CASE STUDY
e. Luterbach AG moved 45 engineers from Excel to digital manufacturing process management
When e. Luterbach AG’s processes lived in Excel and shared folders, every new hire started at a disadvantage. The Swiss engineering company had 45 employees, deep technical expertise, and growing demand — but no consistent, accessible way to document how work actually gets done.
The result was predictable. Different employees found different versions of processes in scattered documents. New starters read one set of instructions and watched colleagues work differently. Knowledge stayed in people’s heads. Failures happened, and those failures cost money that didn’t need to be spent.
e. Luterbach AG chose Gluu because it was web-based, right-sized for a company of their scale, and offered a clear cost-benefit ratio. The implementation was deliberate: starting with core processes and expanding step by step, with specialists from across the business involved in defining each workflow.
The outcome was a manufacturing process management platform that stays current, is accessible to every employee, and gets used. New employees work independently in Gluu after one hour of introduction. Daily discussions now run on documented processes rather than individual assumptions — and that has reduced both misunderstandings and avoidable mistakes.
“In my daily work, I realized that the discussions now are based on real details and processes — not on unclear assumptions.”
Peter Walker
CFO, e. Luterbach AG
Onboarding
1
hr
New employees work independently in Gluu after one introduction session
Process quality
Fewer mistakes and higher process maturity across the engineering team.
Fabian Luccarini, CEO
Collaboration
Daily discussions now run on documented processes — not unclear assumptions.
Peter Walker, CFO
From scattered documents to a single source of truth
Before e. Luterbach AG implemented Gluu, manufacturing process management at the company came down to two things: Excel spreadsheets and institutional memory. Neither was reliable. The spreadsheets were outdated. Different people did the same task differently. For a company that designs and delivers complex plant engineering projects — coordinating PLC programming, automation, and mechanical systems — that inconsistency carried real cost.
“Before we started with Gluu, the processes were in the minds of people,” said Fabian Luccarini, CEO and co-owner of e. Luterbach AG. “People had to talk to each other, and not everyone did the processes the same way.” The consequences were concrete: extra costs from avoidable failures, and a difficult employee onboarding experience where new starters read one set of instructions and watched colleagues do something different.
Kristoff Schneider, a project manager at e. Luterbach AG since 2017, described the documents they relied on as “paper tigers” — process materials that existed but couldn’t be trusted. “The consequences were that failures happened, leading to extra costs that weren’t actually needed,” he said.
Hear directly from the e. Luterbach AG team on what changed when they brought process visibility into their daily work.
Why e. Luterbach AG chose Gluu
The team evaluated process tools through a specific lens: it had to be web-based, intuitive, and appropriately sized. “We didn’t want an oversized tool,” said Luccarini. “We wanted something intuitive — easy to use, and easy to get the first processes done and optimized along the way. The ratio of cost and benefits had to be right.” That ruled out complex enterprise platforms. Gluu’s out-of-the-box functionality and web-based interface matched what they needed.
Gluu also provided implementation support, which Luccarini describes as important: “That helped us a lot — to split this big task into parts and get it right.” The rollout was deliberate. The team defined what they wanted to achieve first, then involved specialists from across the business to map processes together. They started with core workflows and expanded from there. For anyone starting out, Luccarini’s advice is direct: “Start with 80% and get that moving quickly, rather than aiming to be perfect.”
Fabian Luccarini, CEO, explains the decision to move away from Excel and how the rollout unfolded step by step.
How e. Luterbach AG uses Gluu today
The primary function is straightforward: a central reference point for all processes and documents. Every employee, at every level, finds the current version of a process without asking a colleague or digging through a shared drive. That single change — moving from scattered files to one accessible platform — removed a significant source of daily friction.
Real-time notifications have become a regular part of how the team stays aligned. Kristoff Schneider uses Gluu to update processes and immediately notify colleagues. “With Gluu, we have reduced misunderstandings and created a working environment that enables people to do their work as efficiently as possible,” he said. For a production and engineering operation where projects move through multiple stages and handoffs, that clarity matters.
The team has also adopted Gluu Cases for project tracking — monitoring where each project stands within a defined process flow. “It makes life easier and gives a good overview of where we are in a certain project,” said Luccarini. Planned next steps include integrations with PowerBI and Microsoft Teams, and the competency module to centralize employee skills and certifications alongside process documentation.
Having a single platform where process documentation, project tracking, and team notifications connect is what shifted how e. Luterbach AG operates. If you want to see how that works in practice, Gluu’s free trial is a direct way to start.
Gluu free 30-day trial. No credit card required. Start from €24 / year.
Results: consistent work, fewer mistakes, and faster onboarding
The most visible result is in onboarding. “New employees, after one hour of introduction, are able to use Gluu properly and understand the systematic of the tool,” said Peter Walker, CFO and co-owner. That contrasts sharply with before, when a new starter could read the documentation and then watch colleagues work differently. Onboarding that previously required ongoing guidance now runs from a single, consistent reference.
The broader shift is in how daily work gets discussed. Walker observed: “In my daily work, I realized that the discussions now are based on real details and processes — not on unclear assumptions.” When processes are visible and agreed upon, decision quality improves. Instead of memory and habit, people work from a shared, current reference.
Luccarini describes the culture this created around continuous process improvement: “We definitely talk about the processes in a short circuit — meaning we improve them all the time.” Gluu’s version history means there is always a record of what changed and when. Higher process maturity, fewer mistakes, and better collaboration were the outcomes the team highlighted — and the foundation for the integrations they are building next.
Peter Walker, CFO, on what the company lost before Gluu — and what changed after.
Kristoff Schneider, whose role spans sales through commissioning and after-sales, shares what the shift means for project management specifically.
In brief
Processes at e. Luterbach AG lived in Excel spreadsheets and shared folders that were often out of date. Different employees worked differently, and new starters would read documentation that did not reflect actual practice. The inconsistency caused avoidable failures and extra costs, and made onboarding slow and unreliable.
The team wanted a web-based tool that was intuitive and right-sized — not an enterprise platform with complexity they did not need. Gluu’s out-of-the-box functionality matched their criteria, and the implementation support from Gluu helped them structure the rollout step by step, starting with core processes and expanding from there.
Gluu serves as the central reference point for all processes and documents across the company. Teams use it for real-time process updates and notifications. The company has also adopted Gluu Cases for project tracking, and is planning integrations with PowerBI and Microsoft Teams, plus the competency module for employee skills and certifications.
New employees can work independently in Gluu after a single one-hour introduction. CFO Peter Walker reports that daily discussions are now based on documented processes rather than unclear assumptions. CEO Fabian Luccarini highlights higher process maturity, fewer mistakes, and better collaboration, and describes Gluu as a continuous improvement journey rather than a one-time setup.
Gluu’s web-based, out-of-the-box approach suits mid-sized engineering and manufacturing companies that need clear process documentation without enterprise-level complexity. e. Luterbach AG found it particularly effective for aligning teams across disciplines — from PLC programming and automation to project management and after-sales — without requiring heavy IT resources to maintain.