- The layer above the machine: task planning and prioritisation, connection to ERP, warehouse and order data
- Analysis of camera images for counting, completeness and preliminary quality checks
- Passing on status data to your systems, dashboards for the operations centre and management
Service
Robots and machines can do a lot. They just don’t know what your company needs right now.
We build the logic above the machine: which task is due now, what data it needs, what it reports back, who decides. Integration into your processes and systems, on certified hardware that you buy or rent.
Servers in Germany · AI advises, a human decides · Transparency under the EU AI Act
SubjectMachine → Interface → Logic layer → ERP / warehouse
SheetA-04
Date24 September 2026
DrawingW&K Connect
Hands-on
The same shop floor, once without and once with the layer above it
Tilt the sheet with the pointer, click on a station, switch the view. The hardware is there in both cases. The difference is who tells it what to do next.
Move the pointer: tilt the sheet · click a station: explanation
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01 · Warehouse
The goods are where the stock records assume they are. Which pallet is needed next is known by the order, not by the shelf.
Today: An employee walks over and checks.
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02 · Transport robot
The manufacturer taught it to drive. From us it gets the sequence: which pallet, where to, how urgent – from the order, not from a tablet.
Today: Goes wherever a person with a tablet sends it.
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04 · Camera
Counts, checks completeness, reads labels. The result is not an image in an archive but a number in the system and, if something deviates, a task.
Today: Records. Someone looks at it when something is missing.
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03 · Forklift
Stays where a human is needed: heavy and irregular goods. The driver sees the same order as the robot, on the terminal.
Today: Gets shouted instructions and paper notes.
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05 · Logic layer
The layer we build. It knows priority, exception and responsibility: what is due now, who does it, which rule applies if something goes wrong.
Today: Doesn't exist. A person makes these decisions in their head.
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06 · Approval: human
Money, contracts, staff and every deviation out of the ordinary. Nothing happens here without approval.
Today: Decides today as well, just without the groundwork.
SubjectShop floor: handover to the logic layer
SheetA-05
Date24 September 2026
TolerancePicture of the future, not an existing facility
Starting situation
Where companies stand today
You have a driverless transport robot or are planning one. The manufacturer supplies the vehicle controller. Today, an employee with a tablet tells it which pallet has to go where and when.
You have cameras on the line. They record. Counting, checking and reporting are still done by hand.
Your assets report their states, your ERP knows the orders. Neither knows anything about the other. Between them sits a person with a slip of paper.
You want to know what can be automated in your company in 3–5 years and what you should prepare for it today.
Boundary
What we do and what we deliberately do not
- Safety functions: emergency stop, safety circuits, collision avoidance, protection of persons
- Interventions in the vehicle or machine controller
- Changes to anything that affects the safety documentation of the asset
Safety functions stay with the manufacturer. Our part intervenes neither in the controller nor in safety functions and therefore does not affect the CE conformity of your machine (manufacturer’s declaration). This boundary is in every contract. It is not a shortcoming but intentional. If our logic issues a wrong task in the pilot or in an operation we support, we take responsibility for it.
What is missing is the connection to your business: the robot does not know that customer X is always supplied first. This logic is not in any manual; it is in the heads of your employees. We draw it out, write it down and build it into the layer between machine and ERP. AI sits where rules are not enough: in the camera that recognises goods, and in the suggestion of which task is due next. Decisions are made by your rule or by a human. → How we work
Approach
How the logic above the controller comes about: from the task to the pilot
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01
Process and goal (2–4 weeks).
Which task should the machine take over? How is it done today? What does it cost? What hardware is in place or planned?
2–4 weeks
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02
Logic and interfaces.
What does the machine need to know, what does it report back, who steps in? Which interfaces does the manufacturer offer (VDA 5050, OPC UA, manufacturer APIs)? You sign it off.
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03
Pilot at one station (3–6 months).
