5 mins with… Lionel Hutt - Digital Advanced Control.
Tell us about your company and your business, when it was formed and what you do?
DAC is a UK leading manufacturer of lift control systems and associated peripheral products. We were established in 2010 and have achieved enviable growth on a year-on-year basis. Our focus is on retaining and growing our existing customer base, but also penetrating additional markets within the UK Lift Industry with our latest products and services.
My role as Director is to extend our scope of supply with ‘DAC Prestige’, our new flagship range of controllers designed for high-rise, multi-group systems, in combination with our latest IOT-based Remote Monitoring Systems.
How many times have you attended the Lift & Escalator Symposium now?
As real advocates of the Lift & Industry Symposium, aside from the first year, we have attended every year. We see real benefit in attending and moving forward, we intend to do so every year.
What has been your highlight of attending?
With there being such a ‘buzz’ around the Lift Symposium, the highlight of attending is always being able to engage with existing and new customers, in addition, networking with all parties in a supply chain. Keeping up to date with new products and any legislative changes is another big highlight.
What will you be presenting/demonstrating?
We will be showcasing two new products in the main – ‘MEC32 Genesis’, our serial, plug and play control system and ‘AURA’, our Cloud-based Remote Monitoring System which provides diagnostic information of our controllers and Third-Party controllers.
Tell us what has changed for your business in the past 12 months, what have been the highlights?
Definite highlights have been the continued increase in customers and consultants more readily using and specifying our control systems in both hard-wired and serial-based formats. Further advances in our LEAN Manufacturing efficiencies have allowed us to offer even shorter delivery lead times and provide further cost competitiveness for our customers. The integration of our Genesis controller into modernisation replacement of ‘The Majors’ equipment, alongside further implementation of our controllers on New Build projects has kept all of us within DAC very busy!
What would you say to anyone who hasn’t attended before? Why should they attend?
The Lift Symposium provides an excellent platform for networking with old and new customers. Alongside the ability to showcase new products with Lift Contractors and Consultants alike, it also forms the ideal opportunity to remain updated on the latest lift legislation, technologies and market trends.
What do you think are the trends for the next 12 months in the industry?
As DAC, we see more customers transitioning towards serial-based control systems and away from the earlier hard-wired controller types, as it’s generally well understood that plug and play systems in both modernisation and new build projects reduces installation complexity and therefore installation times. IOT-based Remote Monitoring has also become more prevalent in all project types and we see that inbuilt ‘fault/event-log trending’ of such systems forms a useful tool for enhancing the Planned Preventative Maintenance (PPM) capabilities of such systems.