Finlay Grace is co-founder of QVS Pro, a UK-based provider of automated inventory management systems, specialising in secure vending machines and locker solutions for tools, consumables, and personal protective equipment. The company focuses on industries including aerospace, automotive, power generation, and rail distribution.

Sam Sherwood-Hale spoke with Finlay Grace, joint co-founder of QVS Pro, about the company’s innovative smart calibration control locker system and how it’s addressing critical inventory management challenges in the rail sector.

SSH: What does QVS Pro do and who are your customers?

FG: We’ve developed a smart calibration control locker system that’s primarily used to calibrate tools. We do a lot of work in the nuclear industry, but we’ve also made significant inroads into rail. About two years ago, we completed a major installation with Direct Rail Services for their four depots that are licensed for nuclear work: Crewe, Carlisle, Sellafield, and Motherwell in Scotland. We’ve also worked with Northern Rail and Unipart Rail. The nuclear industry can be slow with orders (it’s feast or famine), whereas there’s tremendous potential within the rail industry, and I’m keen to push our success story there.

SSH: How did you develop this system and what gap were you filling?

FG: I first started looking at this concept about 20 years ago. We were industrial vending machine providers, supplying tools, welding equipment, and PPE through automated systems. But we kept coming across items that were either too big, too heavy, or needed to be returned (basically items too large/too heavy for proprietary vending machines couldn’t handle). So we started developing intelligent lockers.

Initially, we used a single blue LED to show whether items were in or out, and we realised we could use that for calibration tracking. Then my electronics specialist said he could make LEDs shine in nine different colours. I asked if he could run it like a traffic light, and he said yes. The idea was almost instant; we suddenly had tri-colour capability that could do so much more.

SSH: Can you explain how the tri-colour LED system works in practice?

FG: It’s quite simple, really. We use a tri[1]colour LED on each locker door that works like a traffic light. If it’s green, the item is calibrated and good to take. Once the item is removed, we start flashing the LED so you know it’s already out of the system. We can set a calibration timer in the background (say, six months for a torque wrench) and then set an alarm. When it gets to perhaps 30 days before expiry, the LED goes to amber. Anyone walking past immediately knows something’s coming up for calibration and needs attention. When the item goes out of calibration, the LED turns red, and critically, you can’t open that door. It physically prevents uncalibrated equipment from being used. The worst-case scenario would be a flashing red, which means an uncalibrated item is already out on the shop floor. But you can quickly scan for that item and see exactly who has it (say, Sam was the last person) so you can track it down immediately.

SSH: What specific problems does this solve that traditional systems don’t?

Maintenance Facilities generally use a manual Excel type spreadsheet for tracking calibration due dates, in conjunction with open shelving for storage. So because they don’t have anywhere secure to keep items, you’d inevitably go looking for something and it wouldn’t be there. It would be very hard to determine where it was or who had it last. Our system provides all that accountability. One phrase we got from nuclear customers was, ‘this thing polices itself.’ Just by walking past and looking at the state of the LEDs, you know exactly the status of every item. Ideally, if everything’s green, that’s great (everything’s calibrated and available). But if you see ambers and reds, you immediately know where to focus your attention.

The system also provides a portal for remote access. With Direct Rail Services, I get a green report, amber report, and red report every morning detailing the status of every item in their system across all four depots. You can also export the transaction log and calibration data as CSV files. Most rail yards I’ve visited are a long way off from this sort of technology. Generally, tools are still issued by stores, so there’s lots of walking and waiting time, and obviously, no accountability. They have location problems, they can’t find the kit or they get the kit and find parts are missing.

SSH: Rail operations present unique challenges – distributed worksites, 24/7 operations, safety-critical equipment. What have you learned from working with rail clients?

FG: With Direct Rail Services, the four depot locations are geographically quite far apart (Crewe, Carlisle, Sellafield, and Motherwell), so they had all sorts of issues trying to track and trace expensive equipment that was being shared between locations. Our system provided good visibility of where those assets were and where they’d been used. They also wanted the ability to track equipment to specific engine numbers, so we built that into the issue process. Everyone has a personal fob: you scan to enter, enter your chosen PIN code, then you enter the vehicle number for whatever train you’re working on. Only then can you issue items that are in calibration.

In my experience, most rail yards work quite old-fashioned compared to other parts of industry. Aerospace, nuclear, and precision engineers seem far more advanced. My friend from Rolls-Royce joked, ‘there’s the right way, the wrong way, and the railway.’ They’re quite embedded in certain work practices. A lot of facilities will duplicate equipment because they can’t find it or don’t know where it is. These rail maintenance yards are massive, with 50-plus people working; trying to find an item might take 20 minutes. With our system, it’s point[1]of-use. You know instantly if an item isn’t there and who had it last.

SSH: Your system has won awards from the nuclear decommissioning authority. Can you explain what problems it solved to earn that recognition?

FG: We won an innovation award from the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority because, perhaps for the first time, we implemented something that actively stops uncalibrated tools from being used. It’s not just tracking, it’s prevention. I imagine that’s the same challenge in the rail industry. In rail, using uncalibrated tools when servicing trains could literally be life or death if something goes horribly wrong. I’m not aware of anything else at the moment that quite does what we do: physically preventing the use of out-of-calibration equipment.

One interesting project we’ve just won is for Sellafield, controlling their drones and robotics. It’s not just torque wrenches and multimeters. It could be other assets on site where they want accountability. They used to use a very similar system to ours but with coloured magnets. Someone had to manually change the magnet colour to indicate status or removal. When the compliance officer saw our traffic light LED system, she got understood it straight away. She realised it was the next step to replace this manual process, because we automate all of that.

