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Frequently Asked Questions

Product & Platform

What exactly is PlantPilot?

PlantPilot is the AI-powered document, maintenance & plant-management platform. It turns your existing plant documentation into a navigable digital twin and builds four workflows on top of it: 1-click spare-part procurement, maintenance & turnaround orchestration, AI-based energy optimization and CSRD-ready ESG reporting — all in one system.

What is the story behind PlantPilot?

PlantPilot was born from real deployments: a plant-service platform built with Linde (PLANTSERV®) and proven with operators like Wacker, BASF and Westfalen. mantro, the company builder behind it, turned that experience into a product every operator and EPC can use.

Does PlantPilot work for old plants without 3D models?

Yes — that is the core use case. Scanned P&IDs and documents are classified by AI, components get tagged, and the plant receives a navigable digital file. 3D models are supported but optional. Most of our reference plants are brownfield sites with decades of paper documentation.

Which industries does PlantPilot support?

Everything that runs on P&IDs and rotating equipment: oil & gas, petrochemical, hydrogen, paper, general industrial manufacturing, life science, infrastructure, renewables and mining. The platform adapts terminology, document types and compliance requirements per industry — see our industry pages for details.

Is PlantPilot a replacement for our CMMS or ERP (SAP PM, Maximo)?

No — it is the layer your CMMS is missing. A CMMS manages work orders; PlantPilot adds document intelligence, the digital twin, the spare-part marketplace and energy AI on top, and connects to your existing CMMS/ERP via APIs. Purchase orders can flow straight back into your ERP.

Does the AI control my plant?

No. PlantPilot is advisory: it reads operating data (read-only), recommends setpoints toward proven optimal states, and your operators decide. Every recommendation is audit-logged. There is no write access to your DCS or SCADA at any time.

Onboarding & Integration

How long does onboarding take?

A proof of concept on one reference plant takes about 3 months: workshops, document upload, asset tagging and vendor onboarding. Fleet rollouts follow plant by plant — each subsequent plant is faster because document classes and vendor relations are reused.

What documents do we need to provide?

Whatever exists: scanned P&IDs, vendor manuals, datasheets, spare-part lists in Excel, old maintenance records. There is no minimum quality — the AI classification is built for heterogeneous, historically grown documentation. Gaps become visible systematically instead of during the next outage.

Does PlantPilot integrate with our ERP, CMMS and historian?

Yes. REST APIs and standard connectors cover the common landscape: SAP (PM/MM), CMMS systems, and read-only ingestion from historians and SCADA via OPC UA. Energy AI works on the historian data you already collect — no IIoT retrofit required to start.

Do we need new sensors to use PlantPilot?

No. Documentation, spare parts and turnaround features work entirely without sensor data. Energy AI and predictive maintenance use the historian and condition-monitoring data most plants already record. Additional metering can be added later where the business case demands it.

Spare Parts & Turnarounds

How does the 1-click spare-part process work?

Click a component in the drawing, see its parts and stock, request quotes from matched vendors — frame contracts are applied automatically — compare, and order. Obsolete parts go to the original EPC as a digital re-engineering request. Typical savings: around 30% on spare-part spend.

What happens if a part is obsolete or the vendor no longer exists?

PlantPilot sends a structured re-engineering request — including drawing excerpts and specifications — to the original EPC or qualified manufacturers. Obsolescence management also works proactively: critical single-source parts are flagged before they become a problem.

How do vendors and manufacturers join the marketplace?

Through partner onboarding: qualification, product categories and delivery regions are stored once, then vendors receive matching RFQs automatically. Quoting is free for vendors; a transaction fee applies only on successful orders. See our partner page for details.

How does PlantPilot support a turnaround (TAR)?

With a live readiness score per work package: parts ordered and delivered, documentation complete, permits ready, crews mobilized. Weak spots are visible months ahead — instead of being discovered in the shutdown window at seven-figure daily cost.

Energy & ESG

How does the AI energy optimization work — and are 5–20% savings realistic?

Pattern recognition over your own historian data identifies the operating states in which the plant ran best, and recommends how to reproduce them. Because recommendations are grounded in states your plant has actually achieved, they are credible and adoptable. 5–20% is the range across our reference plants; the exact figure depends on process type and energy intensity.

Can PlantPilot produce CSRD-ready reports?

Yes. Scope 1/2 reports per energy carrier are generated from live consumption data, every figure traceable to a meter and timestamp — the audit trail is built in. Product carbon footprints per unit or batch follow from the same data foundation.

Security, Data & Pricing

Is my data safe?

EU data residency, strict tenant isolation, read-only OT ingestion and a full audit trail — with an ISO 27001 / IEC 62443 certification roadmap. OT networks are never exposed: data flows one-way from historian to platform.

Who owns the data — and what do vendors see?

You do. Plant documentation and operating data remain the operator’s property. Vendors only see the RFQ-relevant excerpt of a request — never your full documentation, stock levels or consumption data.

What does PlantPilot cost?

Per-plant annual licenses (Base / Pro / Enterprise) plus a 2% transaction fee on marketplace orders. Onboarding starts with a paid proof of concept — typically amortized within the first turnaround.

How fast does PlantPilot pay back?

The three levers compound: −30% on spare-part spend, up to −70% organization time in maintenance planning, and 5–20% energy savings. Most operators reach payback within the first year — at the latest with the first turnaround prepared on the platform.