Nordex Group partnered with Expert Extend to develop an AI-powered Canvas Power App for automated frame tracking. This solution reduced manual labour by 95% by utilizing multilingual license plate recognition in Spanish, German, and English.
Nordex SE, one of the largest manufacturers of wind turbines and a leader in renewable energy infrastructure, faced a major operational challenge. Manually tracking thousands of transport frames across production facilities, installation sites, and warehouses led to delays, data inconsistencies, and a lack of visibility into asset location. Nordex Group partnered with Expert Extend to develop a custom Canvas Power App solution that captures QR codes and automates license plate recognition using AI Builder. This allows for one-touch frame tracking with real-time data synchronization across Nordex's global operations. The outcome includes a 95% reduction in manual data entry errors, support in Spanish, German, and English markets, and instant asset visibility from scan to database. This solution brings measurable improvements in operational efficiency and workforce productivity for one of the wind energy sector's most demanding logistics networks.
Expert Extend brought something most technology partners don’t, they came in already speaking the language of wind energy operations. They understood what a production schedule slip costs, what a failed compliance audit means, and why field workers need a solution that works with a single tap, not a manual data entry form.
Jottie (Johannes) Steenkamp
Director of Operational Excellence - Global PM/EPC, Nordex SE
More than 20 projects executed in the Wind Energy Sector in the last 3 years.
Strong combination of wind energy business understanding, technology capability as well as quality-focused delivery
Functional Exposure to topics such as windfarm monitoring, inspections, projects, and finance Logistics, Service Provider monitoring, Spare Parts management, Wind turbine logistics, etc.
High Customer Satisfaction - Follow-up engagements and recommendations constitute more than 90% of the projects
Nordex Group's global manufacturing footprint spans multiple continents. The company operates production facilities in Germany, Spain, Mexico, and India; maintains installation sites across Europe and North America; and manages warehouse networks that serve customers worldwide. Within this sprawling infrastructure, thousands of transport frames move daily—carrying wind turbine components, sub-assemblies, and finished modules between facilities, storage locations, and customer installation sites.
Yet Nordex's system for tracking this flow was fundamentally manual. Warehouse staff and field teams recorded frame locations by hand, captured handwritten license plate information, and entered data into spreadsheets or manual logs. This created three compounding operational vulnerabilities.
Different manufacturers imprint different license plate formats on transport frames. Without standardized capture protocols, critical frame information, such as serial numbers, origin facility, destination, and component specifications, was recorded inconsistently. Transcription errors compounded across locations. A frame documented at Nordex's German facility would be logged differently upon arrival in Spain. Within weeks, Nordex lost reliable visibility into asset custody and movement history.
Frame checks that should take seconds required field teams to manually document information, take photographs, and later input data into back-office systems. This created a 24-48 hour lag between physical movement and data reflection. Management lacked real-time visibility into which frames were in transit, which were in storage, and which were ready for shipment. Production schedules slipped. Customer commitments were missed.
As a global manufacturer serving regulated markets, Nordex needed documented proof of frame location at specific times, complete with images of license plates for customs, regulatory, and insurance purposes. Manual processes left no clear audit trail. Documentation was incomplete, scattered across multiple systems in different languages, and vulnerable to loss or misplacement. Regulatory audits became time-consuming exercises in manual record reconstruction.
Nordex recognized this gap was a strategic liability. As the company expanded operations in Spanish-speaking markets and accelerated production to meet rising global wind energy demand, manual tracking would become unmanageable. The company needed a solution that could scale instantly across languages, regions, and facility networks without requiring separate systems or manual workarounds.
Expert Extend developed a custom Canvas Power App to address Nordex's frame tracking challenges: data inaccuracy, operational delays, and compliance gaps. The solution combines Canvas App Scanner and AI Builder for dual-pathway frame identification; scanning pre-printed QR codes and automatically processing different manufacturer license plate formats. Power Automate orchestrates workflows by automatically saving captured images to SharePoint for an immutable, timestamped audit trail. MSSQL serves as the central data source, storing all user information, frame details, and timestamps with real-time synchronization across facilities. This integrated architecture eliminates manual transcription errors, creates regulatory compliance documentation, and provides instantaneous visibility into frame location and movement across Nordex's global production network.
The Canvas Power App delivers operational benefits across four dimensions: "press of a button" simplicity enables field workers to scan, recognize, capture, and save frame data instantly, eliminating manual, time-intensive processes; an interactive interface with smooth screen flow drives higher user satisfaction and enables instant access to real-time frame location and movement data; native multi-lingual support for Spanish, German, and English eliminates language barriers across global production facilities and installation teams while enabling easy addition of future languages; and embedded user security implementation protects frame tracking data and meets regulatory compliance requirements across jurisdictions. Together, these benefits represent a fundamental shift in how Nordex manages transport frame logistics; reducing daily operational friction, driving workforce engagement, ensuring global operational consistency, and maintaining enterprise security standards.
The solution operates across five integrated layers, each serving a distinct function in Nordex's frame-tracking workflow:
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