Machinery and plant engineering

Software for the Machinery – for manufacturers and operators

Evaluate machine data, make technical knowledge findable, process service and spare parts digitally. We build the software that mediates between machine, maintenance and business administration – from Stuttgart, in the middle of mechanical engineering.

Agree on initial consultationView starting points
manufacturer neutralon-premises possible
Disturbance at a production line
Where time actually goes
Todayapprox. 4 hours
With findable knowledgeapprox. 1 hour
Search for informationRepair
Schematically following the scenario from our contribution to plant downtimes: 45 minutes search in twelve manuals versus less than two minutes.

Two perspectives on the same topic

In mechanical engineering, our interlocutors sit on two sides of the same plant. The tasks are similar, the priorities differ significantly.

Viewing angle 1
They build machines
Then software has long been part of your product – and often the part about which providers can still distinguish themselves. Once a machine is with the customer, it is no longer just the mechanics that decide, but how well you can see from a distance what it does and how quickly your service can react.
  • Retrieve and evaluate machine data from the field
  • Service portals for customers, technicians and dealers
  • Spare parts catalogues that fit the specific machine
  • Documentation that is correct per serial number
  • Evaluations across the installed base
Viewing angle 2
They operate machines
Then you usually have to deal with a grown landscape: plants of different manufacturers, different years of construction, each with its own control and its own documentation. The question is rarely whether data is there – but whether someone sees it at the right moment.
  • Planning maintenance instead of responding to disruptions
  • Making technical knowledge discoverable in seconds
  • Merging plant data from several manufacturers
  • Link stocks of spare parts to actual demand
  • Evaluations across lines and locations

Where software starts in mechanical engineering

Six starting points that prove to be the most effective in practice – regardless of whether you build or operate machines.

Using machine data
Bringing together data from controllers, sensors and control systems – even from plants that were never intended to output data.
Making technical knowledge findable
Handbooks, maintenance logs, schematics and fault history so that the answer comes in seconds instead of half an hour of sheets.
Planning for maintenance
Deduce from operating and condition data when something is due – instead of waiting until it stands.
Aligning spare parts on demand
Link holdings to actual default patterns so that less capital is in the warehouse and still the right thing is there.
Connecting older facilities
Retrofit instead of new purchase: controls from the nineties can also be tapped in most cases if you know where.
Digitally handling service
Portals for customers and technicians, where machine, history, documentation and spare parts come together.

Why it pays off

147.000 €
average cost per hour of unplanned shutdown in German industrial plants
67 %
of companies are affected by unplanned downtimes at least monthly
21 %
continue to work purely reactively – i.e. only when something already stands

These figures are from the study Value of reliability from ABB and describe the industry, not results of our projects. We cite them because they explain why the effort for evaluation and findable knowledge pays off so quickly. The calculation paths behind it are in the contribution The economic impact of unplanned plant shutdowns.

Mechanical engineering land on the doorstep

Baden-Württemberg is the densest mechanical engineering country in Germany, and the Stuttgart area is right in the middle of it: machine tools, drive technology, automation, measurement technology, plus a supply landscape that has grown over decades. A large part of these are family businesses with three-digit employees – exactly the scale in which we work most often.

For software projects in mechanical engineering, proximity is worth more than in many other industries. Requirements are not clarified at the conference table, but at the plant: You have to see how a fault is reported, where the technician looks up and which note is sticking next to the control, because the system does not give it away.

Therefore, appointments on site are the rule and not the exception. From Stuttgart-Wangen, most companies in the region can be reached in less than an hour.

  • We know the SME of the regionFamily-run businesses with grown IT are our everyday life, not the exception.
  • Requirements arise for the installationWe go where we work – that saves half the specification.
  • Your operational data will remain with youProduction and condition data are a trade secret. Upon request, our solutions run entirely on our own network.
Your contact person in Stuttgart
Our office is located in Stuttgart-Wangen. Appointments at your plant are daily business for us.
Ulmerstraße 300
70327 Stuttgart
+49 711 390 146 56
info@algebra-ec.de
Discussion of the project
  • Initial consultation free of charge and without obligation
  • On request with a view to your plant and system landscape
  • Also suitable if the starting point has to be found first

Select date

Frequent questions

In most cases, yes. Controls from the nineties also provide data – via field buses, via visualization or, if necessary, via retrofitted sensors. The effort depends less on the year of construction than on the documentation: If schematics and interface descriptions are available, the connection is usually unspectacular. At the beginning, therefore, there is always an inventory, not an offer.

No. Much of it runs entirely on its own network, and for production and condition data this is often the right decision – they are a trade secret. Cloud makes sense if you want to evaluate machines in the field across locations or countries. Which variant fits, decides the application case, not the fashion.

No, and that would usually be the wrong way. We start where the existing systems end – typically with evaluations across system boundaries, with the connection of systems that no standard module supports, or with knowledge that is contained in documents instead of databases.

With a narrowly defined case: a line, a plant group, a question. This results in something usable in a few weeks, which shows whether the data situation bears. This is cheaper than any feasibility study and more meaningful.

Sometimes yes, often the simpler answer is the better one. Where knowledge is contained in hundreds of manuals and protocols, a system that provides proven answers immediately saves time. Where, on the other hand, there is only a lack of a clean evaluation, AI would be the more expensive detour. We will tell you what the case is.

Yes. Source code, documentation and accesses are transferred to you. Especially in mechanical engineering, this is important: Your products run for fifteen years and longer, so the software must not depend on a single service provider.

Yes, nationwide. Proximity is an advantage for businesses in the region, but not a condition. For more remote projects, we arrange fixed attendance dates for inventory, workshops and acceptances – especially the first date at the plant is difficult to replace.

Related benefits

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Where does time stand still for you?
Whether troubleshooting, spare parts warehouses or evaluations that nobody uses – tell us about it. You get an honest assessment of where the leverage is and whether the effort is worth it.

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