Digitization of the industry as a marathon instead of a sprint

Taking stock: When Tapio last participated in “Holz-Handwerk” in Nuremberg in March 2018, it was still in its infancy. While the whole world was talking about digitalization and IoT, the company stayed on and did it. Away from the hustle and bustle and even during the Corona years, Tapio has stayed true to itself and worked with partners to drive digitization in the industry. What started as a sprint is evolving more and more into a marathon with constant growth of the Tapio ecosystem. In the meantime, Tapio has grown rapidly and is now active with customers in more than 35 countries around the globe.

While Europe remains Tapio’s strong base, the Americas and Asia are also growing strongly and benefiting from the new reseller system. Likewise, the application diversity has increased significantly (from three to more than 20 applications). As a result, Tapio’s app landscape now covers all use cases along the process chain. Tapio customers use an average of four licenses, which suggests that the mix is aligned with customer needs. With a very low license churn rate of less than 15 percent, it is clear that Tapio partners and Tapio are on the right track.

At the “Holz-Handwerk” four years ago, Tapio demonstrated for the first time the connection of machines from different manufacturers into a central application and made it available to customers. For this purpose, the now established communication standard OPC/UA was already used at that time. Starting from this basis, Tapio currently processes 1.2 billion transactions per month (40 million within 24 hours) and can proudly say that connectivity is no longer a show stopper for the realization of ideas in the wood industry. The first version of the industry-specific Companion Specification (“Izy”) now available is a possible addition here. For the success of digitization, however, these technical details are secondary; a comprehensive understanding of the industry, customer use cases and a new mindset in the way of cooperation are key.

At the latest since “Ligna” 2019, Tapio’s focus has been on use cases as connectivity has been mastered. Thanks to our 49 partners, Tapio has become much more diverse than it was in 2018 with just three applications. The company now offers applications for almost every process stage — from ordering to production. Thanks to new interfaces to “Borm”, “iFurn”, “iX”, “Swood”, SmartWOP and the data integration of strong partners such as Leuco, Ake, Agefa, Kanefusa, Aigner, Rehau and Ostermann, customers now benefit from digital consistency. In 2018, we were moved by the thought, “What if the machines and materials and tools knew each other?” Today, it’s a reality. Instead of the tedious setting of correct tool data or edge parameters, a scan is all it takes and the data flows from the manufacturer via Tapio to the customer. Everything in the blink of an eye and protected against input errors.

This is why Tapio is increasingly focusing on linking diverse partners so that customers can interact seamlessly between the different worlds. A major focus in recent years has been on “tools and materials”. In this context, Tapio has been able to win seven well-known partners, namely Aigner, Ake, Agefa, Kanefusa, Leuco, Ostermann and Rehau, enabling customers to truly benefit from digital twins for the first time.

The “Twinio” web app makes it quick and easy to digitally manage tools, so there is always a full overview of where which tool is located. In addition, users benefit from the connectivity of “Twinio” with selected machines by being able to get the ACTUAL tool data directly into the machine control on the machine or optionally send it to the machine via “Twinio App”. In addition to being able to digitally “marry” cutters with shots, users can analyze individual process parameters such as the cutting length (m) for a saw blade.

There is one more piece of news: The “Twinio” family will soon be joined by “Twinio Office”, which is about to be launched…

To ensure that the creation and management of tools runs smoothly, the five tool manufacturers Leuco, Ake, Agefa, Kanefusa and Aigner have actively integrated themselves into the application. They provide original tool data to their customers in advance, who can digitize the tools with a simple scan and thus always have their tool accompanying card at hand in digital form.