Henning-Gruppe uses ToolSense to make machine management faster and more transparent, replacing long Excel lists with direct defect reporting, reservations and a shared view of machine movement.
Henning-Gruppe is a German facility-services company with around 1,500 employees and roughly 1,000 customers. The company works across general building services, with a focus on cleaning, security services and garden maintenance. Karsten Winkler is the commercial manager and is responsible for administration and digitalization.
Before ToolSense
Machine management used to mean large Excel lists with many data points, but little confidence that the machines still existed in the same place or were still assigned correctly. In a cleaning business, machines often move at short notice: a new order starts tomorrow, a vacuum cleaner is loaded after hours, and the asset record falls behind the operational reality.
That ad-hoc way of working made it hard to track machine location, condition and responsibility with the available manpower.
Faster reports and clearer ownership
With ToolSense, defect reports go directly to the right person instead of passing through phone calls and misdirected emails. Technicians can act immediately, while managers keep visibility over where machines are and who has reserved them.
Karsten also points to the economic value of time. Site managers no longer need to drive to an object just to check which machines are there. Cleaning staff on site can report issues directly, and the organization sees the same information.
Defect reports go straight to the right address. The technician receives the message immediately and can act immediately. The transparency and speed in communication convinced us right away.
Karsten Winkler · Commercial Manager, Henning-Gruppe
Getting adoption right
Henning-Gruppe started with a small group of project managers who were open to digital equipment management. Within a week, others wanted to join because they could see the practical benefit: no more stacks of inventory slips, handwritten notes or manual searching through the company.
For Karsten, the answer to whether he would go back to Excel is clear: no.