Press release: Top managers Britta Giesen and Jürgen Brandes join shyftplan
Berlin, August 27, 2025 – Significant and overlooked efficiency potential lies dormant on German shop floors – blocked by manual shift scheduling, paper-based administration, and a lack of transparency about qualifications. The Berlin-based software company shyftplan has set itself the goal of fully realizing this productivity potential and is now gaining prominent reinforcement for its advisory board: former Pfeiffer Vacuum CEO Dr. Britta Giesen and long-time Siemens executive Dr. Jürgen Brandes, most recently CEO of Schaltbau Holding.
Dr. Britta Giesen
Jürgen Brandes
Both are regarded as proven experts in the manufacturing industry and are intended to support shyftplan in expanding its market position.
"shyftplan stands for operational excellence and a fast, tangible ROI. Industrial clients sometimes increase their machine utilization by 30% and can more than halve their resource expenditure for shift scheduling. The realization of these efficiency potentials then significantly increases the competitiveness of the production sites," says Britta Giesen.
Jürgen Brandes adds: "shyftplan enables employees on the line to truly participate in the planning processes. This form of lived participation significantly increases employee satisfaction. This shows: Those who empower their people on the shop floor with practical technology gain an advantage and secure Germany as a business location."
The digital transformation on the shop floor puts people at the center
The shyftplan platform combines automated shift scheduling ("shyftplanner") with a dynamic skills matrix ("shyftskills"). Both can be perfectly integrated with SAP and other human resources management and ERP systems, fitting seamlessly into the existing setups of leading industrial companies. This allows for the real-time reconciliation of skills, availabilities, and regulatory requirements. shyftplan reduces planning effort and costs, increases productivity, and is already in use at industrial companies such as Siemens Energy, Südzucker, Krones, and Elmos Semiconductor.
"Our new advisory board members underscore the importance of our topic. To master the strategic challenges of the industry, the human-centric smart factory is a central component that has been massively underestimated in the German economy so far," says CEO Dr. Farhood Torabian.
About shyftplan
The Berlin-based company shyftplan offers a leading digital workforce management solution for internationally operating companies in the manufacturing industry. The platform includes the shift scheduling tool shyftplanner as well as the skills matrix shyftskills. This combination of automated workforce deployment, digitized skills management, and real-time analysis enables efficient and scalable control of complex production processes.
In dynamic and regulated environments, shyftplan reduces planning effort through targeted automation, lowers costs thanks to optimized resource utilization, and increases productivity. At the same time, the platform promotes employee satisfaction through transparent and fair deployment planning. Compliance with legal and safety standards minimizes downtime risks and ensures the smooth operation of critical infrastructures.
As a certified SAP partner, shyftplan offers a standard SAP interface and can be seamlessly integrated with tools such as APO, HCM, or SuccessFactors. This also applies to other common solutions like Personio and Veda. The software is GDPR-compliant and meets all key information security requirements such as ISO 27001 and SOC 2.
Since its founding in 2013, shyftplan has grown to over 60 experts. More than 500 companies from the DAX and medium-sized businesses, including Siemens Energy, ZF, and Südzucker, use shyftplan to digitize their workforce management and make processes more efficient.
Press Contact
Oliver Engelbrecht