Although W. Gessmann GmbH places a strong emphasis on innovation and quality with its products, some internal areas were still characterized by paper-based processes, as is the case with many medium-sized companies in Germany. This led to significant challenges in terms of efficiency and transparency in all processes related to the maintenance and repair of the numerous machine tools. In production alone, Gessmann had 20 to 30 folders full of documents such as maintenance logs and offers, which made it difficult to keep track of everything.

On the other hand, Michael Faber: a committed, long-standing and innovative employee who has been with the company for around 15 years. Faber started his career as a toolmaker and CNC milling machine operator, but his keen interest in robotics and automation eventually led him to programming four years ago, and thus to the digitization of many work steps.

Digitization initiatives at Gessmann

"We have quarterly meetings to identify new digitization potential. All the important departments take part and present the initiatives of the last few months. The plan to digitize the maintenance of mechanical production was also discussed there," says Michael Faber. Shortly afterwards, his superiors asked him to look for a suitable solution. He chose WERKBLIQ, a specialized maintenance management software. He started the project with determination: "Even when I was working on the machine, I was always interested in the background. So it was only natural that I would also take care of the selection and introduction of maintenance software – with everything that goes with it."

Step by step to digital maintenance

With a clear focus on improving processes and the new software solution, Faber gradually moved towards digital maintenance. He started by digitizing all the paper documents: "To do this, I entered all the maintenance work manually in WERKBLiQ and also scanned in and digitally organized around 1,800 files and documents, including many maintenance logs," Faber continues: "It was a lot of work, but it was worth it." The introduction of WERKBLiQ ultimately enabled the maintenance processes for around 25 employees in mechanical production to be significantly improved.

Discontinuation of WERKBLiQ

Despite the initial successes with WERKBLiQ, Michael Faber encountered new challenges. In August 2023, Gessmann received the surprising news from DMG MORI that the license and provision of the software would end. DMG MORI had bought WERKBLiQ in 2017 to integrate it into its own product portfolio, but stopped development for strategic reasons. Michael Faber, who had driven the project forward with great enthusiasm, describes the situation as follows: "I realized a year before that the software was no longer being developed. DMG was less concerned about the software – there is, for example, a helpdesk where you can suggest things, such as improvements to the software. But that just petered out. Only when nothing else worked did they start to take care of it." For the Gessmann team and Michael Faber, it was clear that it was no longer worth working with WERKBLiQ.