A customer service portal for packaging machines, one machine at a time

The person standing at a stopped machine has three questions, in this order: can I clear this myself, safely? Where is the manual for exactly this machine? And if I cannot fix it, how do I tell the manufacturer so that someone can act on it?

• Released troubleshooting in the operator’s own language, limited to what an operator may do.
• Documents for the machine type and for this individual machine: operating manual, parts lists, drawings.
• Spare-part links the manufacturer has released for the machine.
• Maintenance status and history, where the manufacturer chooses to show it.
• A fault report as the quiet second option on every screen.

None of this should need an app, an account or a VPN into the plant. A QR code that encodes a plain web address opens on any phone camera.

What a service history per packaging machine should record over the years — service visits, parts, fault reports — has its own guide.

• The machine, without typing: organisation, customer, plant, line, machine type, serial number and build year, attached automatically because the report starts from that machine’s plate.
• What happened: the closest matching problem or a free description.
• Evidence: photos or a short video of the HMI and the fault.
• A way back: a phone number or an email address — a report without either is not accepted.
• Delivery into the existing workflow: an email to the service inbox or a signed webhook into the ticket system you already use.

Fictional example from the demo workspace: Packline Systems is an invented machine builder, Nordfeld Foods an invented customer.

1. At Nordfeld Foods, line 4 in Bremen, a PackPro FX400 stops. The operator scans the plate with the phone camera; the record of serial number FX400-02841 opens. No app, no login.
2. The page leads with troubleshooting topics released for operators, in the language of the phone.
3. The operator follows the closest topic. Asked whether it cleared the fault, they answer no.
4. A technician-level topic is listed with its title, but the procedure is locked: this one needs a trained technician, so the page hands over to the service team.
5. The operator sends a fault report: picks the closest match, adds a photo of the HMI and a phone number. Machine, site and serial number travel with it.
6. The report reaches Packline’s service inbox and ticket system. Its status moves from New to Sent to Closed; closing it, the service team logs it as service work in the machine’s history with one click.

The next person who scans that plate sees the documented service entry — if the manufacturer has made it visible.

• No machine control. Servotag Pro reads no PLC, writes no setpoint and opens no path into the production network.
• No invented repair procedures. Starter help topics are operator-level only and have to be adopted and released by the manufacturer; everything beyond that is the manufacturer’s own content.
• No ticketing suite. Reports go to the workflow you already have; there is no dispatch, scheduling or work order in Servotag Pro.

• Import a delivery spreadsheet (CSV with automatic column mapping, English or German headers) or paste a list of serial numbers for one machine type.
• Write content once per machine type: every machine of that type inherits manuals, troubleshooting, spare-part links and maintenance plans.
• Print the QR plates from the workspace, with high error correction so a smudged plate still scans.
• Give each customer one operator portal link that lists their whole installed base by plant.