A+W Software GmbH is now member of the umati community.

About A+W Software GmbH

A+W is the market leader for software in the flat glass industry as well as in window and door production. We develop ERP, PPS and optimization software to make glass and window manufacturers more efficient. Our products are suitable for small, medium and large companies. We have been in the market for over 40 years and sell our products worldwide.

Heterogeneous components — holistic solutions

A+W creates open manufacturing worlds in which the glass and window value chain consists of digitally networked, fully automated and intelligent processes. People, production plants and information technologies are increasingly being coordinated online, in real time and holistically. This enables our customers to refine glass and construction elements efficiently, creatively and sustainably and to sell them profitably. In particular, we support variant production up to batch size 1, which is standard in the glass and window industry. Modern production environments are always networked systems consisting of powerful machines and intelligent industry software. In the innovation network of glass refiners or window manufacturers, mechanical engineers and software producers, often heterogeneous components are combined to create integrated solutions from practice for practice, which are groundbreaking for the industry.

Promote cooperation — increase perception

At A+W, Dr. Klaus Mühlhans, Business Development Director in the area of Software for Glass, together with the VDMA (German Engineering Federation), is driving forward cooperation in the development of standardized cross-company interfaces. “We want to contribute to making machine communication between heterogeneous plants and to higher-level systems fit for the future. In this way, we make complex production landscapes faster, more digital and safer. The standardization of machine interfaces in accordance with the OPC-UA standard, which the VDMA is striving for,” says Mühlhans, “will dramatically reduce the amount of work involved in setting up these interfaces.

What does Dr. Mühlhans expect from umati?

“We would like”, explains Mühlhans, “to make our participation in the VDMA and especially in the glass-specific Companion Spec public on a broader level. Umati promotes cooperation and makes it visible. As a result, we expect a broader, more sustainable acceptance for the specifications that have been developed”. Klaus Mühlhans advocates a cross-industry cooperation and the expansion of umati to the entire machine industry. “Cross-industry cooperation is essential, especially in the area of interfaces. A large part of the data to be defined / exchanged is universal and should therefore be uniform”.