Rowan Easter-Robinson, TrackMyMachines

Rowan is the founder of TrackMyMachines, a startup that aims to supercharge productivity for manufacturers of all kinds.

Hi Rowan. Tell us a little bit about you and your business…

I left school to do a manufacturing apprenticeship at the age of 16, and I have been working in and around engineering since then. I spend more of my time touring manufacturing facilities and managing my business, TrackMyMachines.

TrackMyMachines is a startup based in Sheffield that aims to supercharge productivity for manufacturers of all kinds internationally. We work with machine shops of any size from 1 to 100 machines to find out how they can improve their efficiency. 

What has been TrackMyMachines’ greatest success?

In our first six months, we managed to save one manufacturer a projected £85,000 through shift optimisation and intelligent workholding and tooling investments that save tens of hours production each week

What about your greatest challenges?

Building a software company from scratch isn’t easy. TrackMyMachines has been running since 2021 and was built solely by me. I’ve been working on it whenever I can and putting in late hours – much like most manufacturing engineers!

Why is IoT important to you?

The Internet of Things is the single most important part of my business. Without the automated data gathering opportunities it offers, I would have to ask machines operators and engineers to spend their precious time doing manual data gathering. This is just not possible since these companies need to spend their time as effectively as possible.

What have your experiences on the IoT Engine been like?

The whole IoT Engine team has been both delightful to work with and really useful in a surprisingly short amount of time. Lauren’s management and Rikki’s technical knowledge helped to upgrade my startup from hobby to production-ready.

What’s next for TrackMyMachines?

I’m growing gradually in the UK and soon hopefully expanding into India and UAE. I’m further strengthening the software with the insightful assistance of Rikki.