Schunk: 42 employees do pioneering work

3,700 employees, presence in 50 countries, winner of numerous innovation awards: SCHUNK from Lauffen am Neckar is the classic hidden champion. About Dr. Martin May, who as Director Technology & Innovation Management is driving forward the topic of AI in particular, and 42 employees who are doing pioneering work at the mechanical engineering supplier.

Franziska and Rouven started as interns at SCHUNK at the beginning of 2024. Their task: to program a digital twin that automatically records and assigns key figures for SCHUNK's 13,000 products. Franziska: “When Martin, as Head of Innovation, explained the project to us on the first day, I was a bit perplexed at first. I had hardly any idea what such digital twins were or what they were needed for. And certainly not how to program something like this.” Rouven, who worked as a design engineer at an automotive supplier for nine years before starting at 42 Heilbronn, is basically familiar with the SCHUNK world. But when it came to the programming task, he didn't know what to do at first. “It was just like the 42,” he laughs. “Here is a task. There's no one known solution - dig in and develop the right code. And preferably with artificial intelligence.”

SCHUNK has been consistently focusing on digital solutions for many years and is investing in the expansion of its digitalized portfolio with the aim of achieving end-to-end networked production. The global presence is growing. In mid-August, the company opened a site 200 kilometers north of Mexico City and followed this up in Shanghai at the end of September. AI is to further accelerate this development and the company is positioning itself as a pioneer. The company is gradually using AI in its products and services, for example in image recognition software developed in-house. The effect: robots can differentiate between screws or other components in milliseconds and access them precisely - a kind of revolution in mechanical engineering. Martin May: “In the past, our customers wanted specific products. Today, they expect us to offer them solution packages. This is a much more complex task, in which AI can provide support in various forms - and is therefore simply the future.”

The Heilbronn environment offers the perfect setting for this. From Martin May's perspective, there is no other region in Europe where AI applications are being tested and developed with such intensity. The Artificial Intelligence Innovation Park - IPAI for short - plays a key role for him. SCHUNK has been involved right from the start. Martin May: “The IPAI offers unique opportunities to cooperate with other companies such as Audi and Würth and to learn from each other in order to implement AI applications more quickly. Cooperation is particularly important for technologies that are developing dynamically.” According to May, there is also the external impact: “Anyone who is present here shows customers and partner companies that they are really serious about AI and are at the forefront.” However, the IPAI is just one component of the incomparable AI ecosystem. Another: the 42 Heilbronn. Martin May has been familiar with the 42 concept from France for many years. And appreciates it: “Anyone who comes from 42 knows how to code. Graduates can work on projects and find new solutions”.

This also applies to the topic of digital twins. The 42ers quickly get over the initial shock. Franziska: “We simply know from the 42 that we can also manage complex tasks.” And it works. After four weeks, they have programmed a functioning code. They can now create digital twins for all 13,000 products, which contain a digital type plate as well as technical data and documents. And the next big task is already waiting: AI-controlled collection and processing of data that is important for potential customers around the company! The background: If SCHUNK wants to apply as a supplier to a potential customer, hundreds of pieces of data from safety certifications to subsidiaries, delivery conditions, bank details and the company address have to be recorded, saved and sent in PDFs and then manually transferred from the PDF to the company's internal systems... A huge effort that takes a lot of time. With the new solution, the process could be automated.

Franziska and Rouven are doing real pioneering work at SCHUNK. SCHUNK is one of the pioneers in transferring these processes into a digital twin using AI. In June, they will be able to demonstrate that the idea works at an internal SCHUNK hackathon: PDFs will be filled out automatically based on real company data and with the support of SCHUNK's own GPT. Franziska: “It's a great thing to see that something like this really works and is relevant.” In fact, the concept has caused quite a stir in the industry: at the beginning of September, the Industrial Digital Twin Association (IDTA), which is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology (BMWK), set up its own working group to coordinate the model with other companies and incorporate it into the standard as an official model. SCHUNK is in charge of the project.

For Martin May, this is a confirmation: “Of course I had certain expectations. But the fact that the students have developed the digital twins in such a short space of time, with virtually no training, is something that really excites me!” On the other hand, the two 42-year-olds like the company. The flat hierarchies, the collegial cooperation, the exciting projects. The result: Franziska and Rouven will start their permanent positions at SCHUNK in October. The digital twin will continue to accompany them. Rouven says: “The potential is far from exhausted. SCHUNK also uses the digital twin in sustainability management, for example to automatically determine the CO2 footprint. What could be better than coding for that?”