by Gary Mintchell | Jun 19, 2024 | Marketing, Operations Management, Software
I can still remember the meeting to discuss technology, although I’m hazy on the exact date now but sometime in 2003. We had a new magazine. This was when ISA still had relatively large trade shows. My publisher called me. Seems there was a guy in our booth looking for the editor. He had some kind of revolutionary new software built on Java and was IT friendly.
OK, many CEOs had talked to me even in my brief career as an editor with something revolutionary. They are mostly long since exited from the market.
Steve Hechtman was different, but it took a bit of time for me to be certain. He told me about his new company Inductive Automation. It was SCADA/HMI software. I put it in a mental bin along with Wonderware and Intellution at the time. He talked about using standards that were friendly with the IT people and pricing models that would blow away the competition.
And all these years later, Inductive Automation is still thriving. They’ve built quite an ecosystem. (Yes, they are a long-time sponsor, but this is not an advertisement essay. I just happened to see this summary.)
The event that prodded me to write this brief essay was a conversation with a start-up CEO (more news coming next week about that) who had identified an underserved market niche that could be filled quite nicely. I thought about the market I principally write about and how Ignition fit. I wonder, given the maturity of the large automation companies and stagnant market, if perhaps there are other niches opening for enterprising visionaries?
This information came to me. Since I’ve often written about building products on open standards, I thought a little story of how it actually works would be instructional.
- Ignition is a practical and affordable industrial automation platform based on open technology standards that are safe to trust and easy to support.
- Based on IT standards — like SQL, Python, MQTT, and OPC UA — and works with practically anything.
- Based on the open source Java platform and modern technology languages like HTML5 and CSS to keep implementation dependencies to a minimum.
- Ignition is a system in which your equipment all plays well together and you can implement processes freely without extra fees or royalties.
by Gary Mintchell | Jun 3, 2024 | Marketing, Operations Management
Changing market cycles have affected my entire career. Product category booms and busts, especially in the 80s, affected the types of positions and companies where I worked. Today, there are few jobs and companies where you can start and end your career and make a good financial living at it.
Even when I ditched the manufacturing world and became a magazine editor, the cycles still affected me (and most of us, right?).
I just replied to a marketing person who pitched a new survey release. Press releases over the past couple of years have featured more surveys than new products. There are so many surveys that I am amazed that you all can actually get work done. That company is referring to “Industry 5.0.”
The CTO of Aras, a PLM company that I visited earlier this year, described the five industry contexts:
- Mechanization
- Electrification
- Automation
- Digitalization (where we have been for the past few years)
- Cognitive (where we are beginning to reside)
Let us chart the manufacturing and production trade press. The early ones jumped on the electrification—which I translate in our space to include not only motors and drives but also early instrumentation and connectivity.
I joined the media industry with Control Engineering. That would be the toward the end of electrification with PLCs replacing relay control and drives getting smarter and motion control increasingly incorporated into the control system rather than stand alone applications.
A small group of us started Automation World, which as editor-in-chief, I defined as control plus information. Thus began better control plus improved programming, HMI/SCADA coming into its own, the fieldbus and wireless “wars,” and bringing more IT into OT.
Digitalization began 10 or so years ago with things like improved networking, connecting and dispersing more intelligent devices called Industrial Internet of Things (just a marketing euphemism), databases, analytics, improved visualization.
Some people (or marketers) think that some form of Artificial (Augmented?) Intelligence will capture the next phase. What I see is a marketing term that tries to capture attention. What I seldom see are definitions of the varieties of AI. Do they mean machine learning and neural networks that we’ve used for decades? Do they mean large language models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT, Claude, Co-Pilot?
Perhaps the cognitive will actually be “autonomous.” Examples could be autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) or self-driving automobiles and trucks. I’ve referenced a paper emanating from ABB about the coming of “autonomous control.”
What I’ve tried to do at Automation World (until the changes of 2011-12) and then at The Manufacturing Connection since 2013 is to explain the changing technology and application ecosystem through the lens of news that comes my way—products, applications, surveys.
