Navigating change safely with knowledge

The actual enquiry was from a German sealing tech­nology man­u­fac­turer for a light cur­tain to safe­guard its rubber vul­can­ising press. An expert from Pilz took a look at the appli­ca­tion on site and rec­om­mended a system in which the presses can be oper­ated semi-auto­mat­i­cally in com­pli­ance with the stan­dards. Now the machine oper­ator is con­verting all the presses on the line, thereby increasing the safety and com­pet­i­tive­ness of its presses. The improved cycle time also saves costs. This example illus­trates Pilz’s approach: cus­tomers ben­efit not “only” from safety prod­ucts but from the knowl­edge and expe­ri­ence of Pilz, guiding them to a tailor-made solu­tion.

Knowledge supports change

For decades, Pilz’s experts have been acquiring know-how in var­ious aspects of machinery safety – from stan­dards and direc­tives to appli­ca­tion knowl­edge and tech­nical imple­men­ta­tion of safety mea­sures. With this exper­tise Pilz can relieve the burden on its cus­tomers, so they can con­cen­trate on their core busi­ness. And par­tic­u­larly in times of trans­for­ma­tion, it is impor­tant that someone main­tains an overview. Sus­tain­ability and digi­ti­sa­tion present chal­lenges to many com­pa­nies. Euro­pean leg­is­la­tion is bringing some inno­va­tions – from the Machinery Reg­u­la­tion to NIS 2 and the Cyber Resilience Act.

Always up to date with standards and directives

Stan­dards and laws are in con­stant flux. The Pilz team plays an active role in around 45 stan­dards com­mit­tees at inter­na­tional level, helping to shape approx­i­mately 70 product and appli­ca­tion stan­dards. Stan­dards are impor­tant because they set uni­form product bench­marks and pro­vide a basis for com­par­ison for com­plete solu­tions – this pro­vides the market trans­parency that sup­pliers and users need. Through this involve­ment in inter­na­tional work on stan­dards, Pilz ensures that its prod­ucts, sys­tems and ser­vices con­form to the applic­able stan­dards, right from the start.

In areas where there are still no stan­dards, Pilz acts as an ambas­sador for safety. It is about cre­ating aware­ness, to work with users, asso­ci­a­tions, author­i­ties and research cen­tres to develop a safety cul­ture and then build on this to develop new safety stan­dards.

Worldwide network, broad-based knowledge

Pilz is also active in areas where stan­dards already exist. This was the project for a US global player: to assess and opti­mise the safety of its fleet of machinery, con­sisting of sev­eral hun­dred machines in more than 20 fac­to­ries on 4 con­ti­nents. The Pilz national sub­sidiary in the USA mas­tered this task in con­junc­tion with the Global Ser­vice Group by actively building knowl­edge through training and qual­i­fi­ca­tions: Pilz trained almost 300 of the com­pa­ny’s safety offi­cers in machinery safety and the legal require­ments of the respec­tive country. Around 100 of these employees are now cer­ti­fied machinery safety experts. Together they ensured that over 64,000 of the US com­pa­ny’s machines could be assessed in accor­dance with inter­na­tional safety stan­dards.

Pilz is able to pro­vide and apply local knowl­edge on a transna­tional basis and to operate across bor­ders with a con­sis­tent level of pro­fes­sion­alism and quality. This is pri­marily because local knowl­edge of the market and stan­dards in 42 national sub­sidiaries, now sup­ple­mented by over 150 trade part­ners, can be made avail­able to every cus­tomer throughout the world. Around 400 experts in the fields of con­sulting, engi­neering and training work in Pilz’s world­wide net­work. They have the cross-industry, inter­na­tional know-how required to sup­port projects like the one from the US com­pany with the nec­es­sary exper­tise.

Certified safety experts

Pilz pro­vides an inter­na­tional training and qual­i­fi­ca­tion pro­gramme for com­pa­nies wishing to build up or update their knowl­edge. Luis Armando is the senior engi­neer for automa­tion tech­nology at Jabil in Guadala­jara (Mexico), a global sup­plier of pro­duc­tion solu­tions. He has an impor­tant goal in sight: to cer­tify the oper­a­tion of “his” machinery in accor­dance with the reg­u­la­tions and there­fore guar­antee safety. The engi­neer became the 10,000th grad­uate to earn a qual­i­fi­ca­tion from Pilz as CMSE – Cer­ti­fied Machinery Safety Expert. Now there are many Jabil employees world­wide who have joined him, gaining the CMSE qual­i­fi­ca­tion, approved and awarded by TÜV NORD.

Back in 2013 Pilz intro­duced the CMSE qual­i­fi­ca­tion in four coun­tries – as the world’s first inter­na­tional pro­fes­sional devel­op­ment pro­gramme for cer­ti­fied machinery safety experts. Today, Pilz offers the CMSE qual­i­fi­ca­tion in over 60 coun­tries, in 15 lan­guages.

And it’s not just the CMSE qual­i­fi­ca­tion: Pilz’s com­pre­hen­sive training pro­gramme already has quite a rep­u­ta­tion. The new training course “Intro­duc­tion to the Machinery Reg­u­la­tion” offers exactly what you cur­rently need in order to be ready for the Machinery Reg­u­la­tion: knowl­edge of the legal changes, health and safety require­ments and, finally, what you need to do now. In a variety of training courses avail­able world­wide and locally, Pilz experts help you to over­come the chal­lenges of the future.

Knowledge shared is knowledge multiplied

Whether you’re a machine oper­ator, global player or safety spe­cialist – Pilz shares its knowl­edge with anyone who wants to make the world safer. Pilz has offered a com­pre­hen­sive training pro­gramme since the 70s. The trainers are engi­neers or tech­ni­cians with many years of expe­ri­ence in safe automa­tion tech­nology. Pilz always keeps its knowl­edge up to date, in line with the latest legal and nor­ma­tive require­ments. As an ambas­sador for safety, Pilz is con­vinced that knowl­edge pro­tects.