Selecting the Right Custom Automation Equipment Partner

For original equipment manufacturer (OEM) startups needing engineering support to quickly transform your IP into prototypes without having to hire an entire engineering department or a factory in need of production-ready automation equipment that you don’t have the capacity to develop internally, success depends on finding the right custom automation equipment partner.

 

Companies offering outsourced custom automation solutions need to be a good fit with your company and culture for a strategic alliance to be effective so, before you choose one, it’s critical to consider what attributes you need from a prospective partner.

 

Answers to the questions below will help you choose a partner that aligns with your custom automation needs and minimize your overall risk.

 

5 Key Questions

 

What problems do you need to solve and what will your role be in solving them?

 

Understanding what you bring to the table will give you a much better idea of what you need from a custom automation equipment partner.

 

Company size matters a great deal and is one of the more important and often overlooked attributes to consider and can determine the optimal size of your outsourcing partner. For example, if you’re a small start-up, you may want to work with a flexible, smaller partner instead of an larger, inflexible company. Partnering with a company whose short-term success hinges on the success of your project can also give them added motivation to do the best job they can.

 

What experience does your outsourcing partner have in your industry and what is their record of success on projects like yours?

 

The answer to this question should include not only successfully completed projects but also the way they were completed. What is your prospective partner’s client responsiveness and to what degree? Are they reliable in delivering project on time and on budget? How many repeat clients do they have? How do they handle change requests? What references can they provide?

 

What resources will be assigned to your project and what is their experience?

 

It’s important to know who will be working on your project before commissioning the work. Are they junior team members that lack the experience the company promotes having? If they have a lot of experience, is it in areas that will help ensure quality work in an expeditious manner? What level of involvement will the company’s ownership or executive team have in your project? Who will be your point person and who is their backup?

 

If you competes in regional markets, can the potential partner provide you with the level of technical support you need in those regions?

 

Knowing in advance who will be responsible overall and for each project responsibility, costs, timeline, and intellectual property (IP) confidentiality, among other requirements, will help increase your confidence level or indicate that you need to keep looking.

 

What kind of partnership do you want?

 

Once you determine general attributes for what you are looking for in a custom automation equipment partner, the next step is to determine the type of partnership you want. In most cases, this is determined by the complexity of your project and current stage of development. Whatever the case, this is something that should be established before you make a decision.

 

There are two main approaches to custom automation equipment outsourcing:

 

1.     The outsourcing partner accepts the project as presented and simply executes on the specifications presented – this approach may work if your project is relatively simple and straight-forward

2.     The outsourcing company works with its partner to clarify the scope of the project and actively contributes to developing the overall project specification in a highly collaborative manner – the more complex the project, the more this approach becomes the optimal solution, which is also the type of approach that is more likely to create a long term, productive relationship for both parties

 

What is the current state of your project and what skills are needed to complete it?

 

The final issue to consider in choosing a custom automation equipment  outsourcing partner is the stage of Your project. If you’re in the early stages of development, you may need outsourced support for engineering, design and testing. If your project involves ramping up production of an already proven product, then you are more likely to need volume production for outsourcing partner instead.

 

As many have discovered when taking new, complex automation equipment from design and engineering into manufacturing, different skills are required at different points in the product development project. Thus, you’ll need an outsourcing partner whose skill set aligns closely with being able to support you each step of the way, in the way you need them to.

 

Moving Forward While Minimizing Risk  

 

Choosing a custom automation equipment partner is a crucial decision that can make or break the success of your project, affecting everything from BOM and manufacturing cost to quality and time-to-market – particularly for semiconductor metrology and inspection projects and those involving laser process development and automation. Answers to these questions as earl in the process as possible can help you narrow the field of potential partners to those who have the attributes needed for your project to succeed and minimize your risks.

 

The first four questions are internal, focusing on what you need from a partner and the kind of engagement it needs to be. The last questions covers the project itself: scope and stage of the development project.

 

When you’ve selected your custom automation equipment outsourcing partner, there are another set of questions that will help ensure that your project begins with a clearly established set of expectations and deliverables – but that is a subject for another article.