The future and stability of Automation Integrators

Good Evening ,

While working for my employer ,I have been working with a Fanuc Integrator on a few projects , during this time I have developed a relationship
with the owner. I now have an opportunity to come to work for him , and help
to expand the business. I enjoy working with automation and helping manufacturing plants become more efficient . Before making any decisions,
I was wondering if you could answer a few questions.........

How competitive is the business ?

Are manufacturing plants willing to become more efficient ?

How difficult is it to get in a plant and do surveys , and also get your marketing material into the hands of decision makers ?

What are some of the major mistakes that Automation Integrators make in their business plans ?

Thanks so much in advance.

Very competitive.

Yes, but not willing to pay the price to do it "right".

Not difficult if you are persistent. The hard part is getting a decision in your favor.

They belive every thing people on the Internet tell them.
They don't get enough money up front to do the job "right" and end up way in debt or taking shortcuts that undermine the project.
They don't do the proper home work and under quote.
They don't get all relevant information in writing. If it isn't in the contract it doesn't get done or it needs to be an added cost.
They don't properly document verbal changes or get them "signed off" for additional billing.

RussB said:

Very competitive.

Yes, but not willing to pay the price to do it "right".

Not difficult if you are persistent. The hard part is getting a decision in your favor.

They believe every thing people on the Internet tell them.
They don't get enough money up front to do the job "right" and end up way in debt or taking shortcuts that undermine the project.
They don't do the proper home work and under quote.
They don't get all relevant information in writing. If it isn't in the contract it doesn't get done or it needs to be an added cost.
They don't properly document verbal changes or get them "signed off" for additional billing.

Click to expand...

+1

Most don't include enough startup and training time in their quote.
Many avoid solid best practices and in doing so make new systems as hard to deal with as the old ones.

RussB's post is excellent.

The system's business can be rewarding. It can also be disaster. There is a lot of boom and bust to the business. You are at the service of customers and need to do projects when they want them done, which can be very cyclical.

The people/companies that seem to do well in this business focus on niches, develop strong relationships with their customers and manage finances well. They are willing to work very long hours when necessary and tenacious about finding new customer.

Rob S. said:

Good Evening ,

While working for my employer ,I have been working with a Fanuc Integrator on a few projects , during this time I have developed a relationship
with the owner. I now have an opportunity to come to work for him , and help
to expand the business. I enjoy working with automation and helping manufacturing plants become more efficient . Before making any decisions,
I was wondering if you could answer a few questions.........

How competitive is the business ?

Are manufacturing plants willing to become more efficient ?

How difficult is it to get in a plant and do surveys , and also get your marketing material into the hands of decision makers ?

What are some of the major mistakes that Automation Integrators make in their business plans ?

Thanks so much in advance.

Click to expand...

First of all, let's accept, for the moment, a very loose definition of the words "Systems Integrator" (SI).
Like all business, the SI world is very competitive. And, to make matters slightly different from other worlds, in my neck of the woods, the "community" is fairly inbred. We do all know each other.

As far as efficiency is concerned, you need to look at this question from two perspectives: As a technologist, you can see things that others can't...and approach the problem of efficiency from a technical perspective. (i.e. When your only tool is a hammer, every problem tends to look like a nail (Maslow)). HOWEVER, the folks in an organization who authorize the spending of money tend to see the problem from the perspective of numbers. All to say that "neat" technology much support the numbers side of this deal. And, "plant politics" apply to the world of ideas, as well. I've seen and had great ideas, and present them to plant management with good reception...only to find out that their own people have had this idea for years prior, and keep getting shot down. I've never figured out this mystery, except that showing up with a brief case and business card must be "special".

Marketing questions belong in the hands of marketing people....we're engineers and technicians, here. But, to the question, in this business, you're never far from your past, so, your reputation will tend to follow you around, from plant to plant. A big question I have heard over the years is: "Have you ever worked on a project/machine/process like this before?" The paradox of this is that you almost need to have a vertical focus on the business to answer this right, and most SI houses are not so vertically focused, especially in the past 8 years.

I've only seen a few SI's struggle, but, the ones that struggled the most tend to over-sell and under-deliver. All it takes is one really big and risky project, or goofy T&Cs in the end user's favor, to put you under. Shark Tank isn't just on TV.

Don't forget...there are only two good jobs: Your last one and your next one.

I am a small shop me and an apprentice. I just started out on my own 4 years ago and we are growing daily. New leads, I an doing more quote then I ever have. Is it because I am getting my name out there or because companies are spending cash. I don't know.

Are you married , have kids, do you have to be home every night.If you answered yes to any of these questions thinm long and hard about doing SI.

I had thanksgiving dinner with my family for the first time in 6 years last yyear.

Hi

I would agree with all if ye above and

You will be working long hours sometimes just mad hours
You will need a very understand wife/ girlfriend/ boy friend
Everyone will be your boss , the factory owner; engineering manager, the production manager , the shift manager , the operator , your own boss etc

But if you can handle this I find it a great job and I really enjoy my work.
I love looking and working with new technical software, plcs , drives , robots etc,
I get a great buzz when I get something working and the rewards and more to me than money.
Many seem to come and go in this line of work and most from what I see is the machine end of it takes them down. It's very hard to design and build a once off machine and get it right first time . A long time ago now I teamed up with another company and they design and build machines and I wire and program them. This has helped both of us grow and also allows both take on there own work.

Donnchadh

Thanks so much for your comments. A lot of good insight.