OEMs to Power with MICRO 800 [Dec 2011]

December 22, 2011 10:21 am

At Connect 11, Rockwell Automation showcased the power of collaboration, strength of its network of upstream and downstream partners which brings the value to automation customers through a well managed relationship. The event was designed to help customers to explore ways to make their organisations more competitive with solutions around smart, safe & sustainable manufacturing. On the sidelines of this landmark event, the company has launched a product –  The Micro800™ family of Programmable Logic Controllers.   Co G. Nguyen (VP & GM, Asia Pacific Business Center) and Durlov Jyati Sarma (Product Manager, Small Controllers, Asia Pacific) highlight the features of this new launch
Can you brief us about the new launch and how is it going to be helpful for the Indian SMEs?Co G. Nguyen: Today, stand-alone machine OEMs are striving to offer more innovative and better performing machines to meet the market’s increasing demands. Six years ago, we moved global business units to Singapore to support the growth in the stand-alone machine OEM market.
The stand-alone machine builders consider factors such as cost, ease of use and just enough functionality. They are smaller and more agile operations that value time to market. This new product line, The Micro800™ family of Programmable Logic Controllers, is targeted for this set of OEMs.  This product line provides just enough functionality using the plug-ins concept to allow OEMs to configure the controller to his needs.  In this launch the software called the Connected Component Workbench™ or CCW has the ability to configure our Power Flex 4 drives and our component HMI.  And best of all, CCW is FREE and downloadable from our website at www.ab.com. 
In India, we believe that there are many OEMs of this type. With the growth in India’s infrastructure and the export market, we believe it is the right place for us to focus.
India being a competitive market and price conscious market, what is your strategy going to be to make this solution more suitable for the Indian market?Durlov JyatiSarma:  Rockwell Automation as a company believes not only in making a good product but also in offering it as a total solution. First of all, our intention behind moving away from North America or shifting the businesses to Singapore is to learn about the nature of the market and develop price competitive solutions.  Additionally, we have a large offering of products for the OEMs including value added services.  Being able to offer a complete solution in and basket of products is one of RA’s competitive advantages.  An example of this is the offering that can be found in the Connected Component Program.
DO you focus the OEMs sector wise?Co G. Nguyen: Our focus is to develop a product that is off the shelf. We don’t develop a product specific to a sector. So whether its pharmaceuticals or textile, the same product can be used, just applied differently.  The Micro800TM is easy to use but we also provides necessary tool for the OEMs to get started.
Could you tell us about your distribution strategy?Co G. Nguyen: One of RA’s competitive advantages is our network of distributors and system integrators.  We work very closely with our distributor in the limited distribution model and will be continuing with the same model for this product, a global product. We value or distributors and believe that we can add value to them in application and domain knowledge. 

Advertising

Your future advertising space? Our media data