Chatting with a boss who specializes in industrial automation software and hardware, he blurted out, "Nowadays, non-standard automation is not done by humans at all. Whoever does it will compensate!" The boss hated non-standard automation projects so much. According to him, he has done both non-standard automation and non-standard machine vision, and he is one of the players who entered the game early on, but was almost eliminated by non-standard automation projects later on!
The boss I know entered the automation industry around 2005. At that time, due to the immaturity of domestic technology, especially in the field of machine vision, it could be said that he didn't open for business for three years and only opened for three years.
Moreover, because customers have limited knowledge about automation, especially machine vision, as long as you patiently explain it to them, their expectations will not be too high.
How to put it this way? For example, around 2005, people were still holding flip top, straight top phones with buttons, and suddenly jumped to 2010 with the mindset of getting an Android smartphone or Apple 4. Do you still find the original Android phones and Apple 4 appealing?
At that time, customers had this mentality and did not have high expectations for automation and intelligent scenarios, so the business of non-standard automation and non-standard machine vision was particularly easy to do.
For example, some factory assembly lines use automation or machine vision to sort products, with machines picking half and manual picking the other half, which can double the efficiency and satisfy customers.
The normal production efficiency of a factory can bring in 1 million yuan in revenue per year. At this time, the efficiency doubles and the profit directly doubles. Therefore, customers are willing to contribute one year's profit to pay for a set of automation equipment.
Because there are few people working on it, as the second party, even if you quote 2 million units, the client is willing to pay after weighing the options.
What is the current environment for non-standard automation and machine vision?
Most of the bosses I know entered the non-standard automation and machine vision industry before 2010. However, nowadays, these bosses' companies are dead, sick, and still alive, basically in an awkward situation where they have projects all along but dare not take on them!
Similarly, in order to improve production efficiency, Party A's willingness is 99.99% to replace labor, or even 100% to replace labor. The machines can run as fast as they can, and they wish there were no people in the entire factory, relying solely on the machines running 24 hours a day! This is the true idea of the first party in the current automation industry.
It's not that this willingness is outrageous, as long as the funds are in place, the production line of Party A can be moved to space. However, because there are too many comparable automation projects, not only have the customer's requirements been raised, but also the budget that the customer can give to Party B has been reduced due to competition!
In fact, every place is now focusing on intelligent manufacturing, and the automation industry is on the rise. However, it is hard to say who has played this industry poorly. There are many projects, but the ones that make less money and the ones that lose more money!
for instance! We all know now that many factories' production lines can achieve the entire process without human intervention, right?
Assuming the current project quotation for this production line is 20 million! "If people spend 20 million yuan, I will spend 20 million yuan to make the same thing!", the customer thought that was no problem, but many customers ignored a very important point. Is there any follow-up after spending the 20 million yuan? Many automation companies basically break even or even lose money to make a profit on their first order, and they make money after the second phase.
Many customers tend to only focus on money when comparing prices. They may think that they can do what others can do for 2000 yuan, but they don't do it themselves, nor do they go to the company that can do it for 20 million yuan. Instead, they look for others to do it!
The reason why non-standard is non-standard is that it is an absolutely personalized thing. Without any reference materials, whether the person found can do it or not is unknown.
Many automation companies are very professional. Although the project is large, they are aware of whether they have the ability to make money, so they generally do not participate in such high-risk projects.
If you don't take it, there will naturally be "gamblers" to take it, and there are often more than one gambler. In order to demonstrate their advantages, they can lower the project contract price from 20 million to 18 million, 17 million, 16 million or even lower! This kind of project can only be a muddy pond in the end!
So, the current situation is that the easy to do non-standard automation and machine vision projects have basically been taken away by two types of companies. The first is those with absolute technical strength, and the other is those with absolute price advantages!
For example, some clients only recognize well-known companies and do not use small companies, or they choose to work with companies that are well-known in the industry, which has a high probability of meeting all their requirements.
However, these companies usually offer high prices, and some customers feel like a mirror in their hearts, knowing that cheap goods are not good, while most customers actually want to save money, so they can only welcome some second parties who are cheap but unable to do things! Do you think customers are stupid?
The boss who was chatting with me said to me, "Some automation projects have not met the acceptance criteria until the customer's products are no longer available
The boss smiled and said, "This means that all the equipment and software for these automation projects will be eliminated, and the second party will never be able to meet the acceptance criteria again
At this point, the second party, who was originally the company that took over this automation or machine vision, can only dismantle and move the equipment back, terminate the project contract, and the customer is essentially using their set of things for free! The customer has made a down payment, so they only paid a wave of down payment money.
This type of customer is actually like a mirror in their heart. They know the requirements in their project contract that it is difficult for the second party to meet. They were originally aiming for free use. Even if some customers are willing to pay, the amount that ultimately reaches Party B will definitely be different from the amount in the original project contract!
Some of the second parties are also aware of the first party's mentality, and the reason why they are willing to accept is actually to use each other, just waiting to negotiate with the customer later to lower the acceptance standards.
Therefore, non-standard automation and non-standard machine vision have been ruined by these customers and companies!
epilogue
In this way, companies that are serious about automation and machine vision projects can either only accept projects that have already been picked up by others, or they will grit their teeth and learn from others to take on projects that they cannot meet. However, often in the end, customers are unwilling to compromise on the acceptance criteria and can only afford to waste time!
But small companies can't afford it!
