Have you ever tried to find a systems integrator online that can solve your specific problem? A lot of our readers have. In fact, they sometimes even call me for help! With every project being very different, it is difficult for those involved in automated manufacturing to decide which companies to rely on to solve specific problems. The reason is of course, is that the tasks involved in inspecting whether, for example, a pizza has been baked correctly, is completely different to one that involves inspecting whether the pitch of a screw thread meets a specific tolerance.
While many integrators online show examples of such systems, it is often difficult to immediately ascertain whether the company involved has actually built such systems, how large their company is and its reputation. To make matters worse, many such systems integrators do not bother to update their websites, often for years.
To be fair to these companies, however, many that I speak to claim that they are far too busy to do so, having more important matters to deal with such as building machine vision systems for their clients! Of course, one is then forced to ask, if such companies are extremely busy, do not advertise their talents or promote the systems that they have developed on the web, how they can generate more business?
The answer here is rather simple. Rather than become involved in such promotional efforts, systems developers rely on the suppliers of OEM machine vision components for their leads. In many cases, an end-user looking to install a system for a specific application will call these suppliers to ask about their products and companies they recommend to perform the systems integration task.
Often, these OEM suppliers have a preferred list of distributors and systems integrators to which they will refer the customer. In one sense, this is helpful, since having a recommendation from a component supplier can guide the customer in the right direction. However, this approach may have its drawbacks. Sometimes, for example, the recommended systems integrator will only have specific expertise in a particular camera, frame grabber, lighting or software that, of course, the component supplier has recommended.
Larger component suppliers and distributors, however, may have broader product portfolios and the expertise to assist a systems integrator. Thus, when calling upon a systems integrator to build a system, customers should evaluate a systems integrator's expertise and that of the component suppliers and distributors they use since they will often assist the systems integrator in evaluating and selecting the components used in the system.
[email protected]
