How We Work With You
Discovery → Pilot → Rollout. De-risk at every stage.
1. Discovery
Site walk + task scoring · 1–2 weeks
Every engagement starts with a conversation, then a site visit. We walk your line, watch the operation, and score tasks against our automation-fit criteria. No commitment at this stage — if FlexCell isn’t a fit, we’ll tell you.
Three questions we ask:
What’s the bottleneck?
Where does throughput stall? Is it labour availability, changeover time, quality rework, or peak-season surge?
What’s the throughput target?
What does success look like in units/hour, uptime %, and variance tolerance? We need numbers, not aspirations.
What are the constraints?
Space available, ceiling height, floor condition, power, compressed air, IT/OT network, safety zones, and traffic patterns. These define the cell layout.
What you get:
A written assessment: is this task automatable with FlexCell? What’s the expected throughput? What are the integration touchpoints (conveyors, wrappers, labellers)? What does the pilot scope look like? If we can’t help, we’ll say so and point you in the right direction.
2. Pilot
Single cell, defined metrics · 4–8 weeks
A pilot is a real deployment — not a demo. One FlexCell, on your site, running your product, measured against agreed success criteria. The goal is to de-risk before you scale.
What we measure
Throughput (units/hour sustained), uptime (% of scheduled run time), variance (consistency across shifts), quality (defect/rework rate), and changeover time (minutes between SKU switches).
What you control
Go/no-go decision at the end of pilot. No obligation to proceed to rollout. If the numbers don’t work, you walk away with data and a clear answer. If they do, we move to seasonal contracts.
Pilots are not free — there is a mobilisation fee that covers transport, install, commissioning, and pullback. But they are priced to be low-risk relative to the cost of getting automation wrong.
3. Rollout
Scale what works · Seasonal contracts
Once the pilot proves the numbers, we replicate. Additional cells on the same site, expansion to new sites, or new workflows on the same platform.
Seasonal flex
Deploy cells for peak season (8–24 weeks), pull back for shoulder. Extension and rollover options built into the contract. Your capacity matches your demand curve.
Multi-site
FlexCells are redeployable. A cell that runs ice in Christchurch during summer can run fruit in Hawke’s Bay in autumn. Same platform, different recipe.
Continuous improvement
Telemetry from every deployment feeds back into the system. OTA software updates, recipe optimisation, and predictive maintenance. The cell gets better every season.
Start with a conversation
Tell us about your operation — what you pack, what breaks, what keeps you up at night.
We’ll tell you whether FlexCell can help and what a pilot would look like.
