Leadec: Why industrial service is becoming the backbone of the factory

Industrial services are also a backbone of production. Why is this role nevertheless often underestimated in your view?

Markus Glaser-Gallion: Industrial services are underestimated because they function best precisely when you do not notice them. Without us, however, production would quickly come to a standstill. In fact, today we are far more than an operational service provider: We are a data-driven partner for industrial transformation. We are active every day in more than 900 factories in 16 countries, our services are digitally planned, managed and documented. On the basis of this data, we can derive benchmarks, transfer best practices and define standards from which other customers also benefit.

Many companies are dealing with digital transformation. Have industrial services so far been given too little attention in this transformation debate? And if so, where are they being given too little attention?

 Glaser-Gallion: Digital transformation is often understood as a purely technology project. In industry, however, it takes place during ongoing operations - directly on the shop floor, where theory meets practice and people. It is precisely there that success is decided. It is often not seen that innovations are initiated by us as a service provider. One example is our Digital Waste Tracking, in which, in a pilot project, we developed a digital solution to better track waste and material flows in production and increase the recycling rate. 

It is now in use at several sites and the digital waste criteria were incorporated by our customer into the quality matrix. Overall, through our large database, we can provide transparency about services and processes in real time and derive potential improvements from it or consistently scale experiences.

What would your appeal to CEOs and plant managers be who still view industrial service today as too operational and too little strategic?

 Glaser-Gallion: My appeal is: Focus on your core competencies and hand over not only individual services, but entire secondary processes to service specialists, who operate them more flexibly and scalably. This works excellently, for example, in logistics, assembly, or maintenance. We can intelligently manage the deployment of our employees, have the necessary tools and experience for optimization, and ultimately offer higher efficiency.

What role do topics such as AI play in industrial services? Can you give one or two examples?

Glaser-Gallion: We use AI specifically to optimize our operational services. The basis for this is the comprehensive data from factories all over the world that we already have through our work as a service specialist. One example: when one of the systems in an engine plant comes to a standstill, our team has exactly two minutes to begin repairs. 

As soon as the malfunction is known, an AI application suggests the three most promising solution approaches - based on operating instructions, manuals and a malfunction history of the last seven years at this location. In the area of vibration monitoring, we equip rotating systems with sensors and monitor them continuously. For this purpose, the 'normal' behavior pattern of each individual machine is recorded based on AI and the algorithm defines corresponding threshold values for deviations.

Leadec has traditionally come strongly from the automotive industry. Which processes or ways of thinking from this environment can be transferred particularly well to other industries?

Glaser-Gallion: The automotive industry has been an innovation laboratory for industrial processes for decades. From it we bring above all a pronounced process mindset, high standardization and the consistent focus on efficiency and quality. These principles can be transferred very well to other industries - especially the ability to make complex processes transparent, improve them continuously and manage them based on data.

What advantages agentless access offers in OT

Why is agentless access becoming relevant for OT systems? In the interview, Felix Wirthmann, Director Product Management at TeamViewer, explains how secure remote access to OT systems works without software installation on the endpoint.

Anja Ringel

Where are the limits of this transferability? What, for example, has to be considered differently in food & beverage than in automotive production?

Glaser-Gallion: It would be presumptuous to say: we can do automotive, so we can do everything else as well. Every industry is different and has its own requirements. In the food industry, these are, for example, very strict hygiene and quality requirements as well as certifications. If we install or maintain a system in such a production hall, we work strictly according to the customer's specifications. 

One example is the planning and design of automation systems in food processing. Our standards, processes and tools are used here, supplemented by individual requirements. In some industries, a great deal is still done in-house; the outsourcing of services is only slowly increasing.

How are your customers' expectations changing: alongside costs and availability, what role do factors such as speed and flexibility play today?

Glaser-Gallion: Production today can change quickly and has to “breathe” when it comes to personnel deployment. This is exactly the flexibility we enable for our customers. From our locations, we generally support several customers in the region, and our employees work directly on site with them. This allows us to respond well to changed requirements. Speed is especially needed when adapting new technologies or processes; for this, we ourselves are well positioned digitally and invest in the further training of our employees.

How has the requirements profile for trainees changed in recent years due to digitalization and transformation?

Glaser-Gallion: On the one hand, job profiles have changed in recent years; on the other hand, dealing with technology is simply part of the workplace. Most important, however, is the willingness to continue learning continuously. We provide training in 20 professions and offer dual study places.

If such training does not exist, we become creative ourselves. We have launched a part-time program with a focus on measurement, control and regulation technology (MSR), in which several locations participate.

Industrial service often stands less in the spotlight than traditional production or development. How do you explain to young talents why this area is at least just as exciting?

Glaser-Gallion: The factory is an exciting workplace, because a great deal is happening here: from the transformation toward battery technology to increasing digitalization all the way to the fully networked smart factory. Our employees are directly at the pulse of these developments. And they themselves can make a great deal happen. Anyone who wants not only to observe industrial transformation, but to actively shape it, will find one of the most exciting workplaces of all in industrial service.