From Bottleneck to Breakthrough: How Automated Engineering Frees Up Engineering Talent

Engineers are being asked to do the impossible: design more complex machines, deliver them faster, support growing product customization, and improve quality, all while reducing costs. And they must do so while experienced engineers, panel builders, and technicians become increasingly difficult to find.

For many machine builders, the skilled labor shortage is has become a daily operational challenge. Senior engineers are stretched thin. Institutional knowledge walks out the door through retirements. New hires need months, sometimes years, to reach full productivity.

The companies thriving in this environment are taking a different approach: they're finding ways to multiply the impact of the expertise they already have. That's where automated engineering is changing the game.

The Real Problem Is Scalability

Most automation engineers don't spend their days solving groundbreaking technical challenges. Instead, much of their time is consumed by repetitive activities:

• Recreating similar schematics for machine variants
• Updating documentation across multiple projects
• Preparing manufacturing data
• Answering production questions
• Correcting avoidable errors introduced through manual processes

Every one of these tasks depends heavily on engineering expertise, and when expertise is in short supply, those tasks become bottlenecks.

The question isn't whether your engineers can design great machines, but whether they can keep doing it at scale as demand increases and experienced talent becomes harder to replace.

Eplan's automated engineering technologies are designed specifically to address this challenge by capturing engineering know-how, standardizing it, and transforming it into repeatable digital workflows. The result is a manufacturing environment where knowledge lives in the process, not exclusively in the heads of a few critical employees.

From Expert Knowledge to Repeatable Processes

At its core, automated engineering converts proven engineering practices into standardized digital rules. Instead of manually recreating work that has already been solved dozens or hundreds of times, engineers can leverage configurable templates, design rules, macros, and digital models to generate much of the required project information automatically.

This creates three major advantages for machine builders:

• Reduced Dependence on Individual Experts: Engineering knowledge becomes embedded within standardized processes rather than relying solely on key personnel.
• Greater Engineering Throughput: Teams can complete more projects without proportionally increasing headcount.
• Improved Build Consistency: Accurate, standardized data helps reduce errors, rework, and costly surprises during production and commissioning.

Let's look at three ways this translates into real-world results.

1. Automating Schematic Generation for Variant-Rich Machines

Customization in machine building is both a competitive advantage and a significant engineering burden. Even when machine designs share common architectures, engineers often spend considerable time creating and modifying project documentation for each new customer order.

Using technologies such as Eplan Engineering Configuration (EEC), Eplan Project Generation, and established automated engineering methods like Cogineer, much of this work can be generated automatically from predefined rules, macros, and configuration data. Instead of starting every project from scratch, engineers work from validated building blocks that can be assembled automatically into customer-specific solutions.

The impact is particularly significant for companies with:

• Modular machine platforms
• Standardized assemblies
• High product variation
• Frequent customer-specific modifications

In some OEM implementations, automated engineering has been used to generate up to 80% of recurring schematic content automatically.

Why Automation Engineers Care

When routine documentation is generated automatically, experienced engineers are no longer buried under repetitive project work. They can focus on solving unique engineering challenges, developing new machine capabilities, and supporting innovation rather than recreating proven designs.

The outcome is faster project execution, shorter lead times, and more machines engineered with the same team.

2. Turning the Digital Twin into Production Reality

One of the biggest sources of inefficiency in machine building occurs at the handoff between engineering and manufacturing. Design teams create documentation and production teams interpret it, but interpretation unfortunately introduces risk.

With Eplan Pro Panel, machine builders can create a detailed 3D digital twin of the control cabinet that includes:

• Component placement
• Cable routing paths
• Wire lengths
• Manufacturing-relevant production data

Instead of requiring manual translation, this information can flow directly into downstream manufacturing processes including automated wire preparation and guided cabinet assembly.

The digital twin becomes a bridge between engineering intent and manufacturing execution.

What Happens When Production Works from Accurate Digital Data?

3D Cabinet Design

• Components and layout data are generated directly from engineering models
• Improved production readiness and fewer shop floor misunderstandings

Automated Wire Processing

• Wire length and routing information drives cutting, stripping, labeling, and crimping
• Faster assembly and more predictable quality

Consistent Manufacturing Data

• Engineering information remains synchronized throughout production
• Reduced rework and fewer manual handoffs

The results can be dramatic.

One panel builder reported labor savings of approximately 40% through the use of Eplan-driven automated manufacturing processes. Another expanded production from roughly 100 panels annually to approximately 700 while cutting wiring time in half.

Why Automation Engineers Care

Control cabinets often sit on the critical path of machine delivery schedules. When panel production accelerates and quality improves, the benefits ripple throughout the entire machine-building process, reducing delays, improving commissioning outcomes, and increasing overall throughput.

3. Helping Less-Experienced Workers Perform Like Veterans

Perhaps the most significant benefit of automated engineering in today's labor market is its ability to support workforce development. Experienced panel builders and technicians are increasingly difficult to find, and even when new employees are hired, reaching full productivity takes time. Automated engineering creates a foundation for digital worker guidance through solutions such as Eplan Smart Production and Smart WorkStation AI.

Using engineering data generated upstream, production personnel can receive:

• Visual work instructions
• Step-by-step assembly guidance
• Wiring assistance
• Progress tracking and documentation

Using Eplan, workers are guided through tasks using standardized digital workflows instead of relying on memory or years of tribal knowledge.

The Productivity Impact

Testing of Smart WorkStation AI demonstrated:

• 8% faster performance among skilled workers
• 38% faster performance among unskilled workers

Those numbers highlight an important reality for manufacturers facing labor shortages: technology isn't replacing expertise, but rather extending expertise.

Why Machine Builders Care

Experienced employees become force multipliers rather than bottlenecks, spending less time answering routine questions and more time solving high-value problems. This creates faster onboarding, reduced dependence on specialized knowledge, and more predictable workforce performance that directly contributes to improved delivery reliability and increased production capacity.

The Larger Opportunity for Automation Engineers

Many discussions about automation focus exclusively on speed, but for automation engineers, the true value is scalability. Automated engineering creates a framework where engineering intent can be captured once and reused repeatedly across projects, departments, and production facilities.

The benefits extend across the entire machine-building lifecycle:

• Engineering: Repetitive design activities become standardized and automated
• Manufacturing Preparation: Consistent digital data creates a seamless transition from design to production
• Production: Guided workflows help less-experienced workers achieve higher levels of productivity and quality

This creates a machine-building operation that depends less on individual heroics and more on repeatable, scalable processes.

Building More with the Team You Already Have

The skilled labor shortage isn't likely to disappear anytime soon. For machine builders, just waiting for the labor market to improve is not a growth strategy. The more sustainable approach is to capture expert knowledge, digitize it, and make it available throughout the organization.

Eplan's automated engineering capabilities help machine builders do exactly that by reducing manual effort, improving data consistency, accelerating production, and enabling less-experienced workers to contribute more effectively.

The future isn't about replacing experts, but about making every expert's knowledge work harder.

And in a world where skilled talent is increasingly scarce, that may be the most valuable form of automation available.

Take the Next Step

The skilled labor gap isn't going away, but engineering bottlenecks don't have to be part of your future. See how Eplan's automated engineering solutions help machine builders capture expertise, accelerate delivery, and scale operations with the workforce they have today.