Dalso‘s story dates back long ago, in 1984, when Lucio Dal Soglio was a young man who started developing skills in the automation industry, climbing up the stairway that led him to found the company in 2001 and grow it into one of the most interesting automation players, with significant margins for growth.
Lucio Dal Soglio
The company was created leveraging the experience acquired and a clear but very effective concept: the spirit of sacrifice, the awareness that every climb, even the most ambitious, always starts from the first step. “When I went into business in 1984, I started from scratch, I challenged myself from the very start, and I never feared hard work and embarking on a long journey. I climbed each step with caution, making sacrifice such as giving up football when I was twenty to focus entirely on what I consider more than a job, it’s the passion of my life. I learned the meaning of automation on the field, I learned how to manage a company by watching closely, as an employee first, and then as a business owner, I learned how to recognize the needs of a customer and how important it is to keep going after initial success, to look ahead and set new goals. For me and for Dalso, it is essential to be ambitious, knowing that hard work is the key for any initiative. If you work well, if you commit one hundred per cent, there is no goal you cannot achieve”.
Such business philosophy was born and grown in Triveneto, then it spread very rapidly beyond the Italian borders and brought Dalso to export its products and know-how all over the world, after twenty years in business.
“Looking back – Lucio Dal Soglio said – I can hardly realize how fast time has been flying. I have never stopped. When I started my own business in 2001, the world of automation, and not only, was different. Today we have several new technologies that enable solutions that were not even conceivable ten years ago. If I should list the milestones of Dalsa’s growth, I would start from 2015, when we moved into the current headquarters, a factory with approximately 4 thousand square meter surface. One year later, we started to transform our organization from “handicraft” to “industrial”, revolutionizing our staff and focusing entirely on 3D design. It was a year of hard work, with everyone in the company giving their contribution with strong dedication”.
Automated selection with robots
Is competition a hindrance to “teamwork” or partnerships with other companies?
“I would not say so for Dalso. As an automation company, we are not directly in competition with equipment manufacturers, we work in synergy with them, and such working relations are essential for us to offer more and more performing solutions, and for them to get the best and most from our products. It would be better if we could work even closer together, if we could really team up to expand beyond the Italian borders and go abroad to challenge the European giants as a unified and well-organized player, without fighting with each other and standing together. This would bring benefits to everyone, not only in terms of revenues, but also for the capacity to attract new investments, as we could export not only our products, but also our know-how. To do this, besides competence and skills, you need mutual trust and the willingness to act like a big player rather than many small organizations. Are the Italian companies ready? Maybe not yet, not all of them for sure. We will see. Maybe in few years…”.
What’s automation for you and how has this business changed in the past twenty years?
“Beyond strictly technical definition, I would say that automation is an intermediate step, a link among several machines. It’s the core element of a complex organization that must work in harmony. In recent years, technological developments in the digital sphere have brought visible progress, not only in production, but most of all in customer care, post-sales service and equipment installation.
So, I can say that automation is the future, in terms of economic benefits, as it reduces costs and increases efficiency, and also for people. With coordinated machines and an accurate system, the risks for workers are minimized and the working environment is safer. In this respect, I can say that Industry 4.0 is not a just bureaucratic process, but a way to create a fully automated factory where people can do the creative and productive part of the job: ideas for people, sweat for automation”.
What’s your greatest satisfaction?
“That’s when we see customers come back and ask for more products or our support. It’s not a matter of revenues, it’s not one single order: that’s the demonstration that, once again, we have taken the right direction and we have climbed one more step”.
To use a football metaphor, after winning the national league, the new goal for Dalso is the Champions League: from success in Triveneto to victory in Europe.