One robot, one line, one camera. Connection to your ERP, analysis, and we return the result to the system. Baseline measured beforehand.
3–6 months
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04
Prove and expand.
Number before, number after. Then further stations, further tasks, training your team for operation.
Result
What you have in hand at the end: an assessment, an integration layer and a clear boundary
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An honest assessment of what can be automated today, what in 3–5 years and what not at all.
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The integration layer between machine, robot or camera and your systems.
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Computer vision applications for counting, completeness checks, and label and document checks.
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A clear contractual boundary to the controller and safety functions.
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A point of contact who already knows your processes when the next machine arrives.
What we can already do at the interface, without customer names
- The integration layer is the same work as in our CRM and ERP projects, except that there is a machine at the end instead of a screen.
- We are currently building the cycle ‘signal, task, execution, record’. Parts of it run today, with scales, printers and scanners as signal sources. The same cycle with sensors on assets: → Predictive maintenance & industrial AI
- To be honest: we do not have robots of our own in test operation. We are looking for pilot partners for the first camera on a line. We discuss the terms in the first call.
Examples
Typical starting situations at machine and camera
Warehouse or logistics, for example food wholesale.
Goods with the shortest best-before date have to go on the route first; the transport robot gets this sequence from the ERP.
Food & logisticsProduction or camera, for example mechanical engineering.
A camera on the line counts, checks completeness and reads labels; the result goes into the system, and a deviation becomes a task.
Manufacturing & mechanical engineeringService or goods issue, for example a shipping business.
The camera at the packing station checks the shipment before the delivery note is printed.
Your process is different? That is exactly where we start. → First call
What we work with: systems, machines and interfaces
Odoo, Bitrix24, SAP Business One, HubSpot or custom development. We use whatever solves your task, tied to no vendor. For machines, we use the manufacturers’ open interfaces: VDA 5050, OPC UA, Modbus, MQTT, manufacturer APIs. Camera images can be analysed on edge hardware in your company.
Who the first step is worthwhile for
Manufacturing, warehousing and logistics in companies with 5 to 250 employees that want to integrate a first machine or camera and need someone who understands their processes, not just the hardware.
Our part intervenes neither in the controller nor in safety functions and therefore does not affect the CE conformity of your machine (manufacturer’s declaration). People keep the decision; AI identifies itself as AI (EU AI Act, Art. 50). If we process personal data on your behalf, we conclude a data processing agreement (DPA) with you under Art. 28 GDPR. → AI transparency
Frequently asked questions about machines and robotics
Do you control the robot or the machine?
No. We give it tasks from your system and receive its completion reports. The controller, emergency stop and safety circuits stay with the manufacturer.
Which interfaces do you use?
We use the manufacturer’s: VDA 5050 for transport robots, OPC UA and Modbus for assets, manufacturer APIs for camera systems. Where no interface is open, we clarify this before the pilot.
Do we need a new certification if you connect something?
Our part intervenes neither in the controller nor in safety functions and therefore does not affect the CE conformity of your machine (manufacturer’s declaration). This is set out in the contract.
What can be automated in our company today, and what cannot?
In the first call, we give a rough estimate for one process of what can be automated today, in 3–5 years or not at all. The estimate becomes reliable in the ‘Process and goal’ step (2–4 weeks). The prerequisite is a task whose logic can be written down.
Do you have robots of your own in test operation?
No. We build the layer above the hardware, not the hardware. We are looking for pilot partners for the first camera on a line.
Become a pilot partner: → Future Lab
What the price of a pilot depends on: → Pricing & pilot models
Next step
Tell us which task in your company is done today by a person with a tablet or a slip of paper, even though a machine is ready. In the first call, we tell you what the logic in between could look like.
30 minutes, one process from your daily work, no presentation.
We do not select hardware for you in order to sell it. We build the logic that makes your hardware, existing or planned, work for your company. This page is one of five entry points: → All services: AI consulting for SMEs