Hermes Schleifmittel GmbH, founded in 1927, is a family-owned company headquartered in Hamburg. As a leading producer of high-performance bonded abrasives and abrasive belts, Hermes serves clients globally, particularly in metal and woodworking industries. From functional to aesthetic, matte to glossy finishes, Hermes offers over 1,500 abrasive solutions, ensuring high-quality results for a variety of grinding processes. Today, Hermes employs around 1,000 people, with 100 based at its Uetersen facility in Schleswig-Holstein.
Production staff at Hermes’ Uetersen facility struggled to track and prioritize production orders, with no visibility into the current production status at their stations. Incoming orders were accepted without regard to urgency, causing some high-priority items to be completed after their deadlines.
“The production floor had a large number of orders, and staff tended to pick tasks randomly. This often meant that complex or urgent orders weren’t finished on time,” explains Plant Manager Sven Russmeyer.
The lack of process transparency frustrated teams, as they had no means of reviewing previous day’s production targets. Clear visibility at the start of each shift is essential for process optimization. To enhance production transparency and improve internal communication, Hermes needed a digital solution.
Hermes found a solution with Peakboard, a low-code platform for creating custom industrial applications. The intuitive design of Peakboard Designer, the software for creating applications, stood out immediately:
“Compared to other systems, Peakboard Designer lets us create applications that are visually appealing and impactful, which resonates well with employees,” says Russmeyer.
Another reason for selecting Peakboard was its seamless integration with multiple data sources. Hermes already used SAP and Qlik for data preparation, and these systems were easily connected to Peakboard. In addition to order processing sequence displays, Peakboard also visualizes key production KPIs and shows internal company updates.
Hermes’ Peakboard implementation covers three primary use cases. The first is in production: the factory floor is equipped with a Peakboard Box that centrally displays real-time order status on a screen, highlighting priorities with color-coded markers. Previously, although production orders were tracked in SAP, operators had no way of viewing the timing requirements of each task directly at their stations.
Outside of production, Hermes uses Peakboard in two other ways. A connected screen in the entrance area serves as a “bulletin board” for employees, displaying KPIs such as on-time delivery, output, and reject rates. Each morning, teams review the previous day’s production outcomes and discuss strategies to meet targets for the upcoming shift. Workforce deployment is centrally coordinated if workload imbalances arise across departments, allowing for more efficient use of personnel resources. When Hermes hosts client visits, this screen also functions as a welcome display.
Currently, Hermes uses five Peakboard Boxes at its Uetersen site to increase transparency in KPIs, order processing sequence, and internal communication. The dashboards are also displayed on interactive touchscreens, allowing employees to switch between views and access additional key metrics by tapping the screens. Expansion of the three use cases is already being considered.
“Peakboard’s digital solution has prompted employees to tackle high-priority orders first, reducing lead times and improving delivery reliability,” concludes Russmeyer.
