Stephen Luft
Lifetime Supporting Member
From a manufacturer's prespective, it is not always economically feasible to develop a product that can be private labeled. Your development cost is minimal and your time to market is much quicker. On the down side, your cost / unit will be higher when purchasing from another manufacturer so your margin will be less. You will also have to consider that if you go and develop the product from scratch, it may not always work the first time out. So now you have to go back to the drawing board. (this is your time to market factor)
We first looked at incorporating / offering other manufacturer's products about 12 years ago when we were redesigning our controllers with serial ports and operator interfaces were becoming popular. Our thinking was, we are a PLC manufacturer and we should focus on that. We knew very little about developing an operator interface. The time it would have taken to develop the product would have made us take engineering dollars and time away from our core products. There are companies out there that this is their core product. Why not maximize resources by focusing on what you know, while other companies focus on what they know.
We have aligned ourselves with several companies whose' core products are operator interfaces. It was a natural fit. People will tell us, that looks like such and such. We will tell them that yes it is. We private label it under "this name" Our objective is to support any product that we offer with our PLCs. If we are unable to support it in house, we will not offer it. There have been times where we have had to go back to our supplier, because there will be a question or circumstance that comes up that we were unable to answer. Our customer will always get an answer to their question. Sometimes it may take a little longer than we like.
Unlike AB, AD, GE, Omron...etc who basically offer their own operator interfaces for resell while offering compatibility for other operator interface manufacturers...we are offering what we consider to be the best products non-PLC manufacturers have to offer.
Today our objective is to find products that will enhance the OEM's solution where today's PLCs fall short. Just recently, we started offering an Ethernet to serial gateway for our PLCs. We are continually looking at other peripheral devices to enhance our PLC product offering.
Just imagine if AB were to design everything they offer today, their engineer and development teams would be many times the size they are now, not to mention their cost structure
Automation Direct is the distribution channel of Koyo and a master distributor of the other manufacturers they supply. They offer the support a distributor would offer.
Our goal is to provide the support of a manufacturer for the products we private label. Providing our customers one stop shopping and support.
Do you design what the market is asking for? Do you private label someone else's product? Or do you do nothing? For instance the "smart relay" you are finding that most of the larger companies are private labeling. They consider that rather than not have something to offer in this product category, they need something. It was approximately 2 years ago, you saw a flood of these products hit the market. Everyone needed something and quick. So rather than develop, they private labeled.
One of the biggest drawbacks to not designing or manufacturing your own product is that you lack the ability to make modifications. Manufacturing our controllers, we can modify any one for a customer that has a special requirement. For other devices that we offer, change isn't easy. Usually, and understandibly, there are design costs to make modifications. With the larger PLC manufacturers, this usually isn't an issue, because even their own products they will not modify.
I can't speak for AB or AD but for us, our focus is to provide a total solution for the PLC. Things like sensors, limit switches and output devices are commodity items that are usually obtained through distribution. Solutions such as datalogging or communications are directly linked to the PLC. This is our focus.
Basically what all this is saying is that there are times when it is to a manufactuer's advantage to incorporate other manufacturer's products rather than reinvent the wheel. You don't stop being a manufacturer, by offering other products that are not your own, you have just made a strategic business decision that will benefit both you and your customer.
God Bless,
Stephen
We first looked at incorporating / offering other manufacturer's products about 12 years ago when we were redesigning our controllers with serial ports and operator interfaces were becoming popular. Our thinking was, we are a PLC manufacturer and we should focus on that. We knew very little about developing an operator interface. The time it would have taken to develop the product would have made us take engineering dollars and time away from our core products. There are companies out there that this is their core product. Why not maximize resources by focusing on what you know, while other companies focus on what they know.
We have aligned ourselves with several companies whose' core products are operator interfaces. It was a natural fit. People will tell us, that looks like such and such. We will tell them that yes it is. We private label it under "this name" Our objective is to support any product that we offer with our PLCs. If we are unable to support it in house, we will not offer it. There have been times where we have had to go back to our supplier, because there will be a question or circumstance that comes up that we were unable to answer. Our customer will always get an answer to their question. Sometimes it may take a little longer than we like.
Unlike AB, AD, GE, Omron...etc who basically offer their own operator interfaces for resell while offering compatibility for other operator interface manufacturers...we are offering what we consider to be the best products non-PLC manufacturers have to offer.
Today our objective is to find products that will enhance the OEM's solution where today's PLCs fall short. Just recently, we started offering an Ethernet to serial gateway for our PLCs. We are continually looking at other peripheral devices to enhance our PLC product offering.
Just imagine if AB were to design everything they offer today, their engineer and development teams would be many times the size they are now, not to mention their cost structure
Automation Direct is the distribution channel of Koyo and a master distributor of the other manufacturers they supply. They offer the support a distributor would offer.
Our goal is to provide the support of a manufacturer for the products we private label. Providing our customers one stop shopping and support.
Do you design what the market is asking for? Do you private label someone else's product? Or do you do nothing? For instance the "smart relay" you are finding that most of the larger companies are private labeling. They consider that rather than not have something to offer in this product category, they need something. It was approximately 2 years ago, you saw a flood of these products hit the market. Everyone needed something and quick. So rather than develop, they private labeled.
One of the biggest drawbacks to not designing or manufacturing your own product is that you lack the ability to make modifications. Manufacturing our controllers, we can modify any one for a customer that has a special requirement. For other devices that we offer, change isn't easy. Usually, and understandibly, there are design costs to make modifications. With the larger PLC manufacturers, this usually isn't an issue, because even their own products they will not modify.
I can't speak for AB or AD but for us, our focus is to provide a total solution for the PLC. Things like sensors, limit switches and output devices are commodity items that are usually obtained through distribution. Solutions such as datalogging or communications are directly linked to the PLC. This is our focus.
Basically what all this is saying is that there are times when it is to a manufactuer's advantage to incorporate other manufacturer's products rather than reinvent the wheel. You don't stop being a manufacturer, by offering other products that are not your own, you have just made a strategic business decision that will benefit both you and your customer.
God Bless,
Stephen
