We work with customers of all sizes and across all industries, around the world. That’s the heart of what makes our jobs so rewarding. And from time to time we are fortunate to encounter (and even participate in) work that is so compelling and inspiring, we just have to share it.
Rockwell Automation may have been born in the age of the Model T, but it has grown and prospered in the age of the Tesla. The Milwaukee-based industrial automation company pioneered many of the key technologies that have powered the industrial age, introducing—in 1904—one of the world’s first motor controllers for industrial cranes. In the century that followed, Rockwell launched thousands of electromechanical products, from the rheostats inside radios to the programmable logic controllers that orchestrate the world’s assembly lines.
Although Rockwell’s early devices may be worthy of a display case in the Smithsonian, the Rockwell Automation of today is more akin to a Silicon Valley startup than a smokestack-era manufacturer. Indeed, a hefty share of its revenue comes from designing sophisticated software that governs the newest generation of automation and information systems in markets such as consumer packaged goods, food and beverage, transportation, and oil and gas.
Customer-Centric Leader
Like all the customer-centric companies we’ve profiled in Competing for Customers, Rockwell has woven customer success into the fabric of its corporate culture. The organization works with customers to continuously optimize installed automation systems as well as the enterprise itself. Rockwell’s services business also serves as a listening post, capturing insights about customers’ likes and dislikes, and what they could do to take operations to new levels of efficiency and productivity. “Through our services business, we have direct knowledge of areas where customers could benefit,” says Sujeet Chand, Rockwell Automation’s chief technology officer. “For example, if they implemented a more secure network, how could they improve safety and productivity in their brownfield plants?”
To augment its intelligence gathering on the manufacturing floor, Rockwell circulates customer surveys and hosts advisory boards where it collects feedback about Rockwell’s products and strategic road maps. Periodic safety and regulatory assessments also act as triggers for customers to think about new investments and how to update their investments to get more value from an existing solution. Thus, Rockwell turns what is normally an obligatory routine into an opportunity to gather insights and create value.
“There’s a huge focus in our company around measuring and quantifying how our customers benefit. We almost never sell products that land at the customer’s door and you walk away,” Chand says.
In most cases, Rockwell dispatches a “solutions team” to the project site to oversee the integration of Rockwell’s products and software with the customer’s factory floor; then the team sticks around until all the systems are running smoothly. These implementation projects provide a close-up view into the customer’s operations and supply Rockwell with realistic data to accurately estimate the likely impact of the investment. Based on these projects, Rockwell has compiled a library of case studies that quantify the value realized by customers in industries ranging from oil and gas and automotive, to consumer packaged goods and food and beverage.
Rockwell’s Four Measures of Success
Rockwell Automation routinely tracks four critical indicators of customer success:
- Faster time to market. Whether it’s an automobile or a beverage, manufacturers want to get to market as fast as possible. That means reducing the time it takes to move from design to production. Companies turn to Rockwell’s control and information technology to speed every phase of the process.
- Lower total cost of ownership. “A lot of customers don’t really think through total cost of ownership,” Chand says. “Many focus on procurement cost only.” The proper way to view production costs is over the lifetime of an investment, which for a Rockwell factory-automation system can stretch over 20 or even 30 years. Rockwell helps customers understand what these costs are and plan for lowering production costs systematically through smart practices like designing an efficient energy footprint.
- Improved asset utilization. To maximize utilization, Rockwell runs remote simulations and installs internet-connected “smart assets” to predict and avert failures before they happen.
- Enterprise risk management. Rockwell’s customers face escalating business risks, everything from the threat of cyber attacks to complying with a maze of safety regulations such as maintaining detailed records for pharmaceutical and food production. Rockwell works to quantify these risks and helps customers create a system that provides the least amount of enterprise risk. “That’s a key area where we offer very tangible benefits to our customers,” Chand says.
Transformational Vision
Lately, the chief technologist finds himself spending more time with customers talking about “the connected enterprise”—a concept founded on the idea of linking factories, suppliers, and headquarters with a single real-time network, and getting rid of operational “islands” that slow reaction time. “The day when companies built standalone factories that run on their own is ending,” Chand says. “More and more factories are now connected with business systems, so you have a good pulse on customer demand, on inventories, on your supply chain. When all that information is tied together with what’s going on in your factories, you can optimize your production. We call this integrated control and information.”
The shift toward pay-as-you-go OpEx purchasing models puts more pressure on the seller to retain customers from year to year. And to do that, sellers need to ensure that their customers are achieving the business outcomes or business value they are expecting. Constant measurement of value realization is essential in these scenarios—and Rockwell is acutely aware of this.
(This post is excerpted from Competing for Customers: Why Delivering Business Outcomes Is Critical in the Customer First Revolution by Jeb Dasteel, Amir Hartman, and Craig LeGrande, published in February 2016 by Pearson, and available at Amazon.com.)
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