Reference report: FELSOMAT GmbH & Co. KG
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1. Company profile: FELSOMAT
FELSOMAT is an internationally active machine and plant manufacturer. Its solutions are used in highly precise, often highly automated production processes – wherever reliability and availability are critical.
Beyond developing and producing machines and systems, FELSOMAT sees itself as a long-term partner over the entire lifecycle of a machine or line: from commissioning and optimization during live operation through to retrofit and modernization projects. Powerful service is not an add-on, but a core pillar of FELSOMAT’s business model.
The role of Service
Once a line is down, the customer’s costs rise quickly. Expectations are correspondingly high: service must react fast, be technically competent, and integrate smoothly into the customer’s processes.
With qualified service teams, clearly defined processes, and a deep understanding of customer production environments, FELSOMAT ensures that systems are not only brought back online quickly, but can operate at a high performance level over their entire lifecycle.
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Founded: 1981
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Headquarters: Königsbach-Stein (Germany), offices in the USA, India, China and Germany
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Industry: Mechanical engineering
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Company size: 400 employees
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© FELSOMAT GmbH & Co. KG
2. Initial Situation
For FELSOMAT, service operations must not only work technically. They also require smooth organization in the background: from scheduling to providing all relevant information through to complete documentation and billing.
Before introducing fieldux, service and commissioning at FELSOMAT were managed with a patchwork of tools:
Excel spreadsheets, emails, different templates – a lot of manual work, little transparency. An only partly suitable tool was used to coordinate the approval process for assembly reports. Time tracking was handled via yet another separate tool or handwritten notes. After the approval process, recorded hours had to be entered manually into two separate places in SAP.
With a team of 60 service and commissioning engineers and several hundred assignments per year, this meant a considerable extra workload in daily operations. Time that should have gone into customers and value-adding tasks was spent consolidating information, chasing technicians for feedback, and manually transferring data between systems.
Identified challenges:
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Information had to be entered multiple times
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Reports came back to the back office on paper, by email or as files
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Working hours had to be entered manually into different systems
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Data often had to be corrected and completed afterwards with great effort
Service and commissioning managers spent too much time on administration instead of customer projects. A complete history? Only accessible with effort and a bit of luck.
The service organization concluded: a digital, end-to-end service process was needed – not only to simplify workflows, but also to keep costs under control and maintain quality with the same team size.
3. Project workshop
From workshop to the right solution
FELSOMAT’s path to fieldux started from a different angle. The initial trigger was an offer from Bauer + Kirch (the company behind fieldux) for a customer portal. During discussions it became clear, however, that the biggest potential for optimization lay first within FELSOMAT’s own internal processes.
To make this visible, a “Digital Service Experience” workshop was held at FELSOMAT.
Together, the existing service and assembly process was examined in detail:
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Where do media breaks occur – and why?
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Which information is captured more than once?
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Which activities create value for customers – and which are purely internal effort?
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Where is most time lost in the process?
The conclusion was clear: the greatest benefit would come from closing the field service process digitally – from the service and assembly order in the ERP system through planning to the assembly report and feedback into the system.
The analysis showed:
Thanks to the time saved, ROI would be reached quickly:
Hours saved: 199 h / month
Equivalent savings: € 6,196 / month
Before we considered a customer portal, we needed to close our own internal process from order to report. fieldux was the best fit for this.
Focus on Field Service Management
The customer portal therefore moved to the background for the time being. The priority was a robust end-to-end solution for the internal field service process.
Evaluation phase
In the subsequent evaluation phase, different approaches were considered. Alongside fieldux as a specialized Field Service Management platform for industrial companies, other solution providers and internal corporate approaches were also discussed.
In the end, FELSOMAT chose fieldux FSM because it offered sufficient flexibility and best matched FELSOMAT’s internal processes and requirements.
fieldux FSM was selected because it:
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can be implemented quickly and scales with future needs
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offers enough flexibility to map FELSOMAT-specific processes
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focuses clearly on Field Service Management and connects back office and field
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enables a true end-to-end process through ERP integration instead of creating another isolated solution
4. Target vision
A digital end-to-end process
FELSOMAT wanted more than just another tool. The goal was a fully digital, clearly structured process from start to finish. Back office and field staff should work on a shared, up-to-date data foundation. Multiple tools for individual steps, media breaks, and duplicate data entry were to be eliminated.
At the same time, the planning of field assignments for service and commissioning engineers had to become more efficient and economical. Numerous manual interim steps not only consumed time but also increased the total cost per assignment. FELSOMAT was therefore looking for a solution that streamlines processes, reduces non-productive tasks, and helps improve long-term service profitability.
Customer perception was another important factor: digital, well-structured assembly reports and well-prepared technicians who have all relevant information in one app convey professionalism and build trust.
Target picture: FELSOMAT’s 5 “must-haves”
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© FELSOMAT GmbH & Co. KG
5. Solution
From target process to daily practice
FELSOMAT took a consistent approach from concept to reality. The desired process was jointly designed and mapped into a process chain, including all roles, requirements, and approval steps.
A core team from the back office and field started with a pilot using the Planner and the Mobile App, collected experience and provided feedback for further refinement of the solution. This phase was crucial to adapt the solution to the day-to-day work of technicians and dispatchers and to generate early success stories.
The pilot team from back office and field made all the difference. Because colleagues could actively shape the solution, acceptance was high from day one.
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Operations are now planned and documented digitally. Recorded times are transferred from fieldux to two separate ERP modules (CS module for billing and HR module for payroll). This end-to-end data flow is the backbone of the new service process.
The pilot team acted as a multiplier. Further departments such as commissioning and the software department were integrated in the next step. Commissioning brought additional requirements, for example around site responsibility, project-based planning and approval rules, which were implemented step by step.
IT and data protection were involved throughout the project, and the solution was presented in the internal “Digital Board” to keep top management on board. This helped to gradually address initial concerns – for example, whether the software would pay off and whether it would actually be used.
6. fieldux in daily use at FELSOMAT
Planner and Mobile App working together
The benefits of fieldux become clear in daily operations:
In the back office, everything comes together in the fieldux Planner. Service and commissioning managers can immediately see which jobs are pending, how teams are utilized, and who is currently on the road. Both in-house staff and external service providers can be scheduled and managed centrally.
For field service and commissioning engineers, the fieldux Mobile App has become an indispensable work tool. Every assignment, all information on customers and machines, checklists and tasks are available directly on a tablet or smartphone. Times and reports are captured on the go. Paper forms and most clarifying calls or lengthy coordination steps are a thing of the past. The report can be signed digitally by the customer on site and is then automatically sent to the back office.
For the back office, this means that reports and time sheets are available much faster and in a standardized form. Time-consuming follow-up, deciphering handwriting or manual re-entry is largely eliminated.
Through the ERP interface, all checked data is automatically transferred back into the central system – for billing, controlling or quality documentation.
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In short:
Service and commissioning operations at FELSOMAT are now centrally planned, digitally documented, and reported back directly into the ERP system.
The result:
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Fast, central planning, digital documentation, direct feedback into ERP
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Significantly less administrative effort for the teams
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Service history and billing at the touch of a button
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Noticeably more professional appearance in front of the customer
7. Result
Time savings and greater professionalism
After a short time, FELSOMAT was able to measure the impact of the new process in day-to-day operations:
Transfer of information
Transfer of information
Since all data is centrally available in the app, the back office saves around 10 minutes per operation that was previously spent on emails, attachments, and follow-up questions.
Checking reports
Checking reports
A standardized format and digital availability reduce checking time in the back office by about 5 minutes per report.
Time recording and allocation
Time recording and allocation
Thanks to the interface, times are recorded only once and transferred automatically – FELSOMAT saves on average about 20 minutes per operation.
Completing and submitting reports
Completing and submitting reports
With structured digital forms and predefined fields, technicians are around 10 minutes faster per operation.
Overall, FELSOMAT saves about 45 minutes per operation.
Time that can now be invested in value-adding activities.
Customers also notice the difference. A technician who has all information available digitally and a clear, professional report that can be signed directly at the end of the visit both create a modern and competent impression. For FELSOMAT, this is an important building block in further developing service as an independent, profitable business line.
8. Outlook
Expanding the digital service foundation
The successful introduction of fieldux is not the end of the project for FELSOMAT, but the starting point for the next steps in digital service.
The solution is being continuously developed in close cooperation.
Currently, additional project-related functions are on the roadmap:
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Saving templates so projects and their phases can be reused for different machine types
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An interface for reading network plans from SAP with automatic project creation
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A planned/actual comparison with documentation of defects, tasks, and efforts to improve control in large service and commissioning projects
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A report configurator to quickly create tailored maintenance checklists and assemble them modularly
In the future, stronger integration of FELSOMAT customers is also conceivable – for example via self-service offerings or a digital customer portal. The prerequisite for this – a reliable, fully digital process chain in the background – has been created with fieldux.
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© FELSOMAT GmbH & Co. KG
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