FP McCann drives innovation in precast concrete production

FP McCann, one of the leading companies in the UK precast concrete sector, uses cutting-edge machinery and software from Progress Group to further develop its production processes. The UK’s largest manufacturer of precast concrete elements, according to the supplier, is relying on automation and digitalisation to improve production efficiency and quality.

Setting new standards

FP McCann operates 13 precast plants across Great Britain and Northern Ireland and provides a broad range of concrete solutions for the industrial, commercial, structural and infrastructure markets. Six of its plants are now equipped with reinforcement machinery and software from Progress Group, expanding their production capabilities.

State-of-the-art reinforcement machinery

The manufacturing facility at the Byley site demonstrates the benefits of the integrated M-System Evolution. This mesh welding plant is characterised by its dual bending system and integrated handling mechanism. The bending system enables the production of large reinforcement cages for heavy precast elements. “Having the ability to bend both entire sheets of mesh as well as individual bars allows us to decrease the time required to fabricate cages,” said David Norry, Production Manager at the precast plant in Byley. This capability significantly reduces the amount of reinforcement required, resulting in cost savings and reduced material waste.

“One of the biggest benefits of the machinery is the integration. It saves a significant amount of time to have continuity across the design processes by using the same machines. But of course, also the quality of the product is a key benefit.” Andrew Slaven, Design Support Manager for FP McCann, explained that with Byley and Littleport as two of the main sites for structural and architectural work, the automation provided by Progress machinery has been valuable. “It’s been an amazing tool to have as part of our design portfolio and how we design products – it is all based around the machinery and the machinery’s output.”

Enhancing operational efficiency with software solutions

The profitYC software from Progress Group has become an important tool for FP McCann’s reinforcement production. Profit allows both machine operators and production teams to view the status of reinforcement production at any time. This real-time visibility enables the team to optimise planning, manage resources effectively and maintain a continuous production flow. It is also used to predict the duration of production jobs using machine learning, enabling the team to manage their workload effectively. “The software is the key part that holds everything together. We will be using profitYC in the new plant in Littleport and will then roll it out in the rest of the business. That will be a key move for us because we have a lot of people who deal with PXMLs and software programming. If we can automate and take away a lot of the manual work in the background by using the software, it makes it a lot more efficient for us,” explained Slaven. In this way, FP McCann is further strengthening its position in digital innovation in the construction sector.

A strong partnership with Progress Group

The collaboration between FP McCann and Progress Group has supported the development of the company’s production technology. “Working with Progress has been a positive experience over the last years. Their machinery and software have significantly enhanced our reinforcement production capacity, adapting to the growing demands of our customers,” remarked David Norry.

Adam McCann, Engineer at FP McCann and part of the family that has built the company, added, “We like to build relationships with the companies we buy machinery and software from – we like to work with them for a long time. That would have been the biggest selling point for me, and of course, Progress Group is a well-known name. We bought the machine first and now have seen that the software elevates it.”

Automation and digitalisation

With automation and digitalisation, FP McCann aims to remain at the forefront of precast production in the UK. Andrew Slaven stated that the experience with Progress Group has been consistently positive since the start. He emphasised that the support and integration within the company work very well. “The biggest benefit of automation and digitalisation is time saving, more than anything – being efficient as a business is the priority.”