For 120 years, Gira has shaped building technology from its exclusively German production base, a heritage that makes staying competitive through automation and digitalization all the more critical. When the company commissioned new assembly systems for the fully automated production and packaging of switches and socket outlets, connecting these systems into a single, transparent network became the next step in that ongoing commitment.
Connecting 180 Stations into One Clear Picture
Gira’s new network of systems connects more than 180 stations, all of which are linked to STIWA Shopfloor Software. This gives the team real-time data along the entire production process, regardless of location, with visibility into what is happening, where, how, and why at any given station. When a malfunction occurs, proactive notifications reach operators immediately, allowing them to react without delay. Andreas Dürwald, Head of Assembly at Gira, describes the impact this had from day one: „STIWA's monitoring and analysis tools have made it possible to harness the full technological potential of our new systems and ensure a continuous and sustainable increase in productivity during operation.“
Going Beyond Standard Reporting
Rather than settling for fixed, standard reports, Gira's team gained access to a wide range of analysis paths, along with the ability to build custom views, dashboards, and analysis routes tailored to their own production questions. Dürwald highlights how far this went beyond what he expected: „The depth of the preconfigured analysis options and the option to design your own views, dashboards and analysis paths are outstanding. We've never seen anything like it.“
Built to Grow with Gira's Production
In its day-to-day operations, Gira relies on a balanced mix of automation and manual processes, which need to be adapted quickly and on a case-by-case basis as requirements change. Against this backdrop, the Gira team is already working on linking further processes so that external systems, semi-automated workstations or upstream processes can be integrated flexibly at any time. “The next steps towards linking further processes are already underway,” says Dürwald.
Staying Current Without the Overhead
To keep pace with changing production requirements, Gira’s software environment is kept up to date through a dedicated maintenance and support package that patches security vulnerabilities and provides new features, thereby sparing the production team the hassle of manual maintenance or lengthy machine downtime during updates.