In a new, clean and quiet unit on the edge of Derby—far from the comparative hum of OEM assembly halls or the noise of large-scale factories—sits a growing team creating something with the potential to reshape how modern manufacturing works. AddQual Ltd, known for years as a meticulous provider of metrology and inspection services, has been developing a technology that many in the aerospace and defence sectors are already calling transformational.
That technology is MiDAS: the Metrology Interface DAShboard, AddQual’s proprietary platform that takes the most stubborn pain point in manufacturing—inspection—and turns it into a real-time decision engine. Where most manufacturers still fight their way through spreadsheets, email chains, delays and disputes, MiDAS replaces friction with clarity. And clarity, in industries where every micron matters, is a competitive advantage. Managing Director Ben Anderson puts it simply: “Manufacturers are not short of data. They are short of structured data which arrived too late, is interpreted differently, or disappears into departmental silos. MiDAS was created to end that.”
Built from necessity, now shaping an industry
Much like many breakthrough manufacturing innovations, MiDAS didn’t begin as a polished commercial product—it began as a workaround. AddQual’s engineers were spending countless hours resolving avoidable miscommunications between suppliers and OEMs. Drawings changed. Measurement methods varied. Everyone was technically “right,” yet decisions slowed to a crawl. “Inspection was the bottleneck nobody saw coming,” Anderson says. “You can automate machining, automate scheduling, automate logistics—but if the quality data sits in someone’s inbox for three days, the whole supply chain waits.”
To fix the problem, AddQual first built internal tools to speed up structured data capture. Then it built visualisation layers. Then traceability logic. Soon, a pattern emerged: customers wanted the tool, too. Today, MiDAS is deployed directly inside major OEMs, including Rolls-Royce. It has evolved from an internal time-saver to a supply chain-wide operating system.
How MiDAS works—and why it matters
At its core, MiDAS takes raw metrology output—often unstructured, inconsistent, and interpreted differently by every engineer who touches it—and turns it into instant, rule-based, traceable decisions. Imagine hundreds of component measurements arriving from dozens of suppliers. Traditionally, each one is manually checked, queried, emailed, clarified, debated or re-measured. This can take days.
MiDAS compresses that into seconds.
- It captures measurement data directly from machines.
- It standardises it using engineering logic and AI.
- It flags conformity, risk or deviation instantly.
- It publishes results simultaneously to customer and supplier.
And crucially, it creates a single source of truth. Anderson calls this 'beyond inspection, fairness by design:' “When both sides see the same data at the same time, problems disappear. There’s no grey area, no ambiguity, no finger-pointing. MiDAS is simplify mutual transparency” This alignment is becoming mission-critical as aerospace programmes demand tighter tolerances, faster turnaround, and flawless traceability. MiDAS effectively removes the “interpretation gap” that has slowed qualification for decades.
A platform born at the right moment
The industry is at a crossroads. With skills shortages worsening, sustainability targets rising, and global supply chains under strain, manufacturers cannot afford long cycles of rework, scrap or waiting for inspection approvals. AddQual’s view is that digital clarity is essential. “People should be solving engineering problems, rather than formatting spreadsheets,” says Anderson. “When MiDAS handles the routine decisions, engineers get to do the work that actually moves a programme forward.” That shift has already produced measurable outcomes for customers:
- Faster qualification of new suppliers
- Reduced scrap and rework rates
- Stronger collaboration between supplier tiers
- Predictable delivery performance
- Increased confidence in outsourced operations
For many, the biggest benefit is emotional rather than technical: trust.
Feeding a new era of automation
Rather than designed to replace inspector or engineers, MiDAS is empowering them. It also ties into AddQual’s physical automation strategy—most notably its JARViS collaborative robot, capable of performing repetitive inspection tasks at scale. MiDAS is the connective tissue that gives that automation meaning. “Robots can measure faster,” Anderson explains, “but unless the data flows instantly to the people who need it, you haven’t solved the real problem. Automation and digitalisation must evolve together.” By designing MiDAS to sit at the intersection of machine results, human decision-making and organisational workflow, AddQual has positioned itself not as a subcontractor, but as an architect of next-generation manufacturing operations.
What comes next
AddQual’s ambition is clear: to be the company that removes the friction from manufacturing. Not by replacing people. Not by adding cost. But by making information flow so cleanly that complexity becomes manageable. As supply chains grow more distributed and programmes more demanding, Anderson believes MiDAS will become not a competitive differentiator but a baseline expectation. “The future belongs to suppliers who can prove quality instantly, not eventually,” he says. “MiDAS gives them that capability. It changes how trust is built in manufacturing.” From a modest Derby facility, AddQual now finds itself shaping how global OEMs think about data, automation and collaborative engineering.
