Martin Brandel

Since 1991 I have been connecting machines to higher-level systems.
Back then with Simatic S5, warehouse management and material flow control. Today with OPC UA, IoT gateways and Cloud MES. The technology has changed, but the underlying problem has stayed the same: how do you reliably get data out of a machine that was never designed for it?

I started as an automation engineer at an engineering office.
For four years I programmed and commissioned warehouse management, material flow control and plant control systems. On top of that I built plant-wide visualization systems with COROS. That was the time when I learned what it means to get software running under real production conditions – not in the lab.

At Hermos AG I looked after large-scale projects in Eastern Europe and China.
Conveyor systems, process engineering, paint lines. Programming, commissioning, on-site coordination. Anyone who commissions a paint line in a factory that is still under construction quickly learns that automation does not work from a desk.

I have been with SYMESTIC since 2000.
First I built up the automation engineering department and led it for eleven years. During that time we developed the software standard for process engineering plants in the beverage and wood industries, carried out retrofit projects from Simatic S5 to S7 and TIA, and laid the foundations for the machine connectivity that is now part of the SYMESTIC Cloud MES platform.

Since 2019 I have been an MES Consultant and Project Manager.
I accompany manufacturing companies from the initial enquiry through to go-live: analysing the machine park, defining the connectivity strategy, setting up data collection, configuring KPIs, training staff. Most customers have a mixed machine park: modern controllers next to equipment from 1990. That is exactly my strength – I know both worlds because I have worked in both.

What drives me:
Many companies believe their old machines cannot supply data. That is almost never true. With the right gateway and the right approach, any piece of equipment can be connected – without PLC intervention, without production interruption.

That moment when a customer sees real machine data on their dashboard for the first time and realizes what they didn’t know for years – that is the reason I do this job.