Thank you to the 200,000 of you who stop by to look every month. That number is small compared to consumer influencers or other such social media types. But it is a large number in the market I’m trying to serve.
There’s not much income in this space anymore. But it’s still fun writing about better ways to make stuff. There are few companies left that will sponsor such writing and thinking. A big thank you to Inductive Automation for its long-time support. Over the years, I’ve worked on custom industry research and analysis for several clients. Also my current client, Quickbase and former clients Dell Technologies and Hewlett-Packard Enterprise. (The IT companies discovered that manufacturing may not be as lucrative a market as they thought.)
What’s next? We’ll see. I’m focusing more on empowering individual humans more than ever.
by Gary Mintchell | Apr 5, 2024 | Marketing, Podcast
This is from my recent newsletter. You can sign up for delivery by clicking on the envelope icon in the right sidebar.
Several colleagues have traveled close to my new location, and we’ve shared some good meals with great conversation. Inevitably they asked for my observations on the state of the automation market.
Part of my answer, in short, would be to quote from a recent Seth Godin blog post, The Drift to Normal. As an organization grows in scale, the idiosyncrasy and distinctiveness that was originally informed by the taste of the founders moves toward the mean. Over time, things get more average.
He continues, “That’s because each new customer, each new supplier and each new employee wants or needs something a little more normal, at least sometimes. The drift to normal can only be countered by persistent effort, usually at the cost of some element of short-term scale.”
Here are a few points that capture my thinking:
- Mature Market
- We’re building few or no new plants—and the USA seems to be declining in activity with European and Asian automation companies for the most part showing reduced interest
- Customers are not switching systems
- Automation supplier consolidation
- Innovative startups look for lucrative buyouts as their end game
- Technology is stable
- Technology is also consolidating
- Effects of the changes:
- Automation companies have reduced need for outside marketing partly due to spread of technology
- Primary emphasis is on sales and service—keeping present customers satisfied, if not happy
- Technology development involves tweaking current products and innovating through acquisition
- Geographical retrenchment
For example, let us look at a brief history of National Instruments, nee NI, nee Emerson Test and Measurement. Three technical innovators created a startup with a vision of software defined instrumentation. They created a creative, entrepreneurial culture. For several years there was great energy, growth in business, growth in technology development.
Then one year I noticed that the technology keynote at the annual user conference sounded more corporate. Less, “Gee Whiz” technology. People started to trickle away—either encouraged or seeing the changes. The leaders deliberately changed the culture toward corporatism preparing for an eventual sale. Then the sale happened to the epitome of corporate management in the market.
Note: not a criticism, but an observation. And it’s happening all through the market.
I have released a couple of podcasts on my platform at automation.libsyn.com. You can subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Overcast (my favorite), direct download, or from your podcatcher of choice.
Check out some thoughts on Standards and on Slow Productivity. My just released podcast includes a number of thoughts about the current state of the automation market.
I have arranged a special deal with energy drink makers Magic Mind. Listeners can visit https://www.magicmind.com/garym and get up to 56% off your subscription for the next 10 days with my code GARYM20. After 10 days, you can still get 20% off for one time purchases and subscriptions.
by Gary Mintchell | Feb 22, 2024 | Marketing, News
Amazon Web Services just keeps growing in our market space. In this news Verusen, supplier of MRO optimization and collaboration products, announced joining the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Independent Software Vendor (ISV) Accelerate Program, a co-sell program for AWS Partners that provides software solutions that run on or integrate with AWS.
The AWS ISV Accelerate Program enables Verusen to accelerate value for manufacturing customers by directly connecting with Verusen with the AWS Partner Network and Sales organizations. AWS provides Verusen with co-sell support and benefits to meet customer needs through collaboration with AWS field sellers globally. Co-selling provides better customer outcomes and ensures AWS and its partners’ mutual commitment.
“Verusen is delivering industry-leading solutions to AWS customers worldwide, working with AWS Account Executives and Solutions Architects providing access to simplified transactions via AWS Marketplace,” said Scott Matthews, Verusen’s CEO. “Now, customers can achieve multiple benefits by accessing Verusen’s next-generation MRO optimization platform in AWS Marketplace.”
Verusen’s inventory policy optimization, global material search, network and supplier collaboration, and data deduplication capabilities allow existing AWS customers to enhance their tech stack further to transform their end-to-end MRO materials management processes digitally. Manufacturers gain significant visibility to their entire MRO landscape through Verusen’s easy access to purpose-built MRO optimization solution utilizing cloud infrastructure.
by Gary Mintchell | Oct 10, 2022 | Business, Marketing
A few random thoughts about sales, marketing, and communication.
Coffee
Starbucks has been an off-site workplace for me for more than 20 years. This despite having perhaps the worst tasting coffee (since I do not load it up with sugary flavors). The company has changed its marketing direction this year. News reports say it’s in response to market changes due to Covid. I think that is only part of the answer.
The new Starbucks theme is not providing a cozy place to meet and work. It promotes ordering on the app, running in, picking up, and getting out quickly. Maybe with no human interaction. You order and pay online, run in, look at the extended counter, see your name on a cup, pick it up, and leave without a thanks, or hi, or whatever. The surfaces are hard, the seats hard and barely comfortable, and not many, and the music amplifies off the surfaces.
They are not alone. McDonalds has been long known for designing uncomfortable furniture to encourage a quick turnover. Over the past 15 years (in my memory), the company has changed coffee roasts three times. Where once the coffee was excellent, now it is a wimpy ghost of its former self. Buy the coffee and move along.
One of my German professors at university was from Vienna. He lamented the end of the Zehn Uhr Pause—the 10.00 break where gentlemen would congregate in coffee houses to discuss news or philosophy or whatever. Even in the 60s Viennese coffee houses were encouraging patrons to get the coffee and move along.
Software
Presidents and marketing managers of software companies have been coming to me for years with PowerPoint presentations about hot new software. I ask, “What does it do?” They respond something akin to this press release recently received (that I hope is sanitized to protect the guilty).
To put it plainly, no one does exactly what we do. Our breadth of capability is unmatched, positioning us as the best partner to help your organization make its systems, equipment and people work to their highest potential. We start adding value day one with our unique approach to engagements: unlike our competition, we provide solutions instead of just asking questions. While others may offer generic pathway improvements, our team possesses the ability and willingness to get into the nitty gritty of your challenges and provide the solutions that work for you.
by Gary Mintchell | Aug 17, 2022 | Business, Design, Marketing, Technology
Riffing on Benedict Evans’ latest podcast called Another Podcast. He is a long time technology analyst whom I’ve followed for perhaps 20 years.
He was at an upscale restaurant in Italy recently and noticed the lights on the table. Not traditional candles, these were LED lights, with a battery and USB port for charging.
LEDs are now everywhere. Not long ago, LED screens were prohibitively expensive. Lights were rare. This isn’t a Silicon Valley phenomenon. People who make interior decorative lighting saw the possibility, hired an engineer or two, and developed the product. They had the channel to market and relationships with customers.
Some 40 years ago while I was Quality Manager at a manufacturing plant for juvenile furniture, the general manager had a vision of lights (LED would have been perfect) on a high chair tray. There would be several. Perhaps they illuminated randomly and the child could slap at them. Maybe turn them on and off. We could have hired an electronics engineer (or I could have switched roles?) and done that back then.
It wouldn’t have taken Silicon Valley.
Think also of the company who makes Tasers. It has relationships with almost all police organizations. They thought about products. Noticed they could combine small cameras that were now ubiquitous packaged with networking, audio, rugged packaging, and sell body cameras to those same police customers.
I’ve had jobs like that in my career where I scanned the environment for ideas from other places that we could use in our market.
We have had process and manufacturing engineers in our industry for years who absorbed technology in order to solve a problem. We needed “Silicon Valley” perhaps to design and manufacture components and provide foundational software. I’ve known many chemical engineers who became also computer engineers who then became also networking engineers all in order to solve process problems.
Yet, media reports would have us thinking that it’s all about Silicon Valley. It’s not.
So often it is not about the technology. It’s all about the problem we’re trying to solve.
