That’s a tough one—I didn’t know back then. I spent a lot of time tinkering with electronics and building model ships and airplanes. I wasn’t particularly successful at flying them, though, since they all crashed. During my studies, I focused on automation technology as part of my electrical engineering degree. At my employer at the time, I worked on several projects at Ford, which is how I ended up in the paint shop.
At the time, I was the head of the surface technology department, and I wanted to make a difference. Although I had several offers to move to large companies, I’m not a corporate type. Large corporations always involve a lot of hierarchy—I would have gotten lost in that. I’m also deeply rooted in this region, and since I had experience in development, the idea arose to do it on my own. Together with my former graduate student, I founded ASIS in 1998.
I rented a single-family home with a basement apartment and garage near Dingolfing. The office was in the basement, and the warehouse was in the garage. Soon after, our first employee, Nils Pelzer—now the head of our Oldenburg location—joined us. We were awarded a contract for a system to apply liquid film. At the time, the film protected the vehicle’s paint during the assembly process. It was the first project where we planned to supply not only software but also the control cabinets. Suddenly, a fax came in: The project had been canceled. From one day to the next, our small team was left without work. That was a bitter setback and caused us a lot of headaches. However, we secured additional contracts and set off for a project in South Africa. The early days were marked by frequent trips all over the world.
We were tasked with programming a very complex, pig-cleanable paint supply system for a major client. We’d done something like this before, but with a different type of control system. We were still a small company back then, and the term “training period” wasn’t part of our vocabulary yet. I instructed the employee at the time to familiarize himself with the new control system and explained the required functions to him. I planned to support him on-site at the customer’s location for the commissioning during the Easter holiday. When I arrived on Maundy Thursday, I realized that he hadn’t done any programming for the past three months. We were scheduled to start pre-production on the Tuesday after Easter. If we didn’t have anything ready by then, I might have had to file for bankruptcy that very same day. What followed were five days of nonstop programming. In the end, we were fortunately still able to turn things around.
No, we were bursting at the seams. By then, there were nine of us crammed into the basement office. One employee had a spot right next to the glass bathroom door. The situation was no longer tenable. So we started looking for a new location. Through my former college professor and mentor, Professor Wilhelm Schönberger, we came across the property in Landshut, right next to the university—which turned out to be an absolute stroke of luck. In 2002, we built a workshop and a design building, and our first application project—featuring paint supply, control technology, and robots—followed.
ASIS got its start in the basement of this residential building
We received a major contract for the application section of a new paint shop. At short notice, the client lost one of its two major customers. The financing for the entire project fell through, and we found ourselves out of work again from one day to the next. This created a new problem for the client, since the workpieces from the other customer could not be painted in their existing system. The system was equipped with robots on only one side and designed with that in mind. In the new system, the parts were supposed to be coated by robots on both sides.
We were tasked with solving the problem. We built a rudimentary replica of the paint booth out of drywall panels and experimented to see if we could solve the problem using the kinematics of a different robot manufacturer. Ultimately, we succeeded in the endeavor by working day and night shifts. Our client was able to deliver the parts on time, and I’ve been very close friends with him ever since.
At the same time, we were awarded a contract for an end-of-line measurement cell from a German OEM. This type of system measures color, texture, and coating thickness on painted vehicles and ensures quality. At that time, only a pilot system had been implemented. However, this contract required us to act as the general contractor (GC), a role we had not yet undertaken. We rose to the challenge. It was the beginning of a success story. To date, we have installed the most systems of this type worldwide.
ASIS was growing rapidly at that time, and we needed partnerships and financial security for further investments. We found a partner in the Sturm company from Salching, which made it possible to expand with a pre-assembly hall. In the meantime, I was able to buy back our shares, and we are once again an independent company. Branches were established in Oldenburg, Altdorf near Böblingen, and Lüneburg.
Our first turnkey project—a measurement cell—became a success story.
It all started with contacts in the home appliance industry. We built the first standard systems for the powder enameling of ovens, though these were limited to the application of the powder. In 2019, we received what was then the largest order in our company’s history from V-ZUG: to build a turnkey powder enameling system. We had never dealt with a project of this scale before. But we knew we could do it. So we took on the challenge of executing a turnkey project of this magnitude. What we didn’t know at the time was that this project would be the key to weathering the COVID-19 pandemic unscathed.
The number one factor for success is our employees. They’re the ones who do the work. It’s only with them that we’ve been able—and continue to be able—to successfully complete the technically demanding projects that few other companies dare to even offer. This ever-growing pool of knowledge and experience is our greatest asset.
We have always grown organically and intend to continue doing so. Our goal for the future is a high degree of automation and high system availability for our customers. We want to continue to be a reliable partner for managing turnkey projects, and in doing so, we don’t want to limit ourselves to surface technology alone, but rather address our customers’ broader automation needs.
25 Years of ASIS—a reason to celebrate at the traditional Maypole raising ceremony