Process optimisation in Göttingen: measurements, records and orders in one flow
Around Göttingen you find many small, technically demanding firms: measurement and laboratory technology, instrument building in small runs, testing and calibration services, research-adjacent service providers. The technical work is sound — the administration around it has grown along with it: records in binders, hours on slips of paper, reports assembled by hand. We capture the workflow where it actually happens, connect the systems you already have and put an end to duplicate entry.
Göttingen is not a place of large factory halls but one where knowledge is sold. The university city in southern Lower Saxony shapes an environment of small firms with considerable technical depth: measurement and control technology, laboratory and analytical equipment, instrument building in small runs, testing, calibration and maintenance services, software development for specialist applications, technical services in the life science field. These businesses rarely have a volume problem. They have a problem of evidence and handover: every service must be documented, every instrument recorded, every deviation traceable. That part of the work has grown over the years without ever being organised — and it now consumes the hours that were meant for the technical work itself.
Where a record is created and where it will be found
| Record | Created | Future home |
|---|---|---|
| Test protocol | at the test bench | job and device |
| Measurement file | in the device memory | one valid version |
| Service sheet | at the customer | device and date |
| Time record | at the workplace | job and cost centre |
| Calibration certificate | at the service provider | device with due-date alert |
Why process work here looks different from a series production plant
In a plant that builds the same assembly every day, a workflow can be smoothed out because it repeats a thousand times over. In the measurement, laboratory and testing businesses around Göttingen, almost every job differs a little: a different instrument, a different standard, a different client, a different required form of evidence. Off-the-shelf software only covers half of that. The other half the firms have built themselves — with a spreadsheet, a small self-made database, a folder structure refined over years and a handful of automations that a colleague set up at some point. That is not sloppiness; it was the most sensible answer available at the time.
The trouble starts later. Those bespoke solutions are rarely described, usually tied to a single person and almost never connected to the other systems. When that person goes on holiday, the workflow slows down; when they leave the company, it stops. Then there is size: many firms in and around Göttingen work with a modest headcount and no IT department of their own. The owner writes the quotes, checks the invoices and knows every live job personally. In that setting there is little room for a sweeping digitalisation programme — which is why it makes sense to start with one clearly bounded workflow rather than with everything at once.
Typical starting situations in businesses in the region
The following starting situations come up again and again in research- and measurement-related businesses. They have one thing in common: the actual value of the work is created at the instrument, in the laboratory or at the client's site — and is afterwards turned by hand into a form that can be passed on.
Records live in binders
Test, measurement and maintenance records are filled in, signed, scanned and filed — in a folder structure only someone who helped build it can navigate. Anyone looking for a piece of evidence later searches the archive rather than the job it belongs to.
Measurement data travels by hand
The instrument produces a file that is opened, trimmed, renamed and pasted into a report. Versions multiply: one in the instrument memory, one on the drive, one in the finished report. Which of them counts in case of doubt is known only to the person who created them.
Hours without a job reference
Working time is noted down but not cleanly assigned to a job, an instrument or a cost centre. At the end of the month it is reconstructed rather than billed — and on jobs that require evidence, that reconstruction becomes a working day of its own.
Instrument and client records twice over
Master data about an instrument sits in the maintenance list, in the quotation, in the accounting system and in a separate overview. When a site or a contact changes, three places need updating — and two of them usually do not get it.
Costing in a spreadsheet
Quotations are produced in a spreadsheet that has grown over the years, with stored rates and formulas. It works as long as one particular person maintains it. Quotation versions, variations and call-offs all hang on the same file and can barely be analysed.
Knowledge in one head
How an exception is handled, which evidence a particular client expects, which intermediate step must never be skipped: such knowledge is rarely written down. It only becomes visible when the person concerned is out of the office.
Where the time is actually lost
When we take notes inside a business, the same picture emerges almost every time: the technical work is efficient, the handovers are not. Time does not disappear in large blocks but in many small intermediate steps, each too insignificant on its own to be worth changing. Added up, they amount to the afternoon that is missing every week. The following points regularly appear on the list when we review technical service providers.
- The same job or instrument number is retyped several times during one case, because the programmes involved know nothing about each other
- A finished report is assembled from several sources: measurement file, template, master data, text blocks lifted from an earlier report
- The status of a job can only be established by asking around, because it lives in people's heads and mailboxes rather than in a system
- Recurring dates such as calibrations and services are monitored from a list that somebody keeps updating manually
- Invoices to larger clients come back because a purchase order or cost centre reference is missing that was never captured with the job
- Management reports are put together by hand at month end and are already out of date on the day they arrive
- Documents for an audit or inspection have to be hunted down instead of being available from the job itself
We do not throw away home-grown solutions
How a project in Göttingen runs
We work in four steps, and we work through them in that order. At the beginning there is always the process analysis — not because it is easy to sell, but because without it every effort estimate would be guesswork. Only then do we prioritise, implement and operate. Which building blocks come into question is shown on the services overview; the full pricing logic is on the pricing overview.
Analysis: see the workflow as it is
We come to you in Göttingen and accompany the workplaces concerned: order intake, the test bench, the person who writes the report, the billing desk. We write down every step, every handover, every programme, every list. Where it helps, we ask to be shown the same case twice, because the second time the exceptions come up. Nothing is judged while we are capturing.
Prioritisation: agree the order of work
The review produces a written report: a view of the workflow, findings with an estimated annual effort, measures with an estimated price and a recommended order. We go through the report with you. You decide what is tackled first — and whether anything is tackled at all. The report belongs to you and remains usable even if you award the implementation elsewhere.
