitoring these machines for nearly thirty years, so we understand what the raw machine data tells you and, just as importantly, what it doesn’t,” said John Hardwick, Managing Director of Intouch Monitoring. “An AI answer about why a machine is behind is only as good as the production data and downtime information feeding it. Abingdon understood that in our first meeting and is providing the backing to accelerate our development.”

Zuzanna Olczak, Vice President of Corporate Development at Abingdon said: “We are excited to be partnering with John, Karl and the Intouch team. Over the years, Intouch has done the core groundwork, building a proven platform and a production dataset that is difficult to replicate. Abingdon’s role now is to fund and support the next stage of that product, with a particular focus on the additional value we can deliver to customers through new AI capabilities.”

Intouch keeps its name and its team at the Northampton office. John Hardwick continues as Managing Director and Karl Edwin as Technical Director. Existing contracts, pricing and support arrangements are unchanged.

Read more news from Intouch here.

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