DigitalituM Podcast Episode 12 - Dr. Alexander Neb - Assemblio - Assembly Planning with Technology

In this episode of the DigitalituM Podcast, host Markus Rimmele delves into the transformative world of AI-powered assembly planning with Alexander Neb, Founder and CEO of Assemblio. Based in Stuttgart, Germany, Assemblio is pioneering a new era in assembly processes by leveraging advanced AI to simplify and accelerate one of the most tedious aspects of manufacturing.

🛠️ Topics Covered

1. Alexander’s Background & Journey
   • From childhood fascination with mechanics to becoming a leading innovator in assembly planning.
   • His academic and professional milestones include his time at Mercedes-AMG, Recaro, and Fraunhofer Institute.
   • The "eureka moment" that inspired the creation of Assemblio was born from the frustrations of manual assembly documentation processes.
2. The Problem with Traditional Assembly Planning
   • Challenges of creating assembly instructions manually using screenshots and CAD models.
   • Why assembly planning can take weeks and require constant revisions due to changes in CAD models.
   • The inefficiency and reliance on human expertise for repetitive, time-consuming tasks.
3. Assemblio’s Groundbreaking AI Solution
   • Assemblio uses AI to analyze CAD models, identify assembly features, and generate step-by-step work instructions in a fraction of the time.
   • Compatibility with all major CAD formats (e.g., SolidWorks, CATIA, AutoCAD, and universal STEP files).
   • Outputs include PDFs, videos, and 3D animations—making assembly instructions accessible to all skill levels, from engineers to shop floor workers.
4. Real-World Applications
   • Assemblio serves automotive, medical devices, and construction industries, with applications ranging from truck axles to entire buildings.
5. The Future of AI in Assembly
   • Collaborations with organizations like Fraunhofer Institute and Google on fully automated solutions.
   • Upcoming developments in robot programming, logistics planning, and real-time assembly monitoring.

🎯 Key Takeaways

• Efficiency: Assemblio automates repetitive tasks, enabling engineers to focus on design and quality rather than tedious documentation.
• Accessibility: Outputs are tailored to diverse audiences, from highly technical engineers to assembly workers without mechanical experience.
• Scalability: The platform can be used for small components or large-scale projects, like planning the assembly of an entire house.

🔗 Resources & Links

• Assemblio Website: Visit Assemblio
• Connect with Alexander Neb: LinkedIn Profile
• Learn More About DigitalituM: DigitalituM Website
• Connect with Markus Rimmele: LinkedIn Profile

🚀 Call to Action

Experience assembly planning like never before!
Visit Assemblio to request a demo or explore their trial version to see how you

Stay tuned for more inspiring conversations about manufacturing and digital transformation. Also, remember to follow and subscribe to the DigitalituM Podcast for exclusive insights from industry leaders and innovators.

We appreciate your likes and comments. If you feel you can add value to this podcast series and want to be our guest, send an email to Sales@DigitalituM.com

Transcript

Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (00:02.204)

Hello altogether, this is Markus Rimmel, host of the Digitalitum podcast. We talk in here at the intersection of manufacturing and digital transformation. My guest today is Alexander Knapp from Stuttgart, Germany. Welcome to the Digitalitum podcast.

Alexander Neb (00:22.312)

I am Markus. Thank you for having me.

Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (00:26.075)

You're welcome. So let's dive right into it and tell us a little bit about yourself.

Alexander Neb (00:33.006)

Sure, I'm Alex and my part since 10 years I work with assembly instructions which is kind of odd but becomes a passion and yeah that's actually also what assembly is all about.

Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (00:49.489)

So that's where you founded actually your own company around the topic of assembly and the company's name is assembly. Yo, right?

Alexander Neb (01:02.592)

Exactly. is the clear focus and we're in the team, we figured out what name could be the perfect name for assembly company. And we are all Harry Potter fans. So what spell would Harry Potter use to assembly something and it would be Assemblio. So Assemblio it is.

Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (01:21.063)

Great. And how did you get into that? What area did you study? In what areas did you work before? Which then led you actually to found your own company. Can you tell us a little bit about that? What was before Assemblio?

Alexander Neb (01:40.462)

Sure. Since I'm a small kid, mechanics was always my passion for motorcycles, for my cars, always a huge passion. I studied, of course, mechanical engineering. Even in my internship, was at Mercedes-AMG. I could look up how to assemble cars, how to plan the manufacture of cars. It's insane. They have photo cars and they told me, Alex,

Here is the toolbox, here is the camera, now help the mechanics to disassemble the car, make photos out of it. And that was the first assembly instruction, which is quite insane. After Mercedes-AMG, I joined Am Ardient, which is Recaro, old German brand for car seats. And yeah, I started at Recaro that gave me four weeks of training of CAD. So my first four weeks was just...

Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (02:29.959)

Mm-hmm.

Alexander Neb (02:37.332)

every day, eight hours a day, learning, training of CAD, CATEER. And then I was ready. Now I'm finished. I finalized my studies. I'm now a CAD engineer and it will be now you have to help us by making the assembly planning. And I said, great, how do we start? Here is a CAD model. It's nearly finished. Now make a screenshot of every single process, assembly process, and we are going to define the assembly instruction.

And that was kind of annoying. It was really annoying. It took me three months to plan the assembly for a single car seat. And in the end, it was an assembly instruction of 800 pages, which is a lot. It's really annoying. the annoying thing about that is it changes constantly. I had to redo it every week, every week, because you have to define every assembly step very precise. How to assemble, for example.

Which tools are required? Do I need grease? What's my quality criteria? And so on. You have to be really, really precise to define the assembly of a complex product. And yeah, it took me three months to plan the assembly with screenshots out of CAD, which is really tough.

Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (03:54.725)

And then whenever comes a change in of the CAD model, then you have to redo certain parts again and again, which is very time consuming.

Alexander Neb (04:04.75)

I remember the night my boss told me on Friday there will be BMW. BMW want to see the full documentation. We will discuss everything. I told my boss, hey Martin, there are some crash tests running right now and over the weekend. So on Monday I will get the new results. So why should I finish it till Friday? On Monday I have to redo everything. Yeah, but that's BMW. We have to do it.

Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (04:16.966)

Mm-hmm.

Alexander Neb (04:32.928)

I did the instruction, I updated everything in two days. BMW was okay with the instruction. On a Monday, I had to do everything again up to 10 o'clock and I told myself, okay, I quit, I quit. That's so annoying. That's not why I have such an expensive degree of mechanical engineering. And I went to Fraunhofer. Fraunhofer is the world's biggest research institute and...

I joined a team of Professor Dr. Bauernanze, which is, he's a really, really famous professor for automation, automation science. And I applied to him, told him, hey, that's the problem. I really want to find a solution for assembly planning because Siemens, Bosch, Mercedes, BMW, Recaro, all plan assembly instruction by, but with screenshots and in a Word file. I can change that. And he said, yes, go for it.

Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (05:29.563)

Wow, that sounds amazing. So then during your time at Fraunhofer, you came actually up with a solution, how this is possible through technology. And then I understand after that, you then decided to bring that to the market in your own startup called Assemblio.

Alexander Neb (05:53.486)

Yeah, It was even funnier to be honest. I knew the problem and I said to myself, okay, I'm going to find a solution. The problem is pretty old. And in the early days, he called us that problem, computer aided assembly planning, CAAP. I think the founder of CAAP published the idea in 1992, which is really, really old, nearly as old as me. And I said to myself,

Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (06:11.495)

Mm-hmm.

Alexander Neb (06:20.556)

I got to do a PhD in executive topic. I developed a so-called feature-based approach, which is an analyzation algorithm of 3D models. So a completely new way to analyze 3D models from CAD system to define and find assembly information from pretty stupid models to find intelligent so-called high level features, assembly features to define the whole assembly sequence. And I published that.

