Linz, 27th November 2002 published in a3Volt (11/2002) Erwin Raffeiner, managing director of Sprecher Automation, is a real cunning business man. By taking advantage of the Smart Automation fair in the Design Center in Linz, he and his team acqainted Sprecher to new customers.

In addition to the booth at Smart Automation, a Sprecher in-house fair was simultaneously taking place in order to invite fair visitors into the Sprecher Automation premises, where a demonstration area of 200 square meters had been set up.

"We took advantage of the Smart fair around the corner and had therefore two strings to our bow. A shuttle service was organised to take the visitors to Sprecher Automation, where they received detailed information on their inquiries through demonstration of our technology", Raffeiner explained his clever move of organising a shuttle station at the Smart Automation.   At the fairs, all business divisions of Sprecher Automation were considered. These are industrial automation, sawmill automation, municipal automation and, last but not least, energy station automation. Additionally, new product developments like the Sprecher box, originally called SPRECON (Sprecher Control), were demonstrated.

Erwin Raffeiner, Managing Director

SPRECON is a multifunctional automation device which can be applied to all Sprecher business divisions as a universal control system. "Our goal is to develop a standard platform for all four business divisions as far as hardware and software are necessary. As yet, each division has had its own hardware platform. Now we focus on standardisation. Also, this concerns applied PLC (programmable logic control), where two standard variants are defined, too", says the managing director.
As a matter of fact, SPRECON shone as the universal genius at the in-house fair: As an example of infrastructure automation, the control system for the prison block of the general hospital in Linz was demonstrated. "We implemented the power supply and installed all necessary equipment in block D - even the lighting system for the helicopter", states Wolfgang Jax, who is in charge of marketing at Sprecher Automation.

ERWIN RAFFEINER ON SPRECHER'S SUCCESS

a3-Volt: How is the "young" Sprecher Automation performing?

Erwin Raffeiner: Very well. We haven’t lost one customer. They still have full confidence in us despite the fact that we are a smaller company than the large Alstom group now. Concerning the situation of orders, the half-year result is ten percent above the expected inflow of orders and turnover. This means that we will exeed our sixteen millions goal for sure. Therefore, we will draw the line at twenty millions in the next two years.

a3-Volt: What is the secret behind being a trendsetter?

Raffeiner: It’s the right engineers – to have innovative people. Those people need certain liberties for working. As a manager you also have to be innovative and think about even the most crazy ideas. Additionally, the staff has to be motivated. Sure instinct is needed to take care of all the brilliant minds and Gyro Gearlooses in the company. It certainly pays off.

ALEXANDER KIRSCHNER

→ NEWS: SPRECON-E - The Intelligence in Energy Stations (18th October 2002)

→ NEWS: The In-House Fair (15th October 2002)