05. FVI Expert Breakfast

Topic: Sustainability as a Door Opener – Why Maintainers are the True Climate Protectors.

Guest was Lothar Schmiegel (Head of Maintenance, Gerolsteiner Brunnen), who discussed with the community how to pragmatically use the "trend topic" of sustainability to advance maintenance. The key insights:

• Maintenance as a "Facilitator": Sustainability is often a management directive (E-fleet, PV system, CO2 reduction), but implementation relies 100% on technology. Maintenance builds the charging stations, optimizes the compressed air, and installs the new drives. It is not the cause of the issue but the crucial enabler.

• Retrofit before New Purchase (Economic Ecology): Sustainability does not always mean "buy new and green." Often, retrofitting an existing system (extending lifespan) is more ecologically and economically sensible than a new acquisition. Lothar Schmiegel mentioned 8-year plans for the decision "Retrofit vs. New." However, this requires a valid data basis on the condition of the system.

• Fear Eats Soul (and Energy): An interesting point from Fabian (InstaGreen): There are huge savings potentials (up to 60%) in old drives. Technically easy to tap. Why doesn't it happen? Fear of "Never touch a running system." If the knowledge about the old system is missing, no one dares to change the motor. Lack of documentation directly blocks climate protection.

• Sustainability as a "Marketing Hack": Maintainers find it difficult to get budgets for pure maintenance. But budgets for "Sustainability" are currently available. The community advises: Use the label! A technical modernization that was previously rejected is approved if it is packaged as an "energy efficiency measure."

• The Pride Factor: You can motivate employees by translating their work into CO2 savings. If a technician knows: "By changing my pump, we saved 70 tons of CO2 (as much as a small forest)," it creates a sense of purpose and pride that goes far beyond mere "repairing."

Classification: Knowledge gives the courage to change

The discussion reveals a psychological barrier that we solve with ADAM and Operational Intelligence:

• Data basis for "Make or Buy": To decide whether to retrofit a system (sustainably) or buy new, I need to know its history. ADAM provides the "life record." Without this data, every decision is a blind flight. ADAM makes sustainability calculable.

• Courage through Knowledge: The argument "Never touch a running system" is a symptom of knowledge loss. If no one knows how the old control system works, no one touches it – and the energy guzzler continues to run. ADAM preserves the expert knowledge ("Digital Colleague"), so the team dares to carry out modernizations. We take away the fear of intervention.

• Efficiency is Sustainability: Every unplanned trip, every wrong spare part, every paper printout avoided by digital workflows (Flow Studio) saves resources. Operational Intelligence means: Doing the right thing without waste.

Conclusion: For us, sustainability is not a green cloak, but the result of control and knowledge. Those who understand their systems (through ADAM) can operate them more efficiently and use them longer. This is the most pragmatic environmental protection there is.