Project partner: Kamax

Challenge: Develop a knowledge transfer platform for new and experienced production employees to bring together know-how from different departments.

The company Kamax gave a student team from the HPI D-School the challenge to improve communication and the transfer of expertise between generations of employees and to foster this transfer in the long term. By interviewing employees the Design Thinking team immersed into the company and its production processes, especially in the area of cold mass forming. The students met potential users and accompanied their daily work in order to reveal hidden needs.

Kamax is a highly specialized screw manufacturer and important supplier to the global automotive industry. Many employees are employed for very long periods of time in the company, often from training to retirement. Thanks to this strong attachment to the company, specialist employees are extremely experienced and qualified. This implicit knowledge is particularly important in cold mass forming, which is at the beginning of the value chain and serves as a basis for subsequent processes. This production area is very complex and differs from product to product, as well as from machine to machine.

The students proposed to make this existing amount of knowledge and experience regarding products and machines accessible via a web-based platform. They developed the prototype "KAMAX SHARE", which is supposed to enable a fast, barrier-free exchange between departments and generations at any time. In the development process, the necessary functions were coordinated in close cooperation with the employees at the machines, prototypes were developed and constantly optimised.

With “KAMAX SAHRE”, valuable experiences should no longer be lost within the company’s generational change. Knowledge could be searched for and shared, questions answered and help requested. The platform is intended to be an application for production staff by production staff that benefits the entire team. The newly founded digitization department at Kamax is currently working on the realization of the “KAMAX SHARE” in order to strengthen the innovation culture within the entire company and ensure long-term growth.