Whether video conferencing, online banking or electronic tax returns, digitalisation is radically changing the way we live and work. The extraordinary possibilities offered by new technologies are covered in LfA Magazine. Editorial director Stefan Ruzas and photographer Conny Mirbach profiled the company Main-Automation.

For Thomas Strys and Uwe Hörst, the owners and managing directors of Main-Automation, a company founded in 2009, one thing is certain: without the progress of digitisation, it would not be possible to serve major customers such as VW, Procter & Gamble or Thyssenkrupp with just 30 employees.

In the halls of Main-Automation, industrial robots from manufacturers such as Kuka or ABB are prepared for their use.

A small excerpt from the company profile:

It took a while until the production halls at Nordring 12 in the industrial park of the Lower Franconian municipality of Großostheim really had a future. In the past, parts for the Transrapid magnetic train were produced within these walls. The last large photo studio of the Quelle mail order company was also here, back when the decorative backdrops for the catalogue pages were still being pushed around by powerful cranes. But that was all long ago. Today, the offices are pleasantly air-conditioned, and industrial robots from manufacturers such as Kuka or ABB are prepped for use in the production plants of VW, Procter & Gamble, Thyssenkrupp, or Borbet, a major manufacturer of light alloy wheels.

  • Male hand points to computer screen with technical illustrations
  • Man stands between industrial robots and explains their function
  • Control panel with several green and red buttons and yellow labels
  • Machine part for an industrial robot lies on a Euro pallet
  • Two industrial robots with several cables are in the production hall of Main-Automatik
  • Thomas Strys and Uwe Hörst, the founders of Main-Automation, standing in industrial hall
  • Orange-coloured industrial robot in production hall of Main-Automation

"We're not taking people's jobs."

Thomas Strys

Since 2010, this has been the headquarters of Main-Automation, a 30-person firm that brings together robotics and industry. Right from the start, it has had big-name companies as customers. The owners and managing directors of this company, which was only founded in 2009, are Thomas Strys and Uwe Hörst. Both 53 years old, they have been involved in the automation of production plants since the 1990s, and still have a lot of fun with robot technology. And both complement each other: one handles the technical and software aspects, the other the sales and commercial aspects.

  • General view of a warehouse of the robotics company Main-Automation from the inside

Read the complete profile of Main-Automation in the Autumn/Winter 2018 issue of LfA Magazine. The German version of the main contents of the issue are also available online at lfa.de/magazin.


Cover des Lfa-Magazin Herbst/Winter 2018
Presenting the full story LfA Magazin 02/18

Since 2016, Storyboard has produced the customer magazine of LfA Förderbank Bayern. Published twice a year, the magazine carries LfA news and funding opportunities. A variety of narrative perspectives as well as large-format infographics and service elements bring to life complex content on the topic of business development.