{"id":263757,"date":"2026-08-03T17:12:57","date_gmt":"2026-08-03T15:12:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/essmann.com\/30-years-of-ewp-the-weighing-program-from-the-field-of-scale-manufacturing\/"},"modified":"2026-11-12T09:55:53","modified_gmt":"2026-11-12T08:55:53","slug":"30-years-of-ewp-the-weighing-program-from-the-field-of-scale-manufacturing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/essmann.com\/en\/30-years-of-ewp-the-weighing-program-from-the-field-of-scale-manufacturing\/","title":{"rendered":"30 Years of EWP: The Weighing Software Developed from Real-World Scale-Building Experience Is Retiring"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

IIn August 1996, software was installed for the first time at the Borsigstra\u00dfe waste-to-energy plant in Hamburg\u2014software that, at the time, no one would have predicted would have a thirty-year future: EWP, the weighing software from ESSMANN. It has been used in more than 1,000 customer projects since then. Many of these installations continue to weigh and record data day after day to this very day. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n

When I took over a 160-year-old company in 2021 together with Dr.-Ing. Fabian Ehmke and Dr.-Ing. Gregor Gra\u00dfl, the EWP<\/strong> software\u2014which was already 25 years old at the time\u2014was part of the deal. At the time, I never would have thought that we\u2019d be able to continue using it successfully for our customers for another five years. However, I quickly learned otherwise: EWP<\/strong> was one of the most flexible weighing applications<\/strong> on the market, built on such a solid foundation<\/strong> that it couldn\u2019t simply be replaced on a whim. <\/p>\n\n

The first reason for this is our close connection to the scale. We develop both the software<\/strong> and the weighing technology<\/strong> in-house<\/strong>. Everything\u2014from the load cell to the finished weigh ticket\u2014is perfectly coordinated. The second reason is compliance with calibration regulations as a fundamental design principle: interim receipts are printed automatically, corrections are made exclusively through traceable reversals, and nothing is deleted. Anyone who has ever had to deal with a dispute over a \u201cmissing\u201d weighing result knows how important this is. <\/p>\n\n

The third reason is perhaps the most important: EWP<\/strong> never intended to be more than what each business needed. Those who just wanted to weigh their goods got EWPsmart<\/strong> and could get started right away without any prior knowledge. Those who needed invoicing, freight cost calculation, quota management, or card payments chose EWP<\/strong> and added exactly the features they actually used. No one likes to pay for features they never use. <\/p>\n\n

\"A
EWP developer Sharam G\u00f6del providing on-site support at a customer\u2019s location. He developed the foundation of today\u2019s EWP, which was installed at MVB in Hamburg in August 1996 as the first version of EWP. Starting in 2007, he worked for other employers, including an online news magazine and a game developer. In 2017, he returned to ESSMANN with new knowledge. <\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

Meanwhile, the software continued to be developed throughout this time. The old waste code catalog became the European Waste Catalog, which in turn became the Waste Catalog Regulation\u2014both were incorporated into the program. Even the Point-of-Sale Security Regulation, with its requirement for digital signatures, found its way into a software system that had evolved over nearly thirty years and was constantly being revised. Over the years, well over a thousand documented changes were made. This is a software system that has been quietly but continuously maintained and further developed. <\/p>\n\n

<\/div>\n\n
\n