Rockwell (AB) roadshow notes!

Almost all of AB Company’s products share one common feature – they are expensive. Therefore, Company Ab’s marketing has always been rather exaggerated, belonging to the stage of selling ideas. One’s own sales skills fall far short of what is needed to truly understand one’s own products. Since the price is high, it’s essential to promote that the product is excellent – that’s basic common sense. In fact, in the normal field of high-end industrial control, Ab is rarely seen. I. The output value is far lower than that of Siemens Automation and ABB Automation. It’s even not as good as Honeywell, GE Automation, and Invensys-Foxboro. It’s not as good as Schneider in France either (although according to Ab’s propaganda, a large portion of Schneider’s output comes from Merlin Gerin, the leader in power distribution, when it comes solely to automation). AB has a higher output value than Schneider). What Ab can claim to be is the number one PLC brand in North America. But in reality, there is a huge gap in product quality compared to GE, the established giant in North America. --However, people from AB know how to use sales strategies, while GE is poor at sales and marketing. II. Integrated architecture products are a concept that AB does very well in selling. Logix5000 is also a good system. It’s just not as good as what Ab claims. “\"Emergency shutdown\" – The Safety version of the Logix5000 CPU, used in combination with safety-compliant Devicenet I/O devices, can achieve an SIL3 level; however, it cannot be used for ESD protection! When intelligence is applied in the manufacturing industry, such as in the automotive and tobacco sectors, the safety level of the Logix5000 Safety redundancy system is only SIL2, and it offers almost no protection against ESD! Why does AB want to acquire ICS? It is the 3-redundancy system of ICS that AB strongly promotes as the ESD for the process industry! However, it is completely incompatible with AB’s other products, such as the Logix5000 platform. Intrinsic safety IO stations are currently mainly the 1794-EX series. Compared to Siemens’ intrinsically safe versions, ABB’s intrinsically safe versions. The quality of the 1794 EX is still much poor, at the same time. Siemens’ ET200iSp and ABB’s S900 are both fully intrinsically safe IO stations that can be placed directly in Zone 1 areas, whereas ABB currently has no products that can compete with them. IEC certification – it’s better not to mention it. There is no IEC certification. Which well-known brand would dare to sell such products? The concept of integrated architecture is no more convincing than the concept of Siemens TIA. . . Objectively speaking, one of the great advantages of Ab is that network communication is very simple. III. Intelligent MCC. Ab’s intelligent MCC is based on Devicenet. The maximum cable distance for DeviceNet is 500 meters (with a speed of around 100 K at that distance), and its openness is far from satisfactory in comparison. Schneider’s Omnia series was being sold to premium customers even in the first decade or so before Ab introduced its intelligent MCCs, and ABB and Siemens also launched their intelligent MCCs based on Profibus DP almost 10 years earlier than Ab! The products from ABB and Siemens can be interchanged! And can Ab be swapped with that one? For soft-start products, the quality of Ab is very poor. Soft start is a product acquired. AB* is accustomed to promoting the luxury image of its brand. Then, for products that are priced high, they advertise that the product is of excellent quality; for those with lower prices, they emphasize their good value for money. In fact, inverters are even worse – they have started to use Delta OEM inverters in some low-end models! AB’s safety products, such as sensors, switches, and detection devices, are quite good. IV. Let’s not discuss this topic; I just want to emphasize that, as of now, AB does not have any official central inventory in China. . . All are dealer inventory! In other words, whether your items are off-spec or defective, Ab has no obligation to keep inventory for you. Those who want to be Ab distributors need to stock goods on their own and bear the inventory risk. Regarding this, I really feel like cursing. V. Process control solutions. Ab remains a niche area in the field of process control. Even when bidding for a project, I directly stated in the meeting that the entire PKS C200 system from Honeywell was actually OEM-produced by me. The client was even more outrageous, responding that my product is only at a level suitable for OEMing Honeywell’s hardware. With exactly the same hardware platform, by how much do your performance figures differ from Honeywell’s, and what is the difference in capabilities? Control system manufacturers that do not provide instrumentation face difficulties in gaining acceptance in typical process control fields such as petrochemicals. So Ab needs a partner. This time it’s E+H; I don’t know which one it will be next time. VI. Automated drive control product series: Variable frequency drives for medium voltage applications. ABB was the leader in this field worldwide; however, after Siemens acquired Robicon, Siemens gained a slight advantage over ABB in terms of overall strength. Next is Schneider. What is AB’s rank? I don’t think I’ve heard anyone mention it. However, AB’s sales performance is still quite strong, with some breakthroughs achieved in various industries. . . In high-pressure drives, ABB is practically the only player in the market. But Siemens is just as excellent. The low-voltage market is in chaos. I didn’t pay close attention. But take Siemens as an example. Siemens’ Xi’an office achieves sales of nearly 50 million yuan in low-voltage frequency converters each year, while ABB records sales of 90 million yuan in frequency converters (including those for high, medium, and low voltage applications). AB’s Xi’an office seems to have failed to reach over 10 million every year. Still, this represents significant progress; back in the beginning, there was hardly any business related to frequency converters. Actually, as an engineer with 10 years of experience. The worst thing is to be superstitious about brands. We need to view control system products objectively and comprehensively. Constantly claiming that a brand is excellent, powerful, and that all its products are great is a typical sign of limited knowledge. The brand myth of Ab is gradually fading away. I’ll take my time reading it later.