"We want to create new knowledge"

In the automation and IT sector, standing still is a step backwards, especially in view of the increasing digitalisation of the industry. This is why CTE is increasingly focusing on the further development of the company, focusing on the pooling of knowledge with the newly created Research & Development (R&D) department. We asked our COO and Head of R&D Andreas Langer what benefits this should bring our customers and what innovations have already been implemented.

Andy, what's new at CTE?

Andreas Langer: CTE's ability to develop is a central value in our current vision. This relates to a topic that's always been important to us: CTE has always invested an above-average amount in further training and technical developments. The fact that this strategy has been successful over the past 30 years and continues to be so is evidenced by the continuous growth of CTE and the constant expansion of the range of services and products it offers.

What was important to us was to be able to address this topic in an even clearer and more focused way in future. For this purpose, we have now a new Research & Development department.

Why is a separate Research & Development department so important?

AL : We want to maintain our strength as a holistic and flexible SME as the company continues to grow. In order to be able to respond to changing requirements together with our customers and to be prepared for future challenges, we must be and remain forward-thinking at all levels.

However, the broader range of products and services mentioned above and the ever-increasing interlinking of individual components and services in the operational environment also present us with the major challenge of having to keep an eye on all aspects and coordinating them in the best possible way.

The logical consequence of this was to turn duty into a virtue and establish the Research & Development (R&D) department as a new entity.

Where do the new ideas for R&D come from?

AL: Our accumulated experience and know-how from a large number of projects in various sectors and fields are key, in addition to the wishes and requirements expressed by customers in relation to products and systems and our own market observations.

Alongside many opportunities, this wealth of ideas presents some challenges: On the one hand, we would like to maintain as much independence as possible in our developments, but on the other hand, we don't want to distance ourselves from the 'real world', i.e. our customer projects. We aim at finding continuous and incremental improvements, but we also want to take a detached or even disruptive approach to topics.

We therefore see innovation management as one of the pivotal tasks in this construct. This means an organised, creative collection and evaluation of ideas as well as the definition and assignment of innovation projects and permanent support to coordinate them with the existing product portfolio.

What advantages does R&D offer our customers?

AL: The decisive advantage for our customers is precisely this structured innovation management. Our aim is to provide the highest level of expertise in our specialist areas in order to develop the ideal solution together with the customer. We have to share and evaluate the resulting experience, learn from it and develop ourselves in order to be able to consolidate new ideas for future assignments.

This enables us to always provide our customers with up-to-date, well thought-out solutions that are as standardised and flexible as possible in order to solve the complex challenges of our industry as efficiently and sustainably as possible.

Are there already CTE innovations that are being used in practice?

AL: As mentioned above, the desire to constantly develop ourselves as a company is nothing new. The results of innovation processes that we regularly present on our blog highlight this aspiration. What is new is that we are using R&D to create professional structures for our innovation management.