Anomalyse: Unlocking the Future of Industrial Intelligence

Unplanned downtime incurs steep costs for manufacturing companies, totaling a staggering £1.4tn for the world’s 500 biggest companies, according to a 2024 Siemens report. But what if factory downtime and manufacturing inefficiencies became a thing of the past?

Technology has the power to help make this a reality. A new era of industrial intelligence is emerging and it’s being led by innovative SaaS pioneers like Anomalyse, who are unlocking untapped insights from factory floors and harnessing the data stored within the machines themselves.

Based in Sister’s Renold Innovation Hub, Anomalyse is on a mission to empower manufacturers with automated, AI-driven anomaly detection. By transforming real-time asset data into proactive maintenance and process intelligence, they enable organisations to identify reliability issues long before they occur - reducing downtime and optimising performance.

Their vision is clear: To become the trusted intelligence layer for industrial operations worldwide, where every manufacturing asset is continuously monitored and optimised through AI-powered insights.

“Our vision for the future of the industry is that data will be used more effectively, opening up the possibility for operating regimes where downtime and production inefficiency are a thing of the past,” explains James Rynn, CEO and Co-founder of Anomalyse.

To learn more, we sat down with James to explore the company’s story, the power of explainable AI, and why Manchester is the perfect launchpad for Anomalyse. Read on to find out more and hear what James had to say.

Where did the inspiration for Anomalyse come from?

James Rynn: “We’re four like-minded founders with a shared passion for solving real-world problems. Between us, we have the data science, IT infrastructure, and sales expertise needed to build something truly innovative.

“Having worked across the manufacturing and industrial sectors, we saw a massive gap: the in-built intelligence within manufacturing assets produces vast amounts of data, yet very little of that value was being captured.

We realised that we could close that gap by combining this real-world data with readily available supercomputing and cutting-edge data science. Anomalyse was born from that mission - to drive productivity in UK manufacturing and beyond.”

How are you solving problems for your customers?

James Rynn: “We’ve built a cutting-edge SaaS platform that enables industrial and manufacturing organisations to analyse plant and process data at scale, simply and cost-effectively. Using the Anomalyse platform, companies can - for the first time - spot maintenance, reliability and process performance issues long before they occur, enabling them to detect, monitor and respond to irregularities to prevent waste and downtime. Rather than relying on off-the-shelf models or 3rd party solutions, the system uses purpose-built machine learning algorithms developed by the Anomalyse Data Science team using a ‘first principles’ approach that removes complexity. This proprietary approach allows our platform to integrate seamlessly into existing systems and deliver meaningful insights with minimal setup or manual intervention.”

How can machine learning and explainable AI help to close the productivity gap?

James Rynn: “The machine learning algorithms of the Anomalyse platform allows users to unlock the value hidden within a company’s industrial asset data. Our explainable AI tooling ensures that the model outputs can be directly understood by the end user, e.g. ‘Pump A is exhibiting abnormal behaviour, driven by pressure’. This provides actionable insights from data in near real-time, helping to directly improve productivity.

“This approach allows the platform to feel intuitive and understandable to those without a data background, helping build trust and engagement amongst users that leads to real business change.”

How important are partnerships to growing businesses like yourself?

James Rynn: “We were founded based solely on data science, so partners who can support and deliver other aspects of the overall productivity challenge are crucial - from business information system suppliers and system integration services to collaborators in instrumentation, sensors, robotics and automation. All these organisations play a key role in the overall manufacturing ecosystem.

“We are currently in the process of signing a number of formal and informal partnership agreements. Some of these organisations are interested in re-selling our platform or in some cases augmenting their existing services.

It’s by taking this approach that the Anomalyse solution and brand will be multiplied across a wide range of markets allowing us to scale without adding too much additional cost onto our business.”

What are Anomalyse’s biggest opportunities and challenges right now?

James Rynn: “Our biggest opportunity is riding the current AI wave. There’s a massive drive for productivity and sustainability right now, leading companies to invest in better data usage to support this. The challenge is that technology adoption in the UK is notoriously slow; gaining those initial use cases and proof of concept projects often takes longer than it should.”

What makes Manchester the right place for Anomalyse to innovate and grow?

James Rynn: “Manchester has a thriving tech sector and great infrastructure to support emerging businesses like ours. Being so close to world-class universities gives us an incredible pipeline of talent right on our doorstep. It means that as we scale, we can bring in the right people with the right skills at exactly the right time.”

What have you loved most about being in the Sister co-working space at Renold?

James Rynn: “It’s an incredible, collaborative environment, providing a great opportunity to engage with like- minded people from a range of growing companies. It hasn’t just helped us expand our professional network; it’s given us a platform to share our passion and ideas, educating others about what we’re building at Anomalyse.”

What’s next for Anomalyse? How will your business evolve over the next year?

James Rynn: “Our next chapter is all about scaling - and scaling fast. We have a unique platform and a first-mover advantage, so the goal now is to drive more use cases across different sectors to clearly demonstrate our value.

Over the next year, we’ll be expanding our data science team, refining our user experience and launching a proactive sales and marketing campaign to rapidly acquire new customers and fuel our growth.”