Peakboard is an all-in-one solution of hardware and software, with data from various sources that can be communicated on displays, efficiently, individually and in real-time. Peakboard combines the simplicity, flexibility, and display options of a digital signage application with the complexity of technical process data and key figures.
Possible data sources range from sensors and machines, Excel, and cloud solutions to ERP systems such as SAP. With Peakboard, employees at all levels and in all areas of the company receive the critical performance indicators that are most important to them in real-time and in an easily understandable way. This gives them a helpful overview of running processes and enables them to work more independently and efficiently.
Easy Engineering: What are the main areas of activity of the company?
Peakboard: Peakboard visualizes and networks any kind of (process) data in real-time and can thus be used for the optimization of any kind processes in a company. However, our main focus is on the production and logistics industries, because especially in these industries, there are applications that require a quick input and output of information to make the processes as efficient as possible. Peakboard communicates error messages, production progress, capacity utilization, and inventory management in real time for everyone on the shop floor in a way that is clear and easy to understand. As soon as an error appears, the issue is communicated to employees, so they can respond immediately. This helps to avoid downtime, material shortages, or production outages and thus increases productivity and efficiency.
E.E: What’s the news for 2020 about new products?
Peakboard: Peakboard with its components Peakboard Box and Peakboard Designer is our core product. In 2020 we extended our Peakboard Family with a new component called Peakboard Edge:
Peakboard Edge can directly input and output information through external devices. Peakboard Edge does not communicate via a display to do this. Instead, it is always connected to a Peakboard Box. Input information, e.g. from switches, buttons, barcode scanners, RFID readers and light barriers, is directly related to the Peakboard Box via Peakboard Edge and processed there. Output information is sent from the Peakboard Box to Peakboard Edge and displayed via signal lights or sound boxes, for example. Using Peakboard Edge substantially reduces the data processing and transmission time (latency) and makes the visualization more flexible. The data flow occurs via LAN or WiFi.
E.E: At what stage is the market where you are currently active?
Peakboard: If you look at the shop floor of a manufacturing company from a bird’s eye view, you see a complex communication network of workstations, departments and project groups. Every process, every machine, every incoming order, every sensor and now every employee is constantly producing data and knowledge. However, this communication is very scattered and not very effective because it consists of systems, projects and platforms working in parallel – be it departmental or project-specific collaboration solutions, bulletin boards, dashboards of individual machines or the classic intranet.
For shop-floor communication, this means that a lot of information often appears too slowly, incompletely or not at all in the places where it is possibly needed most urgently. This fundamental problem can be avoided if those responsible in the company first strategically address the topic of communication: Which workplace needs which type of information from which source in order to work as effectively as possible? With a strategic approach, which we define here as “Smart Communication”, this challenge can be successfully met.
E.E: What can you tell us about market trends?
Peakboard: With the idea of the Smart Factory, the industry is in one of the biggest changes in industrial history. Until this change, efficient production was always an interaction between people and machines. A third force of equal relevance is now emerging in addition to these two entities: the world of software-driven efficiency improvement with the help of sensors, big data, IoT and, above all, artificial intelligence. The interaction of these fundamentally different parts of the smart factory has an all-decisive interface that makes the desired feedback loop possible in the first place: Visualization of the right information at the right time: Smart Communication. Without a perfect flow of information, the promised optimization of efficiency and security will never become reality.
E.E: What estimations do you have for 2020?
Peakboard: We still see a lot of impact of the pandemic. Many of our customers and prospects stopped their invest in IT and digitalization projects. 2020 was and still is a tough year for all of us. But we did not waste our time and invested a lot in the further development of our products, a new website, and a lot of improvements in our processes. And now, we are optimistic that we will pass these stormy times sooner or later. Our customers are reactivating their IT and digitization projects and we see a lot of potential for 2021 and are well prepared.
