“We save a great deal of time because there is no more appointment scheduling.”
Krones was facing a group-wide replacement of 20,000 ID cards. Instead of speeding up the photo appointment, corporate security moved photo capture to the beginning of onboarding — the image is in the system before anyone sees the factory gate.
Starting point: one appointment, one photo office, one manual transfer
For years, the ID card process at Krones ran through its own photo and ID card office. “Before, we had a photo and ID card office where you had to come in person. Every new employee had to make an appointment. A photo was taken there and then manually entered into our system,” says Ari Schuster.
This causes three costs that are rarely considered together: coordinating every single appointment, including following up on cancellations; the requirement to be present at the location of the photo office — anyone starting elsewhere waits for their ID card; and the break in the digital workflow caused by manual transfer into the ID card system.
With a few new hires per week, this is manageable. With a group-wide ID card replacement, it no longer is. In a manufacturing group of this size, the employee ID card is not an administrative document but a security instrument: it controls access to plants, assembly halls, and development areas. Accordingly, responsibility lies with corporate security.
The catalyst: a swap project involving 20,000 ID cards
“We had a company-wide ID card replacement project with 20,000 ID cards ahead of us.” ID card replacement projects are deadline projects: all existing ID cards lose their validity on a defined date, and all new ones must be produced and distributed by then.
The bottleneck is almost never the card printer or the access control system. It lies in obtaining the photos, because it is the only step that requires the participation of every single person.
Krones didn't find Photo Collect through a tender, but through its peer group: “Another company had also faced this with 50,000 ID cards, and they recommended Photo Collect.”
The solution: Send the photo before the first day of work
Instead of speeding up the existing process, Krones turned it around. Photo capture moves to the beginning of onboarding, away from the factory gate and toward the person. “We use Photo Collect for our employee ID cards to take the photos for the onboarding process. That way, we already have the photo before the first working day and can already create the ID card.”
The new employee receives a personalized link and takes a photo of themselves with their own smartphone, without an app and without login. The image analysis then checks sharpness, lighting, head pose, and background, automatically crops to the required format, and hands over the finished image to the target system. The models behind it are developed in-house, do not work generatively, and do not alter the face.
For new hires without an email address and for latecomers on site, the photo kiosk remains available as a second channel.
The result
"We save a lot of time because we don't have to schedule appointments. Anyone can take the photo conveniently from home or wherever they are, and it's automatically uploaded to our system."
This eliminates exactly the three cost blocks from the starting point: scheduling an appointment for every new hire gives way to the personalized link, capture is no longer tied to the photo office, and manual transfer is no longer necessary. The ID card is available not just from day 1, but before it.
The replacement project was the trigger, onboarding is the benefit: at Krones, the digital channel remains the standard route for every new hire after the project's completion.
A German corporation, Swiss processing
Because Krones is subject to European data protection law, the processing location is part of the decision. All photos are processed exclusively in Switzerland in an ISO 27001-certified data center, on a dedicated instance for each customer.
For transfers from the EU to Switzerland, the adequacy decision under Art. 45 GDPR is sufficient; additional standard contractual clauses are not required. No separate employee consent is needed to use the photo on the ID card itself.
How the process works
Independent of the customer: workflow, check criteria, and integration for this use case.
More customer stories
Other projects, the same capture process — with project figures and named contacts.
“In the end, the end customer no longer has anything to do with the process; they simply approve the images.”Read more
Adrian RachSenior Key Account
“If you can implement all of this on the fly, it's a huge advantage: It saves money and time and is extremely efficient.”Read more
Alexander BiedererID-ware Group
“Photo Collect is an integral part of our ID card process and the associated photo procurement. We received high-quality photos in a short period of time.”
M. PapenfussBMW Group