The initial situation: tradition eats innovation
Europe's production landscape is characterized by established structures, old machinery and proprietary software. According to Eurostat (2023), only around 43% of European industrial companies use an integrated ERP system - for small and medium-sized enterprises, the rate is even below 30%. This means that core processes such as purchasing, production and maintenance often run on separate systems or, still, in Excel.
In practice, it looks like this: Production planning in ERP, machine data in separate tools, energy consumption in spreadsheets - three realities for the same working day. Every deviation generates manual reconciliation, every change generates new Excel versions. Studies show that over 90% of spreadsheets contain errors, leading to unnoticed miscalculations in quality and energy reports. Data is available, but it does not speak the same language.
Integration also remains patchy at a technical level. Only 8% of European companies currently use AI productively, and less than half use cloud services for more than email or data storage. This means: analyses remain selective, action remains analog. Digitalization often ends with data collection - not with the decision-making logic that makes it usable.
The result is fragmented IT architectures and expensive reactivity. According to ABB, two thirds of European industrial companies experience unplanned downtime at least once a month. Each downtime costs an average of over 100,000 euros per hour. At the same time, 20% of companies continue to operate according to the "run-to-fail" principle - waiting until something fails instead of systematically taking preventative measures.
These patterns run through all levels: Excel improvisations replace data platforms, alarm systems flood operators with false positives while decision logic is missing. It is the silent cost trap of European industry - every day, in every plant.
Silo thinking: the brake in the machine room
Anyone with day-to-day responsibility knows the "silo traps":
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Integration of old and new is expensive and complex
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Area optimization happens separately, networking is missing
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Media disruptions cause duplication of effort in controlling and management
In practice, this means that production managers juggle between five systems - Excel for energy consumption, an ERP for inventories, a PLC interface for machine data, a separate quality portal and countless emails for coordination. According to a study by Fraunhofer IPA, over 60% of industrial companiesuse more than five isolated IT systems in their core processes; every second plant has no standardized data interface between production and administration.
When a machine is modernized, the integration project often starts from scratch because interfaces are missing and data formats are incompatible. According to the VDMA, 7 out of 10 companies still collect data for key production figures manually. The result: delays in decision-making, high coordination costs and error-prone reports. IT and OT exist side by side - rarely on a common foundation. As a result, maintenance and control remain reactive and innovation projects get bogged down between system boundaries, interface problems and overloaded Excel files.
Practical examples: How platform logic works in practice
Siemens Energy
Siemens Energy's Industrial IoT platform connects over 15 production sites worldwide and processes more than 30 million sensor data points from turbines, generators and test benches every day. The platform replaces local data islands with a shared decision-making model that uses AI to detect faults and calculate maintenance windows. In Finspång, this has increased production availability by 18% and reduced maintenance time by 25%. The system synchronizes operating data and energy consumption, prioritizes loads at peak prices and saves around 2 GWh of electricity per year - enough to supply 500 households. It is not the monitoring that is decisive, but the logic behind it: Every rule change applies globally, every improvement becomes a collective learning effect - platform logic as a multiplier of knowledge.
ENLYZE
The Cologne-based start-up ENLYZE links heterogeneous machine parks to a common data level. At the customer LEONI, more than80 extrusion lineswere brought together in a digital twin. Temperature, pressure, material flow and energy consumption are recorded, correlated and evaluated in real time using small edge modules. The platform suggests automatic parameter adjustments based on threshold values and historical patterns. The result: material savings of 12%, energy consumption reduced by 15%, production downtime reduced by 30%. The platform logic is crucial: rules that work on one line are provided centrally and immediately transferred to other plants. Knowledge is codified, shared and scaled - a living system that becomes smarter with every use.
InstaWerk
InstaWerk transforms CNC manufacturing into a networked production ecosystem. The platform analyzes over 100,000 CAD filesper year and distributes orders algorithmically to more than 250 manufacturing partners. A set of rules evaluates material, machine precision and delivery time windows in seconds and allocates orders automatically. The result: 40% shorter delivery times, 20% lower procurement costs, up to35% higher machine utilization in the network. Platform logic is a balance of autonomy and coordination - each partner remains independent but benefits from collective efficiency. Knowledge and capacities flow dynamically through the system - a production landscape that organizes itself instead of being centrally controlled.
What platforms have to measure themselves against
Examples of success have long been a reality in industry: monitoring, automation and flexible capacity increases work wherever silo structures are overcome and systems talk to each other in real time.
However, this is precisely where architecture becomes a brake pad. Industry-specific tools and vendor lock-in can only partially overcome many technical and organizational hurdles: The integration of legacy systems, different makes or changing operating models often come up against limits.
Platform logic only becomes truly future-proof when it unites old and new, standard and special solutions, control and maintenance - for all roles and structures in the company.
Next-generation platform architecture: what makes VION different
VION pursues the goal of making manufacturer-independent and retrofit-capable digitalization suitable for everyday use and scalable across the entire infrastructure.
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Old systems, new technology and different brands can be seamlessly connected
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No-code logic and API openness guarantee fast configuration instead of long projects
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Automated reporting and role-based verification ensure compliance without effort
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The platform is modular and internationally scalable, even for operators and integrators with heterogeneous technology landscapes
Anyone who sees platform logic not just as a monitoring or data dashboard, but as a central lever for end-to-end control, innovation and maximum scope for integration, is taking the next, practical evolutionary step with VION - and is not building the next silo, but the operating system of their own value creation.
Conclusion: Forget the silo, build the platform!
The future of production lies in a networked, flexible ecosystem - not in isolated solutions. The platform logic determines how quickly companies can really live innovation, resilience and controllability. Those who think outside the silo can actively shape change with solutions like VION and remain ready for the next stage of industrial value creation.
