About us
Software developers who come from machine building
THDS is a small software team from Dorsten, on the northern edge of the Ruhr area in Germany. We build custom software for machine builders and manufacturers, and we know these companies from the inside.
Torben Schwanz
Managing director
Torben Schwanz: 13 years of design engineering, technical sales, ERP development
Why should a software company of all things understand your business?
Because its founder sat on your side of the table for 13 years.
At a mid-sized machine builder: first in design engineering, then in technical sales, and finally in ERP development. Anyone who has worked in all three knows what a bill of materials change shortly before assembly starts sets off. They know what was promised in the quotation and has to be delivered on the shop floor. And they know an ERP not just from the user interface but from the inside, with everything it can do and everything it cannot.
That time shaped the conviction we work by today: most companies do not need a new ERP. What they are missing are a few targeted additions in the places where Excel, word of mouth and legwork fill the gaps today.
How we work
Three statements you can check
We tell you when something is not worth it.
Sometimes your ERP can already do what you need, it is just that nobody uses it. Then that is the cheapest solution. You can take our assessment to your ERP vendor yourself, or we join the conversation.
We agree upfront on what we will be measured against.
As a user story: one sentence from the point of view of the person who works with it. At the end, it can be checked.
Example“As a fitter, I want to see which assemblies are complete so that I can finish building an assembly in one go.”
If the goal is not reached, we keep improving.
Just as you do with your machines. An acceptance test is an acceptance test.
Small. And what that means for you
No sales team making promises. No project management that understands it differently.
We are a small team. The person who listens in the first call also develops your software later. And when you call, the person on the line knows your company.
You are a small team. Can you handle this?
We are a small team and only take on as many projects as we can look after properly. Support for what is already running at our customers is firmly built into our planning. It does not happen on the side. For you, that means one fixed contact who knows your company, and developers who are at the table from the start.
If you want to roll out a new ERP across several plants, we are not the right people, and we will tell you so. For targeted solutions in your order processing, a small, well-practised team is exactly right.
What happens if someone at THDS drops out, or THDS no longer exists?
A fair question, and we would rather answer it with measures than with reassurance. We use widespread technology that any good developer can pick up, and we document what we build.
How you get hold of source code and documentation is settled in the contract before we start. Our principle: you should stay with us because the collaboration works, not because you cannot leave.
Location
Based in Dorsten, on the road across North Rhine-Westphalia
From Dorsten we can quickly reach the Ruhr area, the Münsterland and the Lower Rhine. That matters to us, because good software for manufacturing is not created at a desk but on your shop floor. We come to you as often as the project needs.
Get to know us.
A 30-minute call is enough to tell whether we speak the same language.
Not quite there yet? Two-minute bottleneck check. No sign-up, no email address.