Software Solution of the Year
Company Name: Coplan Ltd
Product Name: KIT
Supporting Statement:
– Overview –
KIT is a specialist software platform designed to solve one of industry’s most persistent operational challenges: maintaining complete visibility and control of tools, equipment and critical assets.
While many inventory solutions focus on recording assets, KIT goes further by combining visual management, inventory intelligence, calibration tracking and audit automation into a single platform. This creates a software solution that enables organisations to reduce operational risk, improve efficiency and maintain complete confidence in asset readiness.
– The Challenge –
Across aerospace, automotive, defence, food & drink, pharmaceutical and specialist manufacturing and engineering, organisations are subject to increasing scrutiny from regular customer, industry and national standards audits and yet continue to rely on labour-intensive processes to manage tools and equipment.
Common challenges include:
• Time-consuming manual audits
• Limited visibility of asset location and status
• Frequent missing and lost tools
• Inaccurate inventory records
• Missed calibration deadlines
• Excessive tool replacement costs
• Operational downtime caused by missing equipment
Traditional asset management systems record data but often fail to provide a quick and intuitive understanding of what is physically present, missing or non-compliant. KIT was developed to bridge this gap.
– The Innovation –
KIT combines several traditionally separate functions into a single, visual-first platform.
Key capabilities include:
• Visual inventory management
• Digital twins of shadow boards, tool cabinet foam inlays and storage layouts
• Automated audit workflows
• Calibration tracking and compliance monitoring
• Asset history and traceability
• Location-based asset control
• Real-time inventory intelligence
The platform creates digital representations of physical storage environments, enabling users to instantly identify missing items through visual comparison rather than lengthy manual checks.
This visual approach significantly reduces audit times while improving accuracy and accountability.
Unlike conventional inventory software, KIT focuses on operational usability. Staff at all levels can quickly understand asset status without specialist training, driving adoption, engagement and ownership across organisations.
– Measurable Customer Impact –
The effectiveness of KIT is demonstrated through multiple customer deployments, with organisations reporting substantial improvements in inventory control, audit efficiency and asset visibility.
Key outcomes include:
• Audit and inventory verification processes reduced from hours to minutes; one customer reporting “We use KIT to audit 7,440 tools across 240 drawers in under 2 hours. We simply could not have achieved that level of accuracy and speed without it.”
• Significant reductions in time spent locating equipment; one customer states: “The visibility KIT gives us is a game-changer. We know the location of all our tools, who they’re being used by and where some may need attention.”
• Improved calibration compliance and readiness; one customer states “the system is easily saving us 1 day per week”, whilst another claims it has reduced calibration workload to just 10% of what it was previously,
• Increased accountability for shared assets; one customer said “KIT will make your workshop more efficient, it will keep your workforce accountable for their tooling and so for us it was completely worth the investment.“
• Reduction in unnecessary replacement purchases caused by misplaced equipment; one customer remarks “Once we standardised our tooling through KIT, everything became easier to control. Lost time dropped, repairs and replacements were effected quicker, our workflows became more predictable and training new staff became much simpler.”
• Greater confidence in inventory accuracy; one customer commented “KIT has changed how we do inventory. It’s no longer a painful audit; it’s embedded in how we work. We can now commit to customers with absolute confidence, knowing our tools are calibrated, available, and accounted for.”
Customers transform these previously labour-intensive manual processes into something that operators can do quickly and efficiently, enabling them to spend more time on productive operational activities rather than administration.
These results demonstrate that KIT delivers measurable operational benefits rather than simply digitising existing processes.
– Industry Value –
In the highly regulated sectors we serve, they depend heavily on the availability, condition, precision and accuracy and therefore the compliance status of critical tools and equipment.
When assets cannot be located or calibration status cannot be confirmed, the consequences can include:
• Delayed maintenance activities
• Foreign Object Damage investigations
• Product quality issues and recalls
• Reduced productivity
• Increased compliance risk
• Higher operational costs
• Reduced customer confidence
KIT directly addresses these challenges by creating a transparent and auditable asset management environment.
The software supports operational excellence by ensuring that teams always know:
• What assets they have
• Where those assets are located
• Whether they are serviceable
• Whether calibration requirements have been met
This level of visibility enables faster decision-making and reduces the uncertainty that often surrounds asset-intensive operations.
– Why KIT Deserves Software Solution of the Year –
KIT represents a significant advancement in operational asset management. Rather than replicating traditional inventory software, it introduces a visual inventory intelligence approach that transforms how organisations manage tools and equipment.
Its innovation lies in its ability to solve real operational problems that affect productivity, compliance and service delivery every day.
The platform has demonstrated:
• Clear innovation within the instrumentation sector
• Proven operational efficiency gains
• Strong user adoption through intuitive design
• Measurable customer outcomes
• Scalability across multiple industries and operational environments
While many enterprise systems struggle with user adoption, KIT succeeds because it reflects the reality of the shop floor. KIT turns turning complex inventory management into a fast, visual and highly controlled processes. The platform mirrors physical workspaces, uses intuitive visual interfaces and simplifies processes that were traditionally time-consuming and administrative.
Technicians can see in seconds what would previously have taken minutes or hours to verify. This creates a rare outcome in industrial software: people actively choose to use it. That widespread adoption translates directly into better inventory accuracy, stronger compliance, faster audits and greater operational readiness.
KIT is not just a software platform; it is a smarter way to manage operational readiness.
Entry ID: 7584
Supporting Documents
UTAC-case-study.pdf, Probe-case-study.pdf, Ontic-Case-Study.pdf, brit-luxury-car-manufacturer.pdf