What adjust­ments have you made in the past year? 

We’ve reor­ga­nized our research and devel­op­ment with a clear focus on strength­ening customer-specific appli­ca­tions. That’s a very impor­tant step for ebm-papst. We’re also making sure our prod­ucts are ready for digi­tal­iza­tion and the Internet of Things; we want to offer our customers an uncom­pli­cated way to inte­grate them in their digital solu­tions as quickly as possible. And we’re constantly working to make our prod­ucts even more effi­cient.

What exactly are your aims in appli­ca­tion devel­op­ment?

One very impor­tant point is being able to supply customers with samples for their tests much more quickly. The second point is that we’ve made appli­ca­tion devel­op­ment into a sepa­rate depart­ment. That makes it possible to focus much better on customer require­ments. Third, we now have Dr. Roland Keber, who is respon­sible for these activ­i­ties world­wide. So now inter­na­tional customers have a single partner for devel­op­ment issues.

We’re making sure our prod­ucts are ready for digi­tal­iza­tion and the Internet of Things; we want to offer our customers an uncom­pli­cated way to inte­grate them in their digital solu­tions as quickly as possible.

Digi­tal­iza­tion is a big deal. What does it mean for ebm-papst?

First, it means that we equip our prod­ucts with inter­faces and func­tion­ality that enable them to commu­ni­cate with our customers’ digital solu­tions. In a second step, that means we provide our customers with a digital infra­struc­ture. For example, small air condi­tioner manu­fac­turers can not only buy a fan from us that commu­ni­cates with their elec­tronics, they can also access the data from that fan through the Internet. And they can program services and provide them to their customers via our servers. They get a full-service package from us. And at our neo start-up, we’re working to provide high-utility data. The first solu­tions are already in the starting blocks.

Prod­ucts from ebm-papst are already highly effi­cient. How can they be made even more effi­cient?

For one thing, there are the possi­bil­i­ties offered by digi­tal­iza­tion. With even more precise control, we can make our prod­ucts even more effi­cient to use. That’s one of our aims with Green­In­tel­li­gence. Our research is also strongly focused on aero­dy­namics. We use state-of-the-art simu­la­tion methods that enable much more effi­cient solu­tions. And there’s also still poten­tial for our drives. ­Opti­mized produc­tion tech­nolo­gies provide an effi­ciency boost for the motors and elec­tronics in partic­ular.