Productivity supplier with a full range of services

11.12.2025

Product innovations at MAPAL are always aimed at supporting and developing customers’ productivity. Services so far have ranged from tool design and tool management to production line support. Now the tool manufacturer is going a step further and offering complete turnkey solutions for process design through to the achievement of process capability. AI is also just around the corner.

Photo: By acquiring the Italian company X-Pro, MAPAL is now in a position to assist customers with component industrialisation at an early stage and achieve the required cycle times and quality specifications without fail. ©MAPAL

The process design lays the foundation for the costs incurred for a component. Key framework conditions are cycle time and process reliability. While MAPAL has had the necessary tool expertise for a long time, elements were not yet in place for full-service packages: MAPAL was unable to go into depth in areas such as clamping fixtures, programming and process acceptance – until now.

By acquiring the Italian company X-Pro, that gap has been filled in the past year. MAPAL is now in a position to profoundly assist customers with component industrialisation at an early stage using feasibility studies and optimum planning of machining steps and thus achieve the required cycle times and quality specifications without fail.

“The aim is an efficient and stable manufacturing process”, says Stephan Köstler, Global Head of Machines and Services at MAPAL. He adds: “As early as the conceptualisation phase, clamping fixtures are designed to meet requirements for quality and process reliability – tailored to the stresses and strains involved in the machining process. A simulated and optimised NC program ensures that all machining steps can be achieved collision-free before the first component has even been produced. The installation and commissioning of the process under real conditions on the production line with proof of process capability is the final step.”

Projects have already been successfully implemented using the new capabilities, where MAPAL took full responsibility and was able to fully fulfil customer expectations within eight to twelve weeks.

Tool management for optimising the machining process and tool cycle

This holistic approach also shapes tool management – a service concept that goes far beyond the mere supply of tools. At its heart is the continuous optimisation of machining processes and the entire tool cycle, from procurement, storage and pre-setting all the way through to reconditioning. In the machining processes themselves, the use of the latest tool technology ensures gains in productivity. MAPAL focuses on digital processes, standardised workflows and close collaboration with production here. The full integration of the cloud-based platform c-Com into the MAPAL Group in 2025 underlines this approach: data, tools and processes are brought together in one system – transparent, secure and available worldwide. Customers benefit from permanently high tool availability, optimised inventories and inhouse logistics that are vastly more efficient. At the same time, the central database enables a sound analysis of consumption, costs and performance – in real time and across production facilities.

MAPAL sees tool management not as an additional service, but as an integral aspect of modern manufacturing. With over 100 ongoing projects worldwide, a main centre of competence in Aalen and decades of machining experience, MAPAL is a strong partner for companies looking to boost their productivity beyond the start of production.

Photo: The continuous optimisation of the machining process and the entire tool cycle, from procurement, storage and pre-setting all the way through to reconditioning, are at the heart of the holistic approach that forms the foundation of MAPAL’s tool management services.  ©MAPAL

Moving into an automated future with PRODaaS@SCALE

Productivity as a Service (PRODaaS) enables even greater digital integration into customers’ processes, which includes connecting to live data from the machine tool. An initial research project was successfully completed last year, and now there is an even further-reaching sequel. “With PRODaaS, the aim was to allow the experiences with productivity gains made in ongoing series production to flow back in a structured way, in order to get much closer to the ideal point in the initial component design”, reflects Stephan Köstler. To achieve this, a digital assistant continuously evaluated data from the machine environment and made specific suggestions for potential optimisations.

The new PRODaaS@SCALE project goes a step further into a more automated future. Köstler: “With PRODaaS@SCALE, the assistant becomes a self-regulating system. It incorporates experience gained in application directly into the process design.” In this research project, the use of AI is meant to bridge the gap between theory and practice. Even during the planning stage, significantly better settings for the machining processes are expected with AI systems with individual customer-specific training than would be the case without this feedback curve.

Implementation is guided by the “Manufacturing-X” initiative that was launched and is coordinated by players from German politics, business, politics and research and the initiative’s flagship projects. “Many digitalisation projects in the past ten years haven’t got past the pilot phase”, says Köstler. “The challenge lay in scaling the shared use of data.”

For PRODaaS@SCALE, setting up new data infrastructure is the key to shared data use without risking data sovereignty. Partners on the project are the company Zoller, which is making a major contribution with measurement technology and tool diagnostics, Walter Formenbau as the pilot customer as well as the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation and the VDMA. New is the approach of envisaging the application and use of this system in the woodworking industry with the woodworking machine manufacturer Weinig as a further project partner. As was the case in the PRODaaS research project, MAPAL is also assuming the role of consortium leader in the scaled version.

With its expanded offering, MAPAL is positioning itself as a leading provider of pioneering manufacturing solutions. Future themes such as artificial intelligence and digital integration boost productivity and efficiency for customers. With turnkey solutions and c-Com integration, production processes are optimised and continuous gains in productivity are achieved. As a result, MAPAL is ideally equipped to meet the challenges of the modern manufacturing industry and offer its customers tailored and innovative solutions.

Source: MAPAL