Dr. Jure Knez is co-founder and CTO of Dewesoft, supplier of data-acquisition devices. Headquartered in Trbovlje, Slovenia, Dewesoft was founded in 2000 and employs more than 250 people worldwide.
What are three key things that a machine builder, system integrator, or manufacturer should know about your organization?
Dr. Jure Knez, co-founder and CTO, Dewesoft: Dewesoft is a very customer-focused company. When we start product development we look closely at the existing products on the market and ask, “how can we do it better?” We also seek input from our current and prospective customers. This never ends, even after development and delivery. We visit just about every one of our customers: space launch sites, vehicle OEMs, industrial and process controls builders, energy generation facilities, and the list goes on. We listen to our customers’ concerns and work very hard to improve our products. We look at our own products and ask, “how can we do it better?” Dewesoft products are driven by customer feedback, needs and requests. Based on this input we are able to come up with smart and better technology that makes life easier for everyone.
We are specialists in marking high-quality data acquisition for aerospace, automotive and industrial applications. Our data acquisition systems have real-time capabilities that merge the traditionally separate worlds of data acquisition and control. Software is the driving force behind our hardware and can even replace unnecessary hardware in some cases.
Dewesoft products utilize standard industrial protocols and data formats for easy integration into existing infrastructures. Dewesoft is completely self-financed, AAA-rated and owned by its employees. We plan for the long run and want to make sure our customers know we are going to be here for them even 100 years from today (Figure 1).
What new technologies are driving product development and why?
Dr. Jure Knez, co-founder and CTO, Dewesoft: We are trying to introduce products that are innovative while still compatible with industry-standard protocols and data formats. Standard protocols such as EtherCAT, OPC UA, XCP provide system interoperability and easy integration into existing infrastructures. Customers can choose the best component while still ensuring easy integration with the rest of the system.
The power of embedded processors allows parallel operation for serving real-time data to controller software while on the other side providing the high-quality buffered data to data-acquisition software without losing any sample—everything at the same time. This is important when you need to look into your data more closely when things go wrong.
How does the Industrial Internet of Things figure into business strategy?
Dr. Jure Knez, co-founder and CTO, Dewesoft: The emerging need for data for monitoring the processes requires standard controllers and systems to change. To provide normal daily system operation, the data must be available on a high level for monitoring the processes and scheduling maintenance work in real time. In this aspect, the data-acquisition systems must acquire the data at higher rates for advanced analysis such as vibration in the frequency domain and be able to serve this data to be available in a simple and understandable way to the operators and decision makers.
How will machine automation and controls alter the way companies staff their operations in the future?
Dr. Jure Knez, co-founder and CTO, Dewesoft: Factory automation will do the same to the industry as farming equipment to agriculture. One hundred years ago, 90% of the world population worked in agriculture, and there was not enough food for everyone, while today 10% of the active population works in agriculture and there is enough food. In the future, the same will happen to the industry, especially in mass production. Therefore the system and technology must provide easy integration.
Dewesoft addresses these needs by providing solutions to constantly monitor control processes of system integration, as well as in daily production.
How is the development of software solutions impacting requirements for hardware?
Dr. Jure Knez, co-founder and CTO, Dewesoft: Since the very beginning, software has been the driving force behind every hardware development at Dewesoft. We focus on the end results. For our customers, this usually means simplified operation of complicated measurement tasks, which in the end vastly shortens the time needed to get things done.
We have been very successful at developing some key technologies such as DualCoreADC, SuperCounters, HybridADC, and electrical isolation techniques that work seamlessly with the software. These tightly integrated software and hardware technologies have not only shortened test and measurement times, but also completely eliminated a lot of inconveniences that engineers struggled with when making measurements. These improvements give engineers a lot more time to focus on the things they do the best: developing great products and pushing the technology of their products forward.
Our hardware with its high dynamic acquisition, smart isolation, filtering and automatic sensor detection reduces chances of operator errors almost to zero. This improves productivity and improves everyone’s bottom line.
As engineering and IT continue their convergence, which one is and/or will be leading the direction of future automation and technology?
Dr. Jure Knez, co-founder and CTO, Dewesoft: The most important thing that drives our future direction is the voice of the customer. Engineering and IT must work hand in hand to best serve their customers’ needs. The tools and technologies available today and tomorrow will allow this convergence, and the final effect will be a great result for the customer.
A perfect example we already see today is fully customized products that are not available with a standard split between production, sales and IT—for example, custom-made fashion, custom-made SIRIUS DAQ systems from Dewesoft.
Looking into the future, how will technology change your organization or other organizations over the next five years?
Dr. Jure Knez, co-founder and CTO, Dewesoft: In the past year, we have changed a lot how we work, act and behave. We learned many new skills and we will use them in the future to work more efficiently.
We will use cloud technology which enables us to perform our work from wherever fits us best. Digitalization and automation will provide us tools that are our standard way of thinking. Working in a big factory can change to increase productivity while at the same time increase our personal freedom.
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