It was insane. So many people came to me, hey Alex, that's a completely new approach, a new algorithm to analyze that model. Even Porsche read that paper, called me and said, okay, we're really interested in your algorithm, we're really interested in your assembly planning system, we want to have it for our shop floor. I told them, it was 2019, hey guys, that's research. Research is no product. I have to finalize everything.

Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (07:15.761)

Mm-hmm.

Alexander Neb (08:02.69)

Hi.

Has to be.

Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (08:08.359)

At least it at end of But somehow the line was gone again. It's really... But we should still fine. I can the part. We just keep it.

Alexander Neb (08:13.453)

man.

Alexander Neb (08:24.134)

Okay, I'm so sorry. There's nobody in the office. We thousands of people.

Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (08:30.309)

Yeah, it is what it is. I'll just you the next question. We were at the end of your sentence. We'll continue and the part in between. Let's go. So question for you as there are all this big CAD systems on the market, AutoCAD and SolidWorks and CATIA.

Alexander Neb (08:43.959)

Let's go, okay?

Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (09:00.805)

My first question is, haven't they had anything like that in their product portfolio already? And then second, when they figured out that you did their something, did they ask you to join forces with them or was there no collaboration and that's why you then went your own way? How was that overall situation?

Alexander Neb (09:27.492)

Yeah, of course they're really interested. mean Siemens is already in contact with us, PTC is in contact with us, DeSalle is in contact with us. Suddenly we figured out that DeSalle, the assembly department is even just 10 kilometers from us. So yes, of course they're really interested and yes, they made some plug-ins for example, instance, Katia of Solidworks have the Solidworks composing for instance.

Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (09:47.579)

Mm-hmm.

Alexander Neb (09:58.032)

But it's a very different tool. mean, 3D is for designing things. It's made of constraints, not of assembly features. Really, really different typology of elements, of the entities. It's like comparing a Formula One car with a beach buggy. Yes, both have four wheels, both drive forward, but it's completely different technology. So yes, CAD had in the past...

Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (09:59.079)

Mm-hmm.

Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (10:19.719)

Mm-hmm.

Alexander Neb (10:27.878)

some products but the market didn't accept them because that wasn't enough, that was really not enough. But ERP companies for example, for instance, SAP had like four products to define things what assembly is doing now, but they never finished it. So SAP is also very close to us. One of them told us,

Hey, Assembler makes sense because I was in a team that tried to develop that and we failed so I know how hard it is and it was amazing. He immediately understood the complexity behind assembly planning, how everything should be in 3D and it was amazing. It was an honor to be honest.

Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (11:00.325)

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (11:12.443)

Wow, that's quite a story. So let's dive deeper into the current platform of Assemblio. My understanding is on one side you feed the CAD model in and then on the other side as an output, you have actually a step-by-step work instruction on a level, a regular worker, not a rocket science engineer understand this to put an assembly together.

What happens in between? Can you tell us a little bit about that?

Alexander Neb (11:50.406)

Fuck.

Alexander Neb (11:54.566)

Ugh.

Alexander Neb (12:15.193)

Have you me?

Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (12:19.399)

Yes, you back. The good thing is you always at the end of the Perfect for editing So I'll you question again.

Alexander Neb (12:27.895)

That's I supposed.

Alles klar!

Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (12:48.165)

work instruction which is readable for an assembly worker who doesn't have a rocket science degree in order to build an assembly together. What happens in between? Can you further explain your platform?

Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (13:18.119)

You're still here.

Alexander Neb (13:28.632)

I'm sorry. I just to a hotspot with my phone. I hope it better

Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (13:30.587)

yet

Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (13:35.431)

Now you better quality.

Alexander Neb (13:39.417)

Seriously?

Alexander Neb (13:43.832)

I'm not talking my hotspot, but my phone.

Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (13:46.695)

Yes, you were always lost and now I a clear picture.

Alexander Neb (13:55.743)

I hope it works now. That would disappointing if my phone was faster than the internet in the company.

Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (14:00.934)

Now I below in the upload percentage, before we always 10 % what the upload status is. Now we are at 70%. That that it for some reason.

Alexander Neb (14:14.606)

Okay.

Alexander Neb (14:20.472)

Okay, but that's good to know too. And shocked to be

Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (14:23.367)

Yes, somehow the internet connection is still there, some check or verification, no idea. Anyway, 5G probably in the city is the fast direct way. Yes.

Alexander Neb (14:39.662)

Yeah. Okay, yeah, good. Sorry, then now with that.

Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (14:47.079)

Alright, so third attempt for the question.

which is done on a level that an assembly worker actually understands it and that you do not need a rocket science degree to understand that assembly instruction or work instruction, however you wanna call it. Do I understand that right? And can you tell us a little bit more what is happening in between?

Alexander Neb (15:32.759)

Thanks, Lekki.

Alexander Neb (15:37.805)

Witchcraft and AI. The output of the development is always a CAD model. So just a single CAD model. We read in the CAD model, a system is analyzing the model, how to assemble it, from which direction. It analyzes so-called topological geometrical features. So the smallest entities are 3D models and extracts of it assembly features.

Yeah, that's the first step. And then...

Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (16:08.391)

Quick quick question on that. Does it need to be in a specific format like the the universal step format or do you go with the native file straight out of SolidWork, Hattia, AutoCAD? Is there any difference or you take it all?

Alexander Neb (16:28.663)

We take it all, we take it all. Because yes, you can use JT files, step files, you can use native files. We really don't care because the system, the AI is analyzing every single file. don't relate to the human engineering constraints. So we define everything by ourselves. So we don't mind. Every file is fine. And yeah, then you have it, have your 3D model in Assemblio and you can plan your assembly.

Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (16:44.679)

Mm-hmm.

Alexander Neb (16:58.253)

guided and right now we made several studies. If you have a really, really, really easy assembly product like 15 parts, we are just 92 % faster, just 92 % faster. But we have several customers of course with bigger products, usually for example, for instance, 800 to 1000 parts. takes the humans two to three weeks to plan the assembly with assembly and they do it right now in three hours.

Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (17:12.945)

Mm-hmm.

Alexander Neb (17:27.914)

We had a customer that told me, we do, it took me three weeks for one assembly. Now I do two assemblies in three hours, so six hours in summary. And that's amazing. So we're in that case, 98 to 99 % faster than before, which is amazing that the company are really happy now they have clear designs, clear instructions. Everything is very detailed. And yes, exactly. It's easy to understand because the...

It's very precise, it's very consistent. If you have to do assembly like me in the night, you do it very fast. Yeah, the human will understand it. It's very easy. Let's do two pictures less and so on. So the person that reads that structure needs to be an expert at understanding. But with that, it's a step-by-step IKEA instruction. Everyone can understand it. That's so easy. And of course, yeah, we extract.

Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (18:11.461)

Mm-hmm.

Alexander Neb (18:26.075)

PDF file or a Word file because yeah a lot of old companies wants to have those files because they already have it And there's even a law in Germany it's mandatory to have those instructions and There is change of law since five or six months. So now you don't have to print those instructions out anymore PDF is fine. So yeah

Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (18:49.756)

Mm-hmm.

Alexander Neb (18:56.972)

That law is also called the IKEA law in our German Civil Code. But we can also extract videos because a video is much easier to understand fully automatically. I mean, when you have to assemble something, do you look in the manual or do you look up in YouTube how to assemble it? It's much easier for your human brain.

Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (19:08.007)

Mm-hmm.

Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (19:17.999)

There's that saying, a picture says more than a thousand words. And specifically to explain a complex technical topic in text and in language is actually super complicated. And then when you put in different languages, then it's even more complicated as within German, my understanding was always you can call a technical things 10 different ways.

and therefore you also can translate it 10 different ways. And then on the other side, the other language, like in English or Spanish or whatever, it's called 10 different things either. So that makes it super complicated. But if you just show it on a picture or even better in a 3D animation, even complex things are pretty easy to explain.

