Driving efficiencies

Scott Everett became fascinated with vehicles as a boy working on his family’s farm. His parents sold the farm but his love of machinery eventually led him to mechanical engineering and now a place in the auto industry.

His Fredericton company, Eigen Innovations , uses artificial intelligence and predictive analytics to help car-part makers be more efficient. “We want to speed up the number of parts made per hour,” Everett says. To do that, Eigen analyzes data many factories already collect, in addition to that from its own sensors, such as video-imaging, to help boost production.

As efficient as manufacturing has become, things like introducing a new material can be costly. Everett’s tech assesses the impact—“It can automatically detect when something is changing,” he says —and tells factory staff “how to run their machines better.”

Convincing customers was a slog back in 2012 when Everett and a partner founded Eigen—“we’d get blank stares,” he recalls. But that soon changed, and today he does business in the U.S., Europe, Japan and Mexico. Now he is ready to branch out.

“The auto industry was an interesting place to start because they have to guarantee quality,” Everett says. “But as the cost of tech comes down, we can push it into other areas.”