We met with Thomas Mücke, Senior Business Solution Consultant at TDM Systems, between two meetings. With a wealth of experience of 25 years in tool data management, his advice is coveted and his calendar is full. He has just come from a conversation with a Belgian prospect. "The potential customer recently approached us at the AMB. He was contemplating the important decision about a new CAD/CAM system with a possible connection to TDM." However, before important steps for the production process can be taken, the machine manufacturer wanted to get acquainted with the Tübingen Tool Lifecycle Management in as practical a manner as possible.
Thanks to Mr. Mücke, he was able to get the help he needed. "Using our screen-sharing-platform, I demonstrated the system integration to him live. We put together a demo tool assembly in TDM as a 3D-model, transferred it to the CAD/CAM-software and performed a tool path calculation and a material removal simulation. The demonstration was well received and I am confident that this potential customer will soon become an actual one."
An excerpt from a typical day for Thomas Mücke then? "You could say that." He starts at seven in the morning and the day lasts often until seven in the evening. The early hours are for Asia and the later ones for the US, the time in between is for Europe. There is little time left for his hobbies, tennis and biking. Nevertheless, Mücke loves his work. This is also because he can organize his day himself. "I am with a customer two to three days a week, usually only for a few hours, like this morning with a machine tool operator near Balingen who was interested in embedding CNC machines in the existing network infrastructure and connecting to TDM. However, such an advisory process on site sometimes lasts multiple days." Direct contact is especially important to Mücke, personally and professionally.ber auch mehrere Tage.“ Der direkte Kontakt ist Mücke besonders wichtig, persönlich wie beruflich.
In the mid '80s he began his career at Bosch in Stuttgart. "I learned to be a mechanic from scratch," he says proudly. He then studied production technology at FH Ulm and had initial encounters with the topic of "tool management", which was still young at the time. He was already fascinated by the interface between technical and operational systems during his studies. The interest remained: Is the construction suitable for production? Where are there cost drivers? How can information from the machine be looped back to management? These are the challenges he is working on. "You can only unleash the potential if you take a holistic view of the processes," he is convinced. He has steadily expanded his knowledge with every employer. CAM connection, the integration of MES-systems, interfaces to SAP, linking CAM with the CAD-system and always exchanging with the departments: This is Thomas Mücke's world.
Then, in the middle of the crisis in 2009, he was lured to Tübingen by TDM Systems – a decision he does not regret. He is able to apply his comprehensive know how about systems, applications and processes in various ways: in engineering, in customer consultation in after sales. He not only advises customers, but he is also a sought-after internal consultant for colleagues from marketing, sales and development.
He himself appreciates the openness of the TDM software concept, which currently "factually" and digitally takes into account the path of the tool in the overall production process under the heading "Tool Lifecycle Management". Digital factory, then? Industry 4.0?
"Industry 4.0 is old hat," he says grinning and watches whether the person opposite reacts to the provocation. Mücke experienced the beginnings of Computer-Integrated Manufacturing, or CIM for short. "The vision of that time is on the table again today. But the technology is more advanced." The integration of technology and business management can be successful today. "The need of customers for consultation increases more and more even before the sale. From planning to the shopfloor level, the integration and requirements are becoming more and more complex. Digitization and automation of the entire production process is currently the defining theme. TDM plays a central role in this context as a software solution provider. Here, we can display our competence as consultants fully," Thomas Mücke briefly summarizes the future prospects of Tool Lifecycle Management and kindly says good bye to us because the next appointment and the next interesting project is already calling.
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