Dr. Thomas Holm, CTO of Salz Automation, wants to change the industry with more speed in automation. He is convinced that the automation landscape will have to adapt much faster to new challenges and changing conditions in the future.
Thomas, the SPS is just around the corner. What will you be showing at the trade fair?
We bring flexible, open automation systems to the market. Our strength is the speed with which we offer solutions that can quickly adapt to new framework conditions. With FLECS in the project business, we can offer our customers a solution where they are always state of the art and can always adapt to new tasks.
What are these new tasks?
Existing systems or automation devices have usually been developed for one task. But those days are over. Hardly any customer knows how the markets will change in the coming months or years. New suppliers, new customers, new value chains, new product ideas, new business models and customer relationships – this also demands flexibility from automation devices. Conventional systems are overwhelmed by this.
What does your automation system look like?
We build a PLC that has the data in focus. Who is the data source or data sink is no longer decisive. We want to get data onto the system easily and flexibly, and the control should be easily orchestrated by the user. FLECS makes our job easier. We can quickly load applications from the ecosystem onto the controllers and get started.
What do your customers say?
They’re incredulous at first and then say: this is almost too good to believe. Many users want to see it for themselves.
What convinced you about FLECS?
We can offer customers fast solutions, they can keep their systems up-to-date without having to completely rebuild the system landscape. We can bring new technologies and applications into the devices, and our customers can respond to new challenges on the market. This was hardly imaginable ten years ago, the integration effort was very high at that time. That’s why FLECS is the valuable player in our system.
