Reifenhäuser will use K 2025 to showcase Reifenhäuser Next, a new brand and portfolio of industrial AI tools aimed at tackling the skills shortage on production floors and improving overall equipment effectiveness in plastics processing. The company points to persistent staffing constraints, citing figures that 86 percent of companies in Germany and 74 percent globally are affected by a lack of skilled workers, with production companies ranking fifth by industry. The approach combines state-of-the-art AI with decades of extrusion know-how and live plant data to support availability, performance and quality. At the core is an AI chatbot intended to help even less experienced operators handle complex tasks quickly, thereby reducing downtime, service effort and waste. Jan Karnath, Chief Digital Officer of the Reifenhäuser Group, said: "Google, OpenAI, and others are already impressively demonstrating what AI solutions can achieve in the consumer sector. However, AI is only as intelligent as the data it has been trained with." He added that the company has embedded its engineering, service and process expertise into a market-unique solution. The Next portfolio is organized into three product streams that interlock, covering intelligent assistance, structured learning and data-driven decision support.
Next.AI intelligent assistance systems
Next.AI centers on an AI chatbot that provides real-time support to machine operators and service teams during ongoing operations. The assistant draws on Reifenhäuser’s engineering, service, maintenance and process technology knowledge and, if desired, on the user’s documentation and live production data. Via simple text prompts, operators receive immediately actionable recommendations, for example when quality issues occur, enabling optimal results with less experience. According to Karnath, "Our assistance systems act as constant companions for the production teams. They not only provide quick solutions to problems, but will also deliver proactive alerts and optimization suggestions in the future."
The NEXT.AI chatbot supports machine operators during ongoing operations and provides immediately actionable recommendations through simple text inputs (prompts).
Next.Learning, knowledge as a performance lever
Next.Learning combines on-site training with a digital learning platform to build and retain expertise over time despite staff turnover. Content is tailored to customer needs and made continuously available to new employees. Using AI avatars, customers can access virtual training in over 100 languages, and content can be adapted quickly on request to meet specific requirements. Karnath explained: "By using natural language processing, we are democratizing specialist knowledge for our global customer base in a whole new dimension. Initial pilot projects have generated extremely positive feedback and highlight the added value of our solution, especially for international customers whose production employees speak different local languages and, for example, do not have sufficient English skills."
By using so-called AI avatars, Next.Learning offers virtual training courses in over 100 languages.
Next.Data for actionable insights
The Next.Data stream enables producers to unlock value from production data via robust integrations such as OPC UA or GraphQL, with aggregation and visualization in clear dashboards using the ExtrusionOS application suite. Purpose-built for plastics extrusion and the packaging industry, ExtrusionOS supports real-time analyses and automated OEE calculations to inform data-driven decisions.
Integration path and expected impact
Reifenhäuser combines Next.AI, Learning and Data according to customer requirements and integration depth to build a tailored industrial AI journey. Karnath summarized: "With Reifenhäuser Next Product Streams, we provide our customers with a customized industrial AI journey. Depending on their requirements, we combine our Next.AI, Learning, and Data solutions, select the appropriate level of integration, and thus create the basis for operational excellence in line operation." Recent studies indicate that industrial AI can raise OEE by up to 15 percent, enabled in part by reducing downtime and waste by up to 20 percent.* Additional savings are expected in maintenance through optimized service and spare parts planning. Reifenhäuser Next focuses on integrating AI into production environments in a targeted manner to capture this potential and drive sustainable improvements.
*Source: MPG study on the shortage of skilled workers in 2025.
