13th FVI Expert Breakfast

Topic: "From Sand to Pearl" – How SWARCO built the world's most modern glass bead plant with early maintenance integration.

In this session, Marcel Hahn and Jens Reißenweber were live in Austria at SWARCO (Andreas, Plant Manager). They showed a video of the new factory and discussed why this project was so successful while others fail.

• The golden rule: Maintenance from day 1: Andreas (SWARCO) reported that during the planning of the new plant, the maintenance team was immediately at the table (even during reference visits). The result: Maintenance access, crane tracks, and measuring points were planned before construction, not expensively retrofitted afterward.

• Documentation as currency: A crucial lever was the contractual fixation of documentation. SWARCO defined: "We pay the last 5-10% of the purchase price only when the documentation meets our standards." This forces suppliers to provide clean data (e.g., EPLAN, spare parts lists) instead of "wheelbarrows full of PDFs."
• Standardization beats creativity: SWARCO prescribed to the plant builders: "This is how the circuit diagram must look, this is how the unit must be named." It sounds rigid, but it saves massive time in operation because every technician immediately knows where they are in the system.
• Training during construction: The maintenance team helped build the plant. They knew every screw before production started. This is the most effective training in the world ("Learning by Building").
• The courage to demand: Bernhard Heindel emphasized: "Dare to make demands." Many maintenance teams swallow poor documentation ("It's just standard"). SWARCO has shown: If you stand firm (and don't sign), manufacturers will also deliver quality.

Classification: This is "Maintenance by Design" (and ADAM's home)

This episode is proof of our thesis: Data quality is created at the beginning.

• ADAM as "Gatekeeper": SWARCO used Excel lists to validate data from suppliers. ADAM is the modern version of this: We import this data directly into the "Digital Resume." If we use ADAM already in the procurement phase ("Onboarding the plant"), we have a perfect data basis from day 1.
• Never again "wheelbarrow documentation": The horror scenario of Denis (participant) – "40 GB PDFs are dumped at our feet" – is exactly the problem that ADAM solves with its RAG technology. Even if the documentation comes chaotically, ADAM can make it searchable and usable. But of course, the SWARCO way is better: Don't accept garbage in the first place.
• Operational intelligence through standards: SWARCO's success is based on standards (naming, labeling). ADAM enforces and uses these standards to make knowledge discoverable. Without standards, AI is blind.

Conclusion: Those who understand maintenance as a "design partner" and not as a "cleaning crew" build more efficient factories. SWARCO is the lighthouse example that we should show to every customer.