The Kistler Group is consistently expanding its Industry 4.0 offering. One major step in this process is the rebranding of IOS Gesellschaft for innovative Optimiersoftware mbH (IOS GmbH) as Kistler Aachen GmbH - and in a parallel development, the Group’s measurement technology experts are opening a new Center of Competence for production control and management systems in Aachen. The Kistler Group is firmly on course for growth - and digitization. Following the acquisition of IOS GmbH last May, Kistler's customers now benefit from one single source for everything from sensors to Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES), including both hardware and software as well as all the accompanying services. The next step in the company's digitization strategy: the MES developed by IOS is being integrated into Kistler’s portfolio.
New Competence Center and expanded workforce
To highlight this integration, IOS GmbH was renamed Kistler Aachen GmbH as of June 20. The Swiss parent is also opening a Competence Center for production control and management systems at its Aachen facility. Lukas Koch - who heads the Center - and his 17-strong team moved into the new premises located not far from RWTH Aachen University early in June. "We're strengthening our close ties with our most important cooperation partner, and we're also providing space for new colleagues," Lukas Koch explains. "We're planning a major expansion of the workforce over the coming years." Among other talents, the company is particularly seeking to recruit application specialists, software developers and MES experts to join its team.
Customers now benefit from two decades of all-round expertise based on the firm's own MES, underpinned by a track record of close collaboration between IOS and Kistler in the past. Drawing on this vast experience, the Group offers a steadily expanding portfolio of Industry 4.0 products that are coordinated down to the last detail. As regards services too, Kistler's offering is continuing to grow: in future, the Group's own advisory expertise will also include production networking with its proprietary MES systems.
Advancing into the Smart Factory era - with Kistler
The new Competence Center is set to focus on the digitization of plastics processing, among other industrial processes. Dozens of Kistler MES systems have been installed for customers in diverse sectors of industry over recent years. They serve numerous purposes - for example, monitoring the production of safety-critical parts in the automotive and consumer goods industries and the medical devices sector. Similar systems are also deployed in the manufacture of other complex, high-specification components where quality and scrap rates must be controlled and optimized.
Kistler provides support for its customers across the entire process chain: from installation of the sensors and processing and analysis of the derived data, all the way through to practical and specific improvements in each step of production. The ultimate result: yesterday's factories are truly turning into the Smart Factories of tomorrow’s world. As Lukas Koch emphasizes: "Thanks to our combination of software expertise and in-depth process understanding, we're able to start taking action directly on the shop floor. That’s where we lay the real foundations for optimizing processes from the inside outwards, so we can help our customers to improve transparency and boost production efficiency. We support them throughout their journey towards digitization - starting with the very first sensor."
Source: Kistler
