Automation and engineering giant ABB announced that it will reorganize its automation divisions in an attempt to align its discrete manufacturing and energy-efficient offerings with its reseller channel and its customers.
Effective Jan. 1, 2010, the Automation Products and Robotics divisions will be regrouped into two new businesses: The Discrete Automation and Motion division, run by Ulrich Spiesshofer, currently responsible for corporate development on the ABB executive committee; and the Low Voltage Products division, headed by Tom Sjokvist, who currently leads ABB Automation products.
The Process Automation business will remain as is, the company said late last week, except for the addition of ABB’s instrumentation business (currently part of the Automation Products division). According to ABB CEO Joe Hogan, moving the instrumentation unit into the process business “makes sense,” as manufacturers typically look for a synchronized solution of process automation and instrumentation. “Our competitors align instrumentation in the same way, and it is more in line with what customers expect,” he said during a conference call with media and analysts last week.
Similarly, Hogan aims to emphasize ABB’s strong discrete business as he aligns technologies, channels, and service models. For example, the new Discrete Automation and Motion division wraps robotics, programmable logic controllers (PLCs