Since more than 35 years, Frauscher Sensor Technology keeps train traffic safe all around the globe by building highly reliable wheel sensors, axle counters and object controllers. Production is split between Austria and an assembly line in India, which means every test fixture, measurement, and limit must be right the first time in order to ensure consistent quality for signalling systems under all kinds of external influences.
We spoke to Gerhard Schwimmer, Test Engineer, and Kiran Griffiths, the Global Production Guide for Frauscher, to see just how much of a difference WATS makes to their work.
Challenges with hybrid in-house solution
For years, Frauscher relied on a hybrid tool that had been half-built in-house and half-commissioned from an external partner. It worked – until it didn’t. New bugs would surface every few months, and the cause was hard to trace.
A lot of time was spent each month copying KPIs into fresh Excel files. Hunting down the root cause of a drifting measurement meant digging through raw SQL dumps, often for thirty minutes or more, only to discover the data had already rolled off the system.
”I’d used WATS at my previous company and knew it could handle the scale and complexity we were heading toward here at Frauscher, serving railway markets all around the globe whilst constantly expanding our portfolio.
Gerhard SchwimmerTest Engineer, Frauscher
Immediate pay-off after implementation
Gerhard had seen a better way. “I’d used WATS at my previous company and knew it could handle the scale and complexity we were heading toward here at Frauscher, serving railway markets all around the globe whilst constantly expanding our portfolio,” he explains. In 2023, Frauscher installed WATS on a single line. The payoff was immediate, and the platform now underpins nearly every test station on both continents.
Raw Data turns into Real-Time Insights
Dashboards and process heatmaps replaced the manual KPI roll-ups overnight. What used to be a multi-hour copy-paste ritual now happens automatically – with managers opening WATS and seeing the numbers waiting for them. When a measurement starts to drift, engineers drill down with a couple of clicks and pinpoint the trend in minutes, not half an hour.
”WATS makes it easy to get the truth out of your production data – good or bad, it’s the truth.
Gerhard SchwimmerTest Engineer, Frauscher
Frauscher Boosts FPY from 80% to 95 %
When Kiran Griffiths moved from Gerhard’s team into Production Planning, he suddenly needed to monitor two lines – one in Austria, one in India – and make meaningful comparisons. Before WATS, that was almost impossible. “We wanted to improve the performance of our Indian line, but we had no efficient way to do so” he says.
Using WATS First-Pass Yield graphs, Kiran showed the Indian team exactly where they stood. The data sparked healthy competition, tighter supplier follow-ups, and rapid process tweaks. First-Pass Yield rose quickly within a few months, and by early 2025, it was hovering around 95% – from 80%.
”WATS is full of insights into how production runs. It turned conversations from opinion to facts.
Kiran GriffithsGlobal Production Guide, Frauscher
Improvement driven by data
Frauscher is already exploring the WATS Execution Time function to visualize operator learning curves, revealing how cycle time drops as new technicians gain experience, and highlighting where fixture updates can shave seconds from every unit. That’s exciting for us at WATS to hear because it’s taking the impact of WATS and extrapolating it to training and direct efficiencies in production.
For Frauscher, the journey from raw data to real-time insight began with replacing a home-grown system, difficult to develop and maintain. Today, WATS is on the way to being the single source of testing truth that keeps rail-safety products on track – and keeps two plants, thousands of kilometers apart, marching to the same beat.
