One contract, one team, one phone number when the line stops

You get the line built, wired, programmed, started up, and supported by the same team. That is what turnkey means at Bedford Industrial Automation. One contract. One project lead. One phone number for the life of the system.

Most plant managers have lived the other version. The mechanical shop blames the panel shop. The panel shop blames the programmer. The programmer blames the network. The line sits idle while everyone is right and no one is responsible. A turnkey project removes that gap. The same firm that designs the system also builds the panel, writes the code, ships it, installs it, trains your team, and answers the phone six months later when a sensor drifts.

Bedford is a family-stewarded Canadian firm based in Dieppe NB, with team members across New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island. We have shipped turnkey work to plants in India, Trinidad and Tobago, Norway, and onto ships crossing the Bering Strait. Whether the job is a single cell or a full line, the model is the same. We scope it, build it, prove it, and stand behind it.

Here is what that looks like in practice:

• One quote that covers design, panels, code, install, and start-up
• One project manager from kickoff to sign-off
• One set of drawings, one code base, one wiring scheme
• One warranty conversation, not five
• One number to call when something acts up at shift change

Why does this matter to your bottom line? Because every handoff is a place where time and money leak. A 2025 industry report pegs the cost of unplanned downtime in large plants at around 260,000 USD per hour, with a typical large plant losing about 27 hours a month [Source below]. Most of those hours are not the failure itself. They are the wait. Wait for the right vendor. Wait for the right drawing. Wait for the person who wrote the code. Turnkey shrinks that wait because there is no one to wait for. The team that built it is the team that fixes it.

Turnkey is also how new lines come up on time. When the same people own design and start-up, the design gets built for start-up. Wire labels match the drawings. Tags match the code. The operator screen matches the way the crew already works. You start making product sooner, and you keep making it.

If you have a capital project on the books for this year, or a line that has been patched by too many hands, a short scoping call is the cheapest first step. Reach us at biai.ca/contact/.

Source: Siemens / Senseye True Cost of Downtime 2024, https://www.siemens.com/global/en/products/automation/topic-areas/predictive-services.html