Klingele produziert mit 3100 Mitarbeitern Papier- und Verpackungslösungen aus Wellpappe in drei Papierfabriken, dreizehn Wellpappen- und acht Verarbeitungswerken in Europa, Afrika und Mittel- sowie Südamerika. 2025 erzielte die Gruppe einen Umsatz von einer Milliarde Euro.
In einem ihrer größten Werke in Delmenhorst bei Bremen verarbeitet die Klingele-Gruppe Papierbahnen zu ein- bis mehrlagiger Wellpappe, weiter auf verschiedenen Maschinen zu Verpackungen und bedruckt sie individuell. Die Verpackungen reichen vom klassischen Umkarton für den Versand bis hin zu hochwertigen Verpackungslösungen und Trays zum Warenverkauf im Einzelhandel, etwa für Lebensmittel und Konsumgüter.
Die riesigen Anlagen laufen im Dreischichtbetrieb. „Unterbrechungen des Produktionsprozesses aufgrund von Maschinenausfällen wollen wir uns hier nicht leisten“, erklärt Christian Borchers, Klingele Process Management – Technik: „Zuverlässige Instandhaltung und Wartung bilden daher das Rückgrat unserer Fertigung.”
Im Werk Delmenhorst trug das Instandhaltungsteam 600 Wartungspunkte zusammen, die man vor der Einführung von Smartenance manuell pflegte. „Dabei hatten wir immerhin Word-Dokumente mit Fotos, die die Wartungsaufgaben beschrieben – aber eben alles auch inkonsistent in Papierform“, berichtet der Wartungsexperte über die Erfahrungen aus der Vergangenheit.
That changed when Klingele discovered Smartenance from Festo: 'That’s when we realised just how simple, smart and intuitive maintenance and service can be,' adds Daniel Malolepszy, International Continuous Process Improvement Manager at Klingele.
Malolepszy has already overseen several roll-outs of the Festo Smartenance maintenance and service software within the Klingele Group. With installations, for example, at the corrugated board plants on the Canary Island of Tenerife and on the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe, it makes the company one of the world’s most intensive users of industrial maintenance software.
'The intuitive operation using tablets, which are now available at all our systems, makes Smartenance really easy for any machine or system operator,' says maintenance expert Borchers. All maintenance points are accompanied by images and videos. The status of the maintenance items can be viewed by anyone responsible for the maintenance and service of the machines and systems. 'With Smartenance, we can easily assign maintenance tasks to specific people; that also increases their sense of responsibility for the tasks at hand,' he adds.
'Before we introduced Smartenance, we had to spend time entering all maintenance events into a computer using a complicated user interface, which sometimes meant that entries were overlooked,' explains Borchers. That can no longer happen, as maintenance staff can now easily confirm completed tasks on their tablets.
'In addition to traditional maintenance and service tasks, we also use Smartenance for safety inspections, whether in the factory itself, in the offices or in the outdoor areas of the plant.' 'What we used to do with pen and paper and completing countless Excel spreadsheets can now be done quickly and easily with the Smartenance app on a tablet,' explains Sabine Sonnabend, Assistant to the Technical Manager.
'It was precisely because Smartenance is easy to use that we decided to roll out the maintenance app across all Klingele sites worldwide, as it supports stable processes, consistent quality and enables preventive maintenance,' sums up Daniel Malolepszy, who continues to provide practical support and advice to maintenance specialists at all Klingele plants during the software rollout.
Another helpful feature is the system’s straightforward setup, which allows existing maintenance schedules and system structures to be easily imported. The wide range of available languages in the system makes it possible to reach employees around the world in their own language. 'All in all, Smartenance demonstrates just how simple and successful the digitalisation of business processes can be,' concludes Malolepszy.