AI for resource efficiency and sustainability in mechanical engineering

On 26 August, Wichelhaus GmbH in Solingen opened its doors to provide an in-depth insight into the future of mechanical engineering. During the company visit entitled ‘AI for resource efficiency and sustainability’, the medium-sized company, together with partners from the digitisation network, demonstrated how artificial intelligence not only increases efficiency but also creates genuine ecological added value. Organised by the Mittelstand-Digital Zentrum WertNetzWerke, interested parties gathered on site and digitally to see how machine data can be used to create intelligent solutions for sustainability.

Live from production: two dashboards, one clear message

The focus was on a tried-and-tested cockpit system that was developed as part of a digitalisation project. ADEAL presented two operational dashboards that show how data from the workshop can be turned into valuable control instruments:

• The maintenance dashboard provides a real-time and historical overview of OEE, downtime, manual operation and warnings – thus revealing hidden losses.

• The shop floor dashboard supports employees directly at their workplace: What is the current malfunction? Which errors occur most frequently? And: How were they resolved in the past?

The conclusion: knowledge remains within the company, response times are reduced, downtimes become predictable – and this saves not only time, but also energy and resources.

From machine logs to clear recommendations for action

Participants experienced first-hand why ‘data quality comes before AI hype’: the raw data from machine logs was highly fragmented. The data was gradually refined in several stages – from import and technical transformation to specialist processing in the data lake. Only in this form can data be used for analysis and AI.

Exchange on equal terms – between practice, science and digitalisation partners

In addition to the live demo, the event invited intensive exchange between manufacturing companies, digitalisation specialists and funding partners. Many visitors were impressed by how scalable and transferable such solutions are – even for smaller businesses.

ADEAL would like to thank all participants and Wichelhaus for the open insights and productive exchange.