Alexander Neb (20:15.298)

Exactly, we made a huge study with Fraunhofer for exact a topic. We even tried it in a nursing home. So, all people not up to date, we showed them an instruction, hey, assemble it right now. And it was really complicated for them. Then we gave them several devices, a tablet application, VR, AR application. They tried it out. It's crazy how you human brain comprehends things. if you have a picture, it's very abstract, it's really hard.

to see, that's picture, that's the reality. There is a break in between. And it's much easier to see, okay, there is animation, there is one shelf coming down, now it flips around, now it's assembled that way with two screws. It's so much easier to understand. And the funny thing is a professor already told me, yeah, Dr. Nepe told me, why is it easier to read a comic than a book?

Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (20:56.572)

Mm-hmm.

Alexander Neb (21:12.264)

And why is it easier to a movie than to read a comic book? Because that's the level of abstraction you have. That's how the human thinks. And so an animation, a visualization is always better than just a picture. And yeah, we can even fully automatically extract assembly information systems like that's a tablet application completely automatically generated in 3D.

Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (21:23.975)

Mm-hmm.

Alexander Neb (21:40.937)

Everything is animated in 3D. You can zoom out, you can zoom in, can make cuts, you can click on the next step, next step, back, back, back. Everything is animated, very, very easy to understand. And the funny thing, my wife was always my test subject. And my wife is an amazing French teacher, but no mechanic at all. And I gave her the instruction, thought, darling, look it up, and assemble now. I think it was an eight cylinder.

Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (21:57.511)

Mm-hmm.

Alexander Neb (22:10.601)

a motor engine, 8 cylinder engine, small sized. I gave her a template, it was really easy, she assembled everything, she planned everything, designed everything. She even said, hey, there's this small thingy, what is that actually? That's gasket. But she suddenly planned gaskets and how they should be assembled and so on, and she made it perfect. With no mechanic knowledge at all, but she did it perfect.

Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (22:33.681)

That's amazing.

Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (22:39.153)

Yeah, yeah, and that shows again the value of pictures and animations. Going back to your story initially where you had to build an assembly for BMW and then there were changes involved. How does this go now in assembly? Or if you have changes on your original CAD model, which happens quite often and all of sudden,

your assembly instruction needs to be updated. Do you take another 5-10 hours days to update it or does it go ka-ching?

Alexander Neb (23:19.718)

Yeah, for that we have a third AI. Yeah, we call it the variate manager, very German. We even won for that AI the German AI Champions Award, I think it was called. The minister gave it to us. So what is the AI doing? You plant your assembly with round about 1000 parts and now something changes. don't know what, several things change and you can tell the system.

Hey, Assemblio, here is the old instruction and here is the new 3D model. I have no idea what's different. And the Assemblio will tell you, hi, Marcus, 1,000 parts has the whole assembly, 800 are still the same, 150 are clearly pretty similar, okay, there is a different housing, a different screw, a different gasket, a different thread on the screw and so on. So the system won't be confused, we're humans and we'll show you the difference.

Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (24:01.563)

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Alexander Neb (24:19.372)

and extract all the information. And then it will tell you, hey Marcus, but there are 50 elements I really don't recognize because they're new. Please tell me where do you want to have them? And you can tell the system, hey, Assemblio, put those five here and it will plan everything completely automatically. That should be here, that should be here, that should be there. Five minutes. And you updated the whole assembly and you will even get an Excel sheet with every change, the different names.

Big companies like Mercedes-Benz need those instructions, for instance, for the documentation.

Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (24:55.099)

That's amazing. As your name, Mercedes-Benz, Assemblio is not a prototype anymore. You're selling these platforms to the industry. Can you tell us a couple of your clients and also a couple of applications, in what applications do they use it?

