Knauf PFT, a machinery manufacturer within the larger Knauf group, partnered with ToolSense to replace a phone-and-paper service model with a single digital platform that connects machine users, dealers, and the manufacturer along one coherent service chain.
PFT builds capital equipment for the construction industry and runs machines on jobsites worldwide. As a product manager, Benedikt Schneider is responsible for shaping how those machines are serviced and supported. The relationship with ToolSense began through Knauf's innovation scouts in Munich, who watch startups and digital trends, and grew over roughly two to three years from first tests into a live deployment.
The starting point
Before ToolSense, the service reality was simple and analog: phone calls, and maybe paper at the dealer. Schneider could hardly name a dealer working with a digital solution of the kind ToolSense offers. The result was process breaks, manual steps, and no clean record of what happened to a machine in the field. Safety inspections (the recurring UVV checks German equipment requires) were handled on paper, with nothing the end user could reliably carry and show on demand.
Why ToolSense
What convinced Schneider was both the concept and the team behind it, and above all a platform that digitizes the entire service process end to end. Instead of WhatsApp messages, paper, and Excel lists running crisscross between everyone involved, ToolSense creates one coherent digital chain from the machine and its operator, through the dealer, up to the manufacturer. Access is deliberately frictionless: every machine carries a QR code, so even a first-time user can scan, register, and report a problem or get help in a single tap.
The whole concept won me over, and the team behind it. They make everything possible, are always open to ideas, and throw themselves in 2000 percent. We now have a clean digital process and, for us, a data source we can feed back into machine development.
Benedikt Schneider · Head of Product Management, Knauf PFT
Operational impact
The platform removes the manual breaks that used to define field service for PFT and replaces them with one clean digital workflow. UVV safety inspections are now handled digitally with no paperwork, and end users can present valid proof at any time. Just as important, every service event becomes structured asset data that PFT can later channel back into product development to see where real-world problems occur.
Schneider frames the goals clearly: stronger dealer loyalty by giving partners a tool that ties them to PFT's service, and customer loyalty among end users through a fleet management platform with fast response times. A self-service layer lets users work through structured questions before calling a hotline, deflecting many issues upstream. And a documented service and repair history raises the resale value of used machines, much like a serviced car with a full logbook.
What's next
Schneider sees machine builders evolving from pure hardware vendors toward platforms, with digital services around the product and a gradual shift toward pay-per-use models. He views construction as still lagging other industries on digitalization, which makes adopting tools like ToolSense all the more valuable. He notes COVID had limited impact on construction; the real pressure came from supply-chain constraints, which PFT addressed early by reinforcing its purchasing team.
