You sell software with an attitude behind it. How do you communicate the content of EVOMECS?

Up to now, we have visited prospective customers at a reference customer, followed by a workshop in which we presented a vision of what the future of the company could look like. However, we have found that toolmakers sometimes want to get to the point more quickly, that they want to solve a problem "now" ... Thanks to technological innovations such as cloud applications, potential customers can now simply create a test account and try out EVOMECS for themselves and operate it as a rental solution without any significant investment.

Does it work according to the plug-and-play principle or do I need your expertise as a user?

Setting up the system works in the same way as with classic cloud systems. You register and are first presented with an empty system. You can display dummy data and play around with it. However, we then also have the option of actually operating specific job management and cell control with quick access from the cloud. At the moment, however, companies still need us to do this. But we are currently creating videos and training materials so that companies with technically ambitious employees can set up such a system themselves. EVOMECS is also a purely standard system. There is not a single customer-specific function in it. They all use the same software.

Stefan, what is the biggest concrete benefit for users of EVOMECS?

First of all, it's mainly about rationalization. Especially in tool and mold making, there is a lot of potential to free skilled workers from pointless, non-value-adding activities. However, this only works if the individual production steps are integrated consistently and across processes. We integrate this in various components, for example in the machine connection, tool management or the task manager. We simply want to give companies the options they need to take a step into the future. SMEs in particular need to be able to purchase such a system and operate it without a great deal of effort. We simply want to reach the heart of the user ... But this is only possible if, for example, further developments can be tested easily and reliably. A special technical feature of EVOMECS is therefore that - despite its consistency - each component can be upgraded and downgraded independently of one another.

And EVOMECS is platform-independent. This means that you are in constant contact with machine and control system manufacturers.

We have a very good exchange with both. This comes about through customer projects. A toolmaker wants a specific connection and we then approach the relevant machine or control system manufacturers together. This has worked very well so far. However, there is also a lot of really good hardware in companies where the manufacturer's software is no longer updated. We can offer "retrofitting", which works particularly well for control systems in automation.

Benjamin, how many EVOMECS applications are currently on the market?

About 15, but so far we have been in the development phase. In such a complex technical environment, this can take several years. However, our system is now in a state where we can meet demand very quickly and easily. It is scalable and that is why we are now entering the growth phase.

EVOMECS has therefore been completed at exactly the right time, now that the structural change in tool and mold making is imminent ...

In 2015, our focus was still on topics such as automation and rationalization - and how to teach this to employees in the company. Today, the question is the opposite: where do I get employees from? These are external factors that play into the hands of our offer.

Does EVOMECS also work for other sectors?

Absolutely. We currently have projects in the early stages of mechanical engineering, contract manufacturing and production. We have a very high development speed here because we have designed the core of the system with so much thought. The fact that we come from the tool and mold making industry is of course also an advantage, because we had to drill the technically "thickest board" right at the beginning:

When people in the industry talk about collaboration, standardization is mentioned as an important basis. You also advertise with the term "shared manufacturing". What does this mean?

In the future, companies will be able to share their production orders as easily as they do today with a document or a deadline. If you have an order that consists of different items but don't have the resources to do everything yourself at the moment, the work is simply shared at the touch of a button. If the partner company is not already using Evomecs itself, a system is created in the cloud and everyone involved can continue working on the production order with little effort. All information about the project is then available and the progress of processing can be called up transparently at any time. Although it is an essential part of our concept that the companies are connected via the cloud, the system also works if the data is located on site at the companies. We will therefore always offer the "on-premise" version as well. Collaborative working is not affected by this. You can simply move the system, take all the data from the cloud, install it locally and continue working seamlessly.

Stefan, what are the next steps?

When you start exploring the possibilities of digitalization, hunger comes with food. Our customers take the first step and then often have ideas about what else could be improved with the system. For example, production planning was actually added quite unplanned. We initially regarded it as a problem that had already been solved and that other software systems were taking care of. But then the first users convinced us that it makes perfect sense to carry out planning with the real-time data and the entire context available in EVOMECS. This massively reduces the implementation and maintenance costs of planning systems.

That's part of production planning.

This also opens the door to assembly, which should also be viewed digitally as a work step. We basically categorize what we consistently map into technologies - milling, eroding, measuring, washing, etc. - and assembly is simply another technology. Assembly is simply another technology that is being introduced. Of course, this is much easier to implement via the cloud than a machine connection.

Why is that?

In assembly, it doesn't matter if the internet connection is briefly interrupted. However, in order to continue the production of a machine securely via the cloud, there are a few criteria to consider ...

Dialogue on the future