The software industry has for the most part done well with the “Open Source” principle.

Open source means that software is publicly accessible.

It is in the source code.

Everyone is allowed to take and use this software and, above all, to develop it further.

The further development must, in turn, be made accessible to all others.

The machine-builders have now discovered exactly this principle for themselves.

Medium-sized mechanical engineering companies form the backbone of German industry. Economists and economic politicians agree on this. But the world of mechanical engineering has not been intact for a long time. Many companies in this segment are still secret world market leaders. They still earn good money with the machine tools, injection molding machines and turbines that have been delivered all over the world. But the international competition never sleeps. The mechanical engineering industry in China in particular grew significantly.

In order to continue to compete successfully against this competition, they rely on open source.

“More and more machine builders and component manufacturers are setting up their own open source projects,” reports Julian Feinauer from Pragmatic Industries GmbH.

He advises well-known companies in the industry on open source matters.

Lathes, milling machines or filling systems have one thing in common: They are controlled by software.

"That is why open source is a billion dollar business," says Feinauer.

Third party modules

However, until some time ago the classic mechanical engineering companies saw themselves more as consumers in this area. They are good at developing, selling, and maintaining specific machines for specific productions. This can be a machine that makes and prints cups, or a machine that processes metal with laser beams. They bought the software for the machine control in modules from third-party manufacturers.

But this control software had to be adapted more and more.

The more individual the construction of a special machine became, the more labor-intensive the software adaptation was.

This led to the project management for software development shifting to the machine builders.

The programming houses were no longer able to offer complete packages from a single source due to the complexity of the special machines.

This is why the mechanical engineering company ordered the package for computer-aided design from one manufacturer, the software for managing recipes from another, and the required interface software from a third.

Open source makes mechanical engineers independent

But the international competition sets the pace here too: The development cycles for the machines and thus also for the software are getting shorter and shorter.

At the same time, development costs must also be reduced.

That is why more and more companies are looking to see which software is offered as open source.

It can usually be taken over free of charge.

At the same time, the machine manufacturer is no longer dependent on a manufacturer who, for example, no longer wants to develop and maintain a certain software product and therefore discontinues it.