SSH: You mention customers achieving 30-40 per cent cost savings with sub-twelve month payback periods. What drives those savings beyond the obvious efficiencies?

FG: A lot of that saving comes from eliminating duplication. Equipment gets duplicated because people can’t find it. Sometimes that equipment is very expensive. Sellafield has calibration monitors that are £20,000 each. They might have half a dozen when they really only need one to do the job and one as contingency when it’s sent away for calibration. You’re overbuying by a huge margin just because of poor control.

Once we put systems in, loss of equipment also tends to diminish. Whether that’s poor management or possibly theft, I don’t know, but what we provide is true accountability of every item that moves within the system. That totally eliminates those losses. And there’s the time savings – not walking around massive maintenance yards for 20 minutes trying to find something or figure out who has it.

SSH: You talk about eliminating ‘squirrel supplies’ of workers keeping personal stashes of tools. How do you change that behaviour?

FG: We find this is the same with vending machines: once people know that equipment is readily available and accessible, they stop hoarding. They know where it is and they know they can get it. That’s one of the things we have to be careful about, trying to change someone’s mindset. You still see places using coloured tape to indicate calibration periods.

With our system, people realise they don’t need their own stash because the system ensures availability and tracks everything properly.

SSH: How do you handle data securityand cloud connectivity, particularly given the sensitive nature of nuclear and rail operations?

FG: Our system works both ways; it’s stand[1]alone and can be interrogated without being connected to the cloud. In fact, most installations are stand-alone because there’s a cost to having the portal, and most people walk past the system every day anyway, so there’s no point in remote access. My son actually wrote his dissertation on the security of cloud-based data, so we’re very aware of these concerns.

If someone has worries about data being ‘out there somewhere,’ we hold everything locally. We provide a USB port inside the control tower so you can download information as CSV files and do whatever you want with it. It’s not reliant on an internet connection. In the nuclear industry, we’re not allowed modems or network cables; you’d probably get shot if you suggested sharing data remotely! The system started off as stand-alone. It’s only with Direct Rail Services that they wanted group visibility of what was happening across their four depots, so we put those on the portal. Most rail maintenance yards will probably run stand-alone and let the system police itself.

SSH: Looking ahead, where do you see your solutions heading in the next 3-5 years?

FG: It’s really hard to say because the product has evolved around feedback from users. The next big thing we’re introducing this year is a quarantine function. The head of compliance at Sellafield said there was just one thing missing. I thought we’d thought of everything! But he needs proper quarantine capability. Currently, you could just designate a door as quarantine, but that’s not sophisticated enough.

We’re developing a system where when someone returns faulty equipment (broken screen, missing cable, whatever) they can hit a quarantine button and select from 15 pre-configured options explaining the issue, or ‘ask me’ for something unusual. This speeds up the process because workers never have time to stand there typing explanations. The item goes into quarantine, the supervisor gets notified, and they have to inspect and release it. At the moment, someone might have faulty equipment, can’t find the supervisor, so just chucks it back on the shelf and walks off. Nobody knows until the next person needs it and discovers the cable’s missing. Our system will eliminate all that.

We also developed new controllers for Direct Rail Services that include permission groups. With the old system, anyone could take anything; you’d just review reports to see if people took items they shouldn’t have. Now, if you’re electrical, you can’t take mechanical equipment. We can lock things down much more than before. The system has evolved to a point where I think it ticks all the boxes and does everything we’ve been asked for.

SSH: What’s the implementation journey like for a new customer?

FG: I always say what we do isn’t rocket science. We’re just capturing what they’re probably already doing, putting it within a system that gives them a higher level of control. It takes all the manual processes out. The system is modular; we manufacture everything in the West Midlands, built in towers about a metre wide, so you can daisy-chain them together to grow as demand dictates. If you have a 50-door system and get another dozen items three months later, we just add towers.

The hardware is very robust. We offer full UK service support, though we have very few problems. In the nuclear industry, if they had an issue, we couldn’t get on-site quickly anyway – it can take five working days just to get a pass. Everything is modular, bolt-in, bolt-out.

Swapping a screen or circuit board takes just minutes. We also provide a twelve-volt backup battery – everything steps down from mains power to below twelve volts now, with just one cable for power, data, and communication. The battery gives about four hours without mains power. At trade shows, I just run it off a motorcycle battery.

SSH: What makes an ideal client for QVS Pro? What conditions lead to the most successful deployments?

FG: Any of the existing rail operators with maintenance facilities would be ideal customers. From what I’ve seen, most are working quite backward, very old-hat compared to aerospace and nuclear. Our biggest challenge is creating awareness. Every time someone sees one of these systems at an exhibition, once they understand how it works, they all say the same thing: ‘What a great idea.’ We have a very robust solution after years of development. We just need more opportunities and awareness.

Direct Rail Services at Crewe are quite open to having visitors to see what they’ve done; they like showing it off. That helps because people can see it in action. What’s interesting is that we’re now seeing movement of people between companies. Raj Bazi, who was head of engineering at Direct Rail Services, recently moved to Northern Rail as their engineering director. We did an installation with Northern Rail at Allerton near Liverpool years ago, and now I’m in touch with Raj about potentially upgrading or expanding that system.

We’re also working to engage with West Midlands Trains and Eastman, but it can be hard going through LinkedIn trying to find the right person. That’s why articles like this are so valuable; they reach so many readers. Someone somewhere is going to read this and think, ‘Actually, this looks like a great idea. Can we get these people in?’ The crux of the whole thing is accountability: individual accountability of what someone is taking, but also accountability against whatever they’re working on. In the rail industry, that can literally be life or death.

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