Coplan Ltd is delighted to announce that KIT® has been named a finalist in the Software Solution of the Year category at the 2026 Instrumentation & Electronics Awards. The shortlisting recognises KIT’s innovative approach to inventory intelligence, calibration management and operational readiness, as well as its growing impact across the instrumentation sector.

According to the award organisers: “Software solutions can, among other things, help solve problems or improve operational efficiency. This award recognises the most innovative software solutions and services in the instrumentation sector.”

While many equipment inventory solutions focus on recording assets, KIT goes further by combining a highly visual approach to asset management, inventory intelligence, calibration tracking and audit automation in a single platform. This enables organisations to reduce operational risk, improve efficiency and maintain complete confidence in asset readiness.

KIT’s innovation lies in transforming traditionally manual, time-consuming asset management processes into highly visual, auditable workflows that improve productivity, compliance and service delivery. Today, KIT helps organisations manage hundreds of thousands of critical assets for large manufacturing & specialist engineering customers in highly regulated sectors such as aerospace, automotive, food and drink and defence.

The KIT platform demonstrates:

• Innovation within the instrumentation sector
• Proven operational efficiency gains
• Strong user adoption through intuitive design
• Measurable customer outcomes
• Scalability across industries and operational environments

While many enterprise systems struggle with user adoption, KIT succeeds because it reflects the reality of the shop floor. By mirroring physical workspaces through intuitive visual interfaces, the platform transforms complex inventory management into fast, simple and highly controlled processes. The result is less administration, greater accuracy and more time spent on productive operational activities.

“Being shortlisted for Software Solution of the Year is fantastic recognition of the work our team has put into developing KIT,” said Wayne Stant, Head of Marketing Strategy for KIT. “We’ve focused on solving practical operational challenges faced by many organisations every day. By making inventories visual, accessible and intuitive, KIT has achieved something rare in industrial software: genuine user adoption. Teams can verify equipment readiness in seconds rather than hours, delivering better compliance, faster audits and greater productivity.”

Shortlisting for Software Solution of the Year marks another important milestone for KIT as it continues to help organisations improve operational readiness, simplify compliance and gain greater control of critical assets.

The winners will be announced at the Instrumentation & Electronics Awards ceremony on 15 October 2026 at London’s Grand Connaught Rooms, where KIT will compete alongside some of the instrumentation sector’s most innovative software and technology providers.

Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire – Ontic, a leading manufacturer of civil and military aircraft parts, has successfully transformed its tool management processes by implementing KIT, a digital tool control and asset management system. The move has improved visibility, audit performance and accountability across its UK operations, supporting efficiency and customer confidence.

With more than 7,000 customers worldwide, nine manufacturing facilities and a portfolio of over 8,000 products containing more than one million component parts, Ontic relies on effective tool management to maintain quality, compliance and productivity. As the business grew, managing thousands of tools across multiple sites using a paper-based system increasingly limited visibility and control.

Ontic identified the need for a simpler, more reliable approach that would help teams understand where tools were located, who was using them, and when action was required. The goal was to reduce the risk of lost tools, avoid unnecessary duplicate purchases and improve audit performance across shared and communal toolboxes.

Following an evaluation of several systems, Ontic selected KIT for its simplicity, flexibility and scalability. The company began with a trial in a single area, where early adoption was driven by a proactive cell manager. Progress quickly accelerated as the benefits became clear, leading to wider rollout across multiple toolboxes and sites.

KIT’s intuitive interface, digital audits, clear dashboards and simple reporting tools enabled Ontic to gain real-time visibility of its tooling estate. Technicians and managers could quickly identify missing or broken tools, take ownership of issues and resolve them more efficiently.

Since implementing KIT, Ontic has achieved measurable improvements. Around 95 percent of toolboxes are now digitised and audited using the system, significantly strengthening traceability and accountability. The business has also reduced tool losses and duplicate purchases, while audit compliance and technician ownership have improved. During customer visits, the increased visibility and organisation of tools has reinforced confidence in Ontic’s operational standards.

Paul Bates, Production Engineer at Ontic, said: “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. The simplicity of the system and visibility at all levels ensures issues are resolved quickly, improving efficiency and reducing technicians’ frustration.”

Paul Mazaher, Managing Director of Coplan, said: “It’s great working with customers like Paul and the team at Ontic. They adopted KIT and realised they wanted more flexibility in auditing tools. We discussed ideas together and developed functionality that met their needs whilst maintaining the simplicity of the system. This innovation makes audits quicker and easier than before and introduces audit controls that flex with their working patterns, helping manufacturers achieve the clarity and efficiency they want.”

By replacing paper-based processes with a centralised digital system, Ontic has strengthened control, reduced risk and created a more efficient and accountable approach to managing tools and assets across its operations.

For more information on this project, visit: https://thisiskit.com/making-tool-management-simple-ontics-experience-with-kit/