Custom or off-the-shelf CMMS for a plastics plant in Berlin in 2026

The verdict in three sentences

In a 120-employee plastics plant, one hour of injection moulding press downtime costs 1,500 to 8,000 EUR depending on the mould, cycle rate and customer penalties. A SaaS CMMS at 40 to 100 EUR per technician per month covers standard corrective and preventive maintenance well; a custom CMMS at 35,000 to 90,000 EUR excluding VAT (2026 order of magnitude) is justified when you need meter-based preventive maintenance on cycle counts, links between moulds and presses, and machine data feeds. The right trade-off is based on downtime hours avoided, not on licence price.

What a CMMS must cover in plastics processing

A plant on the outskirts of Berlin or in Brandenburg runs presses from 50 to 1,000 tonnes, multi-cavity moulds, pick-and-place robots and peripherals (dryers, temperature controllers, granulators). Failures often come from moulds, which generic CMMS tools handle poorly.

Statutory inspections under the German Industrial Safety Regulation (BetrSichV) and DGUV rules must be traceable: the CMMS becomes your evidence during an audit or inspection.

SaaS or custom: five-year comparison

Assumptions: 8 technicians and 4 read-only users, SaaS CMMS at 70 EUR per technician per month, custom CMMS at 60,000 EUR with 8,000 EUR a year of maintenance and hosting.

The gap of about 56,000 EUR over five years equals 7 to 37 hours of downtime depending on the hourly cost used. If the custom CMMS avoids more downtime than that over the period, it pays for itself.

In the Kolonell grid, a medium-complexity CMMS sits between 4,000,000 and 7,000,000 FCFA (6,100 to 10,670 EUR), and a complex version connected to machines between 7,000,000 and 15,000,000+ FCFA (10,670 to 22,870+ EUR), with maintenance at 35,000 to 120,000 FCFA a month (50 to 180 EUR).

Mini case study

Markus, maintenance manager of a plastics plant near Berlin (illustrative persona), looks after 28 presses. The plant suffers 160 hours of unplanned downtime a year, at an average cost of 3,000 EUR an hour, 480,000 EUR in total.

• Target with cycle-count preventive maintenance and mould alerts: 20 % less downtime, 32 hours avoided.
• Estimated gain: 32 × 3,000 = 96,000 EUR a year.
• Cost of the custom project: 60,000 EUR plus 8,000 EUR a year. Payback in under 9 months, and the gain would remain positive with only a 10 % reduction.

FAQ

Is a SaaS CMMS enough for 28 presses?

Yes if your preventive plan is calendar-based and technicians enter counters by hand. Once you want automatic triggers based on mould cycle counts, custom development or an expensive connector becomes necessary.

How do we collect cycle counters from presses?

Recent presses expose data over OPC UA or through the MES; older ones need a counting box at 300 to 800 EUR per machine. The CMMS reads these figures every 5 to 15 minutes.

Are QR codes really useful?

A technician who scans the press gets history, instructions and parts in 5 seconds. Across 1,000 jobs a year, the saving commonly reaches 100 to 150 hours.

How long does a custom CMMS take?

Allow 3 to 5 months: 4 to 6 weeks of scoping and asset inventory, then development in increments and a pilot on one press cell. Migration of Excel history runs in parallel.

Can we start with SaaS and move to custom later?

Yes, provided you require full data export (assets, work orders, stock) in an open format from day one. This reversibility clause avoids re-keying everything 2 or 3 years later.

Let's scope your project. Share your machine fleet, downtime hours and current tools: we will propose a scope, an indicative budget and a 3 to 5 month timeline. Detailed quote within 48 h. WhatsApp +221 77 596 93 33. Or via our free quote form.