No data, no AI: Key Learnings from Smart Manufacturing Forum 2025

Have you ever wondered what AI projects in manufacturing really look like? If you’ve been involved in AI projects on the shop floor, you know that getting quality data ready takes a lot of time. In fact, only about 10 – 20% of the project goes into building the model, while the remaining 80 – […]
Insights from Qlector Leap Customer Satisfaction Survey

At Qlector, our mission is to empower manufacturing companies with smarter, AI-powered production planning, scheduling and optimization. To ensure we continuously meet our user expectations, we conducted a Customer Satisfaction Survey in December 2024. Here’s a summary of the key insights we gathered. Who Participated? We invited 353 active users of Qlector Leap, both in […]
Shop Floor in 2025: What Awaits Us This Year

Challenges evolve as technology evolves. Once dominated by manual labor and repetitive tasks, today’s shop floors are rapidly turning into innovation hubs. The main driver? Advanced tech, embraced across the entire industry. To stay competitive and relevant, we must adapt and carefully decide where to invest our resources. Although big-picture trends—like supply chain risks, sustainability, […]
ChatGPT Falls Short in Manufacturing — Here’s Why You Should Rely on Proven, Old-School AI

Today, nearly every solution in smart manufacturing promotes AI as a key selling point. But how do you separate the wheat from the chaff and determine what can truly help you?
ERP, MES, and APS Explained: A Simple and Short Guide

We must agree that, in the manufacturing world, there are a lot of abbreviations and acronyms. While they can be confusing for newcomers, the real benefit comes from understanding how these terms are connected and what they bring to the production plant and employees. Almost a “must” for modern manufacturing, ERP, MES, and APS systems […]
Elevate Your SAP with QLECTOR LEAP

How can you successfully enrich and extend one of the most renowned yet complex enterprise resource planning software systems – SAP? By utilizing the latest artificial intelligence (AI) technologies! At Qlector, we have developed a unified and predictive production guiding platform with actionable insights, designed to seamlessly integrate and enhance SAP across five key areas: […]
Warum scheitern 50 % aller Projekte bei der Implementierung von APS-Lösungen?

Advanced Production Planning and Scheduling oder (APS)-Lösungen, die auf künstlicher Intelligenz und digitalen Zwillingen basieren, steigern die Produktivität und Flexibilität erheblich und ermöglichen eine effiziente Vorbereitung und Reaktion auf Arbeitskräftemangel und Unsicherheiten in den Lieferketten. Leider sind sich die meisten Unternehmen nicht der Probleme bewusst, die bei der Implementierung dieser Lösungen auf sie lauern. Die […]
Why do 50% of projects for the implementation of APS solutions fail?

Advanced Planning and Scheduling (APS) solutions based on artificial intelligence and digital twins significantly increase productivity and flexibility and enable effective response to labor shortages and supply chain uncertainties. Unfortunately, most companies are not aware of all the pitfalls that await them when implementing these solutions. Manufacturing is constantly faced with the paradoxical pressure to […]
AI in Manufacturing: Latest Trends Show Shift in Imperative From Improving Efficiency Towards Flexibility and Resilience

At the Global Smart Manufacturing Summit, Bosch Rexroth also delivered a lecture on managing material flow in battery gigafactories. In May, I had the opportunity to attend the 9th Edition of the Global Smart Manufacturing Summit held in Berlin. The summit brought together industry leaders and innovators to discuss the future of manufacturing in the […]
Digitalization Is Not About Technology Buzzwords, It’s About Solving Problems

Over the past months, the world has witnessed the awe-inspiring capabilities of AI, and it is evident that significant changes are on the horizon for various aspects of our lives. Some of these changes are already underway and have been in progress for the past decade. Kostas Kalaboukas is the Head of Innovation Management and […]