The start of the professional career as a global service engineer for process troubleshooting was a fast track to gather domain knowledge in industrial manufacturing. Most of the following roles concentrated in using the knowledge in a data driven approach for process optimization. Starting point were model predictive controls close to the automation system – optimizing cost efficiency in production by AI quality predictors including the closed loop control. The path of digitization was consequently followed towards cloud based solution packages including advanced AI applications. Development is driven from capturing the customer need, thru pilots until the delivery of a finished product to the operative Voith units.