Implementation: one step at a time
Implementation happens in bounded packages at a fixed price: an automation for a recurring manual step, an interface between two systems, an orderly data integration or document digitisation. Testing uses real cases from your business, not sample data. Acceptance includes a short set of instructions for the people involved.
Operation: making it hold in daily use
After acceptance we take over ongoing monitoring on request: is the transfer running, is the data arriving, does the system report a run that failed to happen. When something changes in your programmes, we adjust. What that covers is set out under operations and maintenance; onboarding the people involved is described under training and rollout.
We come to you in Göttingen and accompany the workplaces concerned: order intake, the test bench, the person who writes the report, the billing desk. We write down every step, every handover, every programme, every list. Where it helps, we ask to be shown the same case twice, because the second time the exceptions come up. Nothing is judged while we are capturing.
The review produces a written report: a view of the workflow, findings with an estimated annual effort, measures with an estimated price and a recommended order. We go through the report with you. You decide what is tackled first — and whether anything is tackled at all. The report belongs to you and remains usable even if you award the implementation elsewhere.
Implementation happens in bounded packages at a fixed price: an automation for a recurring manual step, an interface between two systems, an orderly data integration or document digitisation. Testing uses real cases from your business, not sample data. Acceptance includes a short set of instructions for the people involved.
After acceptance we take over ongoing monitoring on request: is the transfer running, is the data arriving, does the system report a run that failed to happen. When something changes in your programmes, we adjust. What that covers is set out under operations and maintenance; onboarding the people involved is described under training and rollout.
Entry point · net plus VAT
- Captured where the work happens: test bench, office, billing desk
- Findings with an estimated annual effort instead of gut feeling
- A list of measures with estimated prices as a basis for your decision
- No travel surcharge for appointments in and around Göttingen
For one clearly defined workflow at a single site in Göttingen, the analysis is 1,900 € net. That includes the initial call, the on-site review, the evaluation, the written report and the joint review session. Larger reviews spanning several areas are agreed in writing beforehand. Implementation starts at 4,900 € net per automation or interface as a fixed price after the analysis, ongoing support at 190 € net per month. All prices net plus VAT; we charge no travel surcharge for appointments in the region. Details are on the pricing overview.
Prices as of September 2026. Ongoing services are booked individually and can be cancelled monthly; there is no minimum term.
What proximity between Söhlde and Göttingen actually gives you
Between our base in Söhlde and Göttingen lie around 80 kilometres (project experience), almost entirely along the A7 motorway. That is not a distance you drive for a half-hour question — which is why we bundle appointments. A capture day in Göttingen covers several workplaces one after another, a closing session and, where it fits, the agreement on the next step. Everything after that runs largely remotely; for acceptance, rollout and the review of new workflows we come back. That mixture is more honest than promising to be at your door within ten minutes at any time, and it costs you less.
Captured on site, not on screen
A testing or laboratory workflow cannot be understood over a video link. We stand next to it, see the instrument display, the form, the note stuck to the monitor and the small moves nobody thinks worth mentioning. That is exactly where the findings sit that never come up in a meeting.
Appointments bundled, not drip-fed
We plan appointments in Göttingen so that one day covers several topics. That protects your time as much as ours and keeps costs down, because you pay no travel surcharge. Anything in between we handle by phone and remote access.
A contact person, not a ticket system
You speak to the person who captured your workflow and built your interface — not to a queue. Someone who knows your system landscape does not have to read up on it when a fault occurs. That is the practical difference a small provider can offer.
Remote operation, clearly governed
Monitoring, fault resolution and adjustments run via remote access, logged and with your approval. You do not need anyone on site for day-to-day operation, and we do not need to drive up and down the A7 for it.
On-site appointments in Göttingen and the wider region
We reach Göttingen from Söhlde via the A7 motorway. Appointments are bundled into full days; ongoing support takes place remotely. In the other regions we follow exactly the same approach.
Three starting situations as they occur here
From analysis conversations with technical service providers
Illustrative scenarios from typical project sequences (project experience), anonymised and without details of individual businesses.
From the measured value to the filed record
The path from measurement to a record that must still be findable years later is the most expensive workflow in many businesses — and the least described. We capture it as a whole rather than looking at individual tools: where does the raw value come from, who may change it, how does it become a document, where is it filed, how does somebody who was not there find it again. That chain shows which step is worth automating and which is better left as manual work, because a professional judgement is made there. The groundwork for this is set out under metrics and reporting and process documentation.
- One place of record per detail, everything else refers to it
- Documents held with the job instead of in a parallel folder tree
- Traceable who produced which version and when
- Professional judgements stay with the professionals
| Occasion | On site in Göttingen | Remotely |
|---|---|---|
| Capturing a workflow | Yes, this is the core of the analysis | Only in addition, for follow-up questions |
| Reviewing the report | On request, usually bundled with other appointments | Possible, and saves you half a day |
| Development and testing | Not required | Yes, using test data from your business |
| Acceptance and instruction | Yes, with the people who will use it | Sufficient for small changes |
| Day-to-day operation and faults | Only where hardware is involved | Yes, logged and with your approval |
In technical businesses the specialist work is rarely the problem. What becomes expensive is the journey a result makes before it reaches the person waiting for it.
Which building blocks suit your business follows from the review. Often it is process automation for recurring manual steps, interfaces between instrument evaluation, inventory management and the accounting system, or data integration where the same detail is maintained in several places. If paper is in the way, the topic is document digitisation; if the overview is missing, metrics and reporting. Which requirements arise from your sector is set out on the industries overview; the other locations are listed under regions.
A workflow in Göttingen that costs you too much time?
Describe in a few sentences which process causes the most manual work in your business. In the initial call we tell you frankly whether a process analysis is worthwhile — and if it is not, we say that too.