AC Drives Selection

This Selection Guide is designed to help organizations select the best AC Drives technology and supplier for their unique business requirements.

AC Drives Supplier Selection Overview

Choosing the right AC drives supplier and technology to operate your plant can be one of the most important decisions you will make for your business operations for years to come.  If you are unsure about any of the key trends in the market or are in need of purchasing criteria, then you need the assistance that ARC Advisory Group has to offer. 

ARC is the industry leading provider of market knowledge, trends, and supplier information for AC drives worldwide.  Our products and services integrate hands-on experience with global market research to deliver the intelligence you need.

In recent years, products like AC drives have become much more powerful in terms of the information they are now able to utilize and share to perform their duties more effectively. 

Today, the majority of AC drives revenues worldwide come from AC drives that are far more integrated into the information flow within factories and plants.  Major digitization trends like Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), analytics, and the cloud have impacted the features and functions found in today’s AC drives.  Finding the right supplier that fits your needs has become critical for your future success.

Fact-based Selection Process

The selection process begins with a definition of the scope of the project, including production processes, number of plants, and integration with other systems.  With this understanding, an organization can make the appropriate team member assignments.  Reviewing and editing the ARC-provided selection criteria to ensure that the list fits your needs requires a team effort.  ARC recommends that once the list is complete, you develop the appropriate questions for suppliers.  This organized and logical list of criteria can provide the basis for a Request for Information (RFI) that you send to suppliers you wish to consider.  Evaluating supplier responses and developing a final ranking of RFI results is also a team effort.  This process helps ensure inclusive, fact-based, impartial supplier evaluations and selections, while avoiding bias issues that typically hamper these activities.  Incorporating the ARC selection criteria helps reduce effort and timespan for a supplier selection process, providing faster time to benefit.

AC Drives Selection Strategic Issues

The following are a few of the supplier and technology selection issues that end users should consider:

Seek Suppliers that Embraced Digitization

Global megatrends are rapidly transforming the industrial operations of end users.  Suppliers now must embrace smart technologies and have deep application knowledge to offer valued solutions to end users.  To this end, digitization presents a huge opportunity for end users and suppliers.  While digital transformation is picking up speed and is a catalyst for long-term competitive advantage for end users, this digital technology also creates new business opportunities and better services for suppliers.  Digitization helps create a path for the transition toward more connected and smarter systems to drive increased end user value. 

Evaluate the Supplier and Its Solution Capabilities

Users need to evaluate a supplier for not only its product portfolio, but also its solution capabilities for automation solutions.  End users need to evaluate suppliers for the important aspects of application.  These aspects include:

• How quickly could a more cost-effective route to an optimum solution be achieved with the supplier’s product portfolio and its experience in the similar applications? 
• Can a high level of integration be achieved?  Will a solution be scalable? 
• Does a solution allow end users to customize for their unique requirements very quickly and cost-efficiently? 
• Does a solution offer forward compatibility for maximum investment protection? 
• Does the supplier offer a consulting approach that will help view automation as a business enabler and help create a business case to justify the investments? 

Leverage Industrial Internet of Things or Industrie 4.0

AC drives products are being updated with new features to fulfill many market demands and increase their value proposition, such as the growing demand for smart connected products based on, for example, the Industrial IoT or Industrie 4.0.  Smart connected products provide opportunities to increase operational efficiency from the plant floor to the supply chain by optimizing data, information, and analytics ranging. 

More AC Drives Strategic Issues to Understand

ARC has been researching the AC drives market for many years, and we understand the challenge companies have in selecting and implementing a solution that will meet their simple unit, machine, or plant-wide requirement.  These include:

• Compatibility with current installed base of technology
• Integration with business systems
• Breadth and depth of supplier’s applications and safety systems solutions
• Support, training, and spares
• Understanding the total cost of ownership for OEMs and end users
• Architecture based on object models
• Architecture based on standards
• Designs for maximum reliability
• Supplier long term viability
• Identify long term visions