Digitalisation as the answer to the skills shortage

Nowadays, many jobs in the water industry are vacant. However, the challenges and tasks are becoming ever greater. With our engineering platform ISO by zahnen, we have the answer to close this gap.

Our digital employees use the platform to support our customers in a wide range of use cases, such as designing systems, tendering and preparing offers, through to preliminary planning, detailed engineering, automation of systems and documentation. By using the platform, existing staff can work much more efficiently. Moreover the independence from individual personal knowledge is significantly increased. This avoids mistakes and reduces a great deal of effort through automation.

Individual Standard Optimisation

What does “ISO by zahnen” mean?

‘ISO’ stands for ‘Individual Standard Optimisation’, which means that each customer receives their own solution tailored to their requirements (e.g. technology, software, processes). This solution is developed by digitalising and automating the customer’s knowledge.

Digitalised knowledge means regulations, libraries/databases and the automated creation of documents. The customer receives an intuitive interface that guides the user through the configuration of the project and guarantees consistently high quality thanks to the digital regulations. Documents (quotation, circuit diagram, 3D model, PLC programme, etc.) are automatically created by the platform based on this data. The platform can also carry out process engineering designs and complex calculations.

Your challenges – our solutions

Knowledge conservation

As a result of demographic change and staff turnover, companies are losing a great deal of individual expertise. Companies are often dependent on the individual knowledge of individual employees.

Our solution

Use of digitalised knowledge

  • Providing and distributing all digitised knowledge for all employees (everyone has access to the same knowledge base).
  • Knowledge assurance (retirement, staff turnover). 

    • Knowledge as a Service

    • Digitalised, automated knowledge of employees as an intelligent set of rules with intuitive use.
    • Specific retrieval of relevant information.
    • Validation of entries (quality assurance).
    • Definition of internal company standards that are valid for all projects.

    Avoiding mistakes

    Mistakes require a lot of resources and cost a lot of money. Mistake costs increase exponentially the later they are found (rule of 10 of mistake costs). In addition, communication problems and outdated or incorrect templates lead to many mistakes.

    Our solution

    Knowledge as a Service

    • Simple, constantly updated configuration.
    • Customised query of relevant information -> Consistent, complete and high-quality information on the platform, regardless of the person involved.
    • Validation of entries (quality assurance).
    • Enormous mistake reduction in all project instances.

      • Engineering as a Service

      • Automatic generation of documents & software.
      • Consistent, person-independent and high-quality documents.
      • Mistake avoidance thanks to checked templates and automatic interpretation.

        • Cost and time savings

        • Avoiding mistakes.
        • Automation of processes.
        • More turnover with the same personnel costs thanks to a considerable increase in efficiency.

        Digitalisation and automation of processes

        Many companies have problems with their digitalisation strategies. The potential is often not fully used. Simply replicating existing processes digitally often does not bring any added value (PDFs are not digitisation).

        Our solution

        Consulting by zahnen

        • We don’t just offer all our digitised knowledge to our customers, we also support them with our large experience in the areas of standardisation, digitisation and automation to develop the perfect solution.

          • Single Source of Truth

          • Digital visualisation of processes including automatic use of additional potential (e.g. upselling in sales).
          • Definition of internal company standards that are valid for all projects. Guaranteed and consistent use of these standards.
          • Up-to-date, leading, centralised database and database for all projects.
          • Simple international collaboration through configuration and generation in any language.
          • Centralised information base for all employees – ‘everyone speaks the same language’.
          • Reduce data loss & increase data quality.

            • Knowledge as a Service

            • Standardised digital visualisation of processes.
            • Standardised design of plant technology with digitalised knowledge.
            • Employee guidance through process and intuitive configuration.
            • Validation of inputs (quality assurance).

            Skills shortage

            Many vacancies will not be filled. Around 12.9 million people in Germany’s labour force will have reached retirement age by 2036. This represents almost 30 % of the people available to the labour market (source: Destatis). It is not an effective strategy to look for people who were never born.

            Our solution

            Digitalised knowledge for everyone

            • Distribution of knowledge to all employees. Everyone has access to the same knowledge base.
            • Faster onboarding of new employees.

              • Engineering as a Service

              • Automatic creation of documents. This leads to a considerable increase in efficiency.
              • Error reduction thanks to checked templates and automatic interpretations.

                • Cost and time savings

                • Error reduction.
                • Automation of processes.
                • More turnover with the same personnel expenditure due to a considerable increase in efficiency.

                Get started with your digital employees – specialised to your requirements

                In order to face these challenges, we have been working on these issues for years and have met them through digitalisation, standardisation and automation. This has resulted in the ISO by zahnen platform, which we improve continuously. Our digital employees use the platform to support our customers in their daily work and perform important tasks.

                Water Pioneer

                “Hello, I am Water Pioneer. I provide you with comprehensive support in all areas from preplanning to the submission process. You benefit from my extensive knowledge in the field of water technology. I can fully apply my skills to new construction as well as the modernisation of existing water and wastewater treatment plants.”

                Water Engineer

                “Hello I am Water Engineer. I provide you with extensive support in the construction of water facilities in everything in the field of engineering. You will benefit from my extensive expertise from the development and construction up to the acceptance and final documentation of the plants.”

                Water Intelligence

                “Hello, my name is Water Intelligence. I am your supporter throughout the entire project process for water and wastewater treatment plants. I provide everything to plan and execute a project completely from preplanning to acceptance.
                I can provide all the services of my two colleagues Water Pioneer and Water Engineer.”

                Are you interested in ISO? Get started with our tool!

                • On-site implementation at the customer’s company with 2-3 experts from Zahnen and the customer’s project team

                • Collaborative definition of requirements and framework conditions

                • What must the new employee be able to do? Selection of the employee

                • Afterwards: Development of a detailed concept for the deployment of ISO by zahnen at the customer’s premises

                • Training of the new digital employee

                • The standard for the customer is defined, documented and digitalised together in various workshops

                • Creating the best possible solution for the customer

                • Development of the customised configuration

                • Prototyping – We try to provide a prototype as early as possible in order to be able to incorporate feedback from end users into the development as early as possible

                • Transfer of the platform to the customer

                • Autonomous work with the platform. Your digital employees support you in your daily work

                • Continuous development and improvement of the platform

                Our strong and reliable partner for ISO

                This is digitalisation in its purest form, demonstrating impressively how digital innovations can maximise the quality of life for people and the environment.

                Your contact: Daniel Roderich