Sign in to follow this  
Followers 0
Chris Elston

Rockwell - Third Party Repair Center?

7 posts in this topic

I got this from an e-mail tonight: http://www.rockwellautomation.com/services/repair/thirdparty.html Really? What on earth does Rockwell hope to achieve with this stunt? Sounds like a cover up to dissect third party hardware and it just seems plain weird to me that a supplier, a brand name, would work on other people's stuff. It's kind of like buying a KIA car, and taking it to the Porsche dealer for them to work on your KIA. Any thoughts of the motive behind this? Is Rockwell just trying to make some extra cash in the repair business?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
I think it is Rockwell's [poor] attempt to get service contracts that they could use to increase their hardware sales. For a long time, Rockwell has been steadily expanding their design and support services and trying to make a profit off of it (Tech Connect, anyone?). I think they have been facing increased competition from other brands whose products offer a better value, thus the need to profit from their technical support. I believe that Rockwell wants to be the one to service these systems because when they break, RA can come in and say "this, that, and the other is broken/wrong/failed, but luckily we have the exact product you need." This way they could surreptitiously supplant competing hardware with their own and none of the higher ups will question it because "they are the experts." This is an attitude I have experienced very often, so I think Rockwell is also aware of this and wants to capitalize off of it. Just my rather cynical take on the whole thing. RA's motivation aside, I agree that it is odd and I wonder how much success they will have. I can foresee in-house techs, programmers, and engineers going away in favor of third party companies managing these systems. I think it is foolhardy because you need people on site who can fix problems when they arise, without having to pay an arm and a leg for "emergency support." Edited by JStevens
1 person likes this

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
RA has offered repairs on third party equipment for years; it's just recently they have increased advertising of those services. I got the same e-mail on my internal account today. If a repair house like Electrical South, who doesn't have any manufacturing capacity or experience of their own, can rebuild Allen-Bradley equipment, I figure it's plausible that Rockwell Automation can do rebuilds of other manufacturers' gear. I'm just out here on the pointy end of the spear.
1 person likes this

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
I think Rockwell's ultimate goal has many prongs. Having worked for a repair house recently, a significant portion of repair company's business is not only repairing controls but supplying USED controls. There is a huge market for refurbished controls. Refurbished products could be repaired, used, new-in-box opened or factory sealed new-in-box. In most cases refurbished controls sell for 50% of street price and come with a 1 year parts and labor warranty. A customer can greatly reduce their maintenance budget by going with refurbished controls, if they have seen a proven track record of no diminished life expectancy. The other piece of the pie is parts management. Rockwell does work with their distributors in leasing controls for large customers. Basically the end customer does not own the spare parts until they pull from inventory for use; the distributor replenishes and life is good; customers end up paying a monthly usage fee. With this scenario, a large customer does not need to own their spare parts stock (large capital investment) and can expense the usage fee every month. The downside is the fine print...the distributor can pull leased parts anytime (if they get in a pinch and another customer needs that classic drive, they pull it and work on replenishing later) which has been shown to put the leasing customer in a pinch until the replacement is restocked. This leased inventory becomes the asset of the distributor and somehow works into the Rockwell global inventory and their goal of finely managed JIT. They have been known to roll into a large customer and offer to buy their spare parts pile for a number (a very good number, that looks good in any maintenance department's budget). Rockwell is chasing down their competition, working on marketing strategies to cover their bases in all markets.
1 person likes this

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Chris I was at my local RA repair guys house the other day doing a HVAC job for him. He said they had just created his position to inprove the market share. They have always offered it but they are pushing it MUCH harder. By the way what happened to the mobile site?
1 person likes this

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
That seems like the most common answer. Thanks I was just wondering. About mobile - Just visit http://forums.mrplc.com normally from your phone. The old link is gone because we upgraded it.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Thanks Chris. It was just a quick glance tool that I got use to using. I don't know when the last time anybody said thanks to you or the other admins. So here I go THANK YOU to each and every one of you guys for your time that you give us.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!


Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.


Sign In Now
Sign in to follow this  
Followers 0