Alexander Neb (25:19.076)

but it's really, really different. Yes, we have a lot of automobile companies, they use it for parts, for components, for example, braking systems, truck axles, very, very different. So-called truck retarders, it's a braking system. So really different products. have even robots, robots, big machine, big modules, assemblies. We even have a house.

Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (25:35.024)

Mm-hmm.

Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (25:38.567)

Mm-hmm.

Alexander Neb (25:48.119)

company and an architecture company using Assemblio. They're building now a new house in Munich in Bavaria and they use Assemblio to plan the whole assembly for a whole house, which is pretty amazing. Everything that has to be assembled needs an assembly plan and we can help with that. So our customers are really, really different. Yeah.

Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (25:58.021)

Mm-hmm.

Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (26:11.953)

So more or less it goes into a lot of different industries from automotive to medical device to even house construction in where this tool can be used in order to make this whole process faster and more efficient and get some extra value out.

Alexander Neb (26:33.871)

Exactly, if you have to assemble something you need a plan and we can help with that and I never in my past heard assembly was not as fast as state of the art so I'm I'm really happy about that

Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (26:48.807)

That's quite amazing. If people are interested in that solution, how do they get to a demo?

Alexander Neb (27:03.205)

Sure, we have a trial version. Reach out to us through our website for instance. You can apply for a demo version. A demo version is always with a small training. It's a very small training so you can make the best out of it. And in the future there will be even a free trial version for everyone. So try it out, use it by yourself and be 92 to 99 percent faster.

Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (27:31.431)

That's great and we will put the link down in the show notes. Let's look up a little bit into the future. AI can do a lot of different things and it will further develop. What do you think is all possible in the near future with AI? What are current challenges we have and how do they get solved?

Alexander Neb (28:00.291)

yeah, it's a huge topic. We're already in contact with several companies, even Google. Google has also, I cannot tell the project, but it's a huge thing also here in Munich, but with a lot of American teams. How to plan everything completely automatically. So from the 3D model, the whole assembly plan to generate extract robot G-Code to the manufacturing to.

Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (28:06.075)

Mm-hmm.

Alexander Neb (28:27.307)

extract a whole LP system, so offline programming system. So robot code, STM plans, the whole layout, the whole logistics completely automatically just out of 3D models. Yeah, that's the big thing and it's amazing. The next step is a project with Google and a robot company and Fraunhofer.

Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (28:32.059)

Mm-hmm.

Alexander Neb (28:54.584)

to plan the assembly, the robot assembly completely automatically out of assembly. To extract MTM time, so you even know the tech time, how to plan everything. The system in the future should tell you, system, give me a scenario for that product with two humans and three robots, three robots and one human, five humans, two robots, and so on. It will give you the whole layout, how to assemble everything and what the tech time is. Yeah.

Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (29:16.283)

Mm-hmm.

Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (29:22.373)

Wow, now I'm literally blown away.

Alexander Neb (29:27.844)

It's still research, it's still research and the people from Fraunhofer help us a lot with that but I really believe it. Maybe not in three or five years but I really think the computing time is increasing rapidly, the AI is becoming smarter and smarter. I really think in 10 years we really have those systems and I we should be a mandatory part of it.

Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (29:53.543)

And how do you see the acceptance of your product and overall the AI technology in the manufacturing industry as in general the industry is always a little bit more conservative on new things, at least that's my understanding. What feedback are you getting on that?

Alexander Neb (30:20.853)

Yeah, they're very conservative, especially in Germany. Yeah, but they call me, tell me, hey, that's a new system. I'm afraid of new systems. You don't have to use it. Yeah, but we really need it because the products are becoming more and more complex. We don't have the experts that can plan the whole assembly. We don't have the expert that have to assemble those products. We don't have expert for the documentation. We really need your system. So stop complaining.

Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (30:40.315)

Mm-hmm.

Alexander Neb (30:50.837)

You don't have to use it, but yes, I mean, what is the trend on the market? Products becoming more more complex. You have more and more variants. Your lot size is decreasing since years. Then the next thing is assembly planning is human knowledge. So if you ask 10 people how to assemble a product, they will give you 12 answers. it's very, yeah, it's very dependent from the human and where are the experts?

Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (31:01.799)

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (31:13.607)

That's right.

Alexander Neb (31:20.179)

As I mentioned, I really hated that job because the engineering thing is fun. But doing screenshots and the whole documentation is just annoying. So where do you find us people? We have a huge lack of experienced people.

The trends are not really good for the company, so they need a solution for a flexible assembly.

Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (31:40.199)

Yeah, and I was like... Yeah.

Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (31:46.735)

I agree. And overall taking or replacing work with automation, which is tedious, which is repetitive, which just takes a lot of time, but you don't need much efforts to it. That's always the potential for automation first. It's so-called the low-hanging fruits and bringing a digital tool in like Assemblio, which really can help in that particular step to

save a lot of hours and then use this time for something which add more value at other place, I think that's what it's all about. It's not about taking the job away of an assembly engineer. It is because there's too much work and not enough people and making this whole process just more efficient. Do I see that right?

Alexander Neb (32:31.795)

No.

Alexander Neb (32:40.699)

Yeah, it's the last percentage. We call that automating the automation, because you automate those stupid things like doing screenshots, adding annotation, adding text, translating text, putting everything in a Word file, designing the Word file. So the whole annoying thing. And the humans for important stuff, their design, the quality, the definition of the whole assembly process.

You have a smart tool helping you to assemble everything and yeah, automating the automation. So the human should be in the center of everything. There was an amazing scene of Iron Man. I think it was the first movie where he picked a single spot of an assembly, made a gesture like that and the whole thing exploded.

show the human how to assemble everything for which direction. So the human can have a very fast overview about the assembly, about the product, about the component, the constraints between those components. And that's how it should be. A smart, intelligent solution for a super smart human.

Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (33:48.775)

Mm-hmm.

Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (33:53.467)

Yeah, taking the right tool in order to get things done. I always say you have traditionally your regular toolbox with your pliers, your screwdrivers and what you all need. This was good in the past and you still need here and there some physical tools, but for the future you have to have a good setup of digital tools as well.

and again for specific use cases and to solve specific problems like if you have any type of assembly, then you better look into how assembly can generate more value for you.

Alexander Neb (34:37.302)

Exactly. absolutely. Yeah.

Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (34:40.749)

And that's where we at Digitalitome come in place as on one side we understand the problems in the industry due to our industry experience and on the other side we are connected with cool startups like Assemblio where we understand that value and can bring that together.

Alexander Neb (35:03.164)

Thanks.

Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (35:06.279)

Have you done anything in the US market so far? Or are you focusing on the German on the European market first?

Alexander Neb (35:19.185)

Actually, we never even did a cold call in my entire life. Right now, there are enough companies calling us. That's usually German companies, some are from Austria or from Switzerland. Yes, we had some contact with US companies, but yeah.

Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (35:31.399)

Mm-hmm.

Alexander Neb (35:45.052)

Just just interested companies the US is a big focus for us. Yes, we will we'll go to the US probably next year next year There will be a solution even for American companies US companies But we need a bigger team to be honest. I could serve much more Companies if I had a bigger team and that's our key key focus hiring hiring hiring I Never did a cold call in my life or any of that company

Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (36:16.039)

That's cool. And yeah, the challenge of then growing and scaling up and finding the right people is another challenge. Does AI in some way can help you there as well?

Alexander Neb (36:29.915)

I hope so. HRAI, yes that would be amazing but still searching for that.

Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (36:37.701)

Maybe that needs to be a side product of you to develop that as well.

Alexander Neb (36:43.547)

I keep in the area of assembly planning the next 10 years.

Markus Rimmele - DigitalituM (36:46.843)

That's good, always better focus and improve what we have there. Yeah, Alex, thank you so much for sharing about the great things you guys do at Assemblio. As I mentioned, I put all the information down in the show notes and happy assembly.

Alexander Neb (37:08.194)

Thanks, happy assembly!