If money were no object, and you wanted to drive up a rocky hill, you would buy a Jeep, not a Ferrari. And if you wanted to race around the streets of Monaco, there is no way you would buy a Jeep; you would be jumping into your Ferrari. The fact is that different automakers have reputations for excellence in different areas. You do not expect one brand to be the best in all areas, or even several areas. The best manufacturers earn their reputations by being the best in a particular segment for decades. The same is true in the automation industry—companies that provide manufacturing machinery and systems have different areas of expertise, and no one company is the best in every area. So if your factory needs to race around a track, you need to make sure that your automation experts are shopping for supercars, not trucks.
Since the early days of automation, so-called “experts” have been loyal to particular brands. Although this devotion presents problems, it is logical. After all, being loyal to one specific brand has its benefits. There is the opportunity to develop experience with a particular portfolio, increasing an expert’s confidence. Moreover, experts can establish good working relationships with a vendor, meaning they can receive better perks like better commissions. Finally, it is simply easier and takes a lot less time to develop this portfolio-level knowledge. But these benefits are not worth the drawbacks. Mainly, these “experts” do not cultivate real industry-wide expertise; instead, they become experts in one vendor’s portfolio. That means that their knowledge is limited to the solutions of that one vendor, so if a client comes along who needs a solution that is not in that vendor’s wheelhouse, then the client is the one who suffers in the end. In this case, that means their factories are designed suboptimally, leading to decreased efficiency and lots of potential savings left on the table.
True Independence
Enter IAG (Independent Automation Group). Their main value proposition is their unique approach: complete brand independence. Because they have no brand loyalty, their entire focus is always on the best solution for a particular client. For any automation expert, the definition of “best” does not really change from client to client or industry to industry; “best” always means cost savings, increased efficiency, mitigating downtime, production reliability, and stable, profitable operation. Even though the goal does not change, IAG’s approach is the only approach that guarantees this type of “best”. But IAG’s independence does not come without its own challenges. According to IAG CEO Gabor Megyeri, “The problem with our approach is that it takes years, even decades, to develop and implement. We have to hire people who are true experts in their field, and we have to invest a lot into them to make sure they continue to develop and stay abreast of the best solutions that the market has to offer”.
The world’s best car in the world is useless if you do not know how to drive; the world’s best automation knowledge is useless if it cannot be implemented straightforwardly. To that end, IAG makes sure that companies not only buy the right kind of car, but also know how to drive it like it should be driven. They use their unparalleled knowledge to define automation strategy, develop the necessary systems and applications, and manage the entire implementation of the system. Additionally, “our team can solve any instrumentation and control task, regardless of location, because of international experience on four continents and an internationally recognised team of engineers that provides non-stop service support”, explains Mr Megyeri. Whether they need a Jeep or Ferrari, companies deserve independent experts that can support their clients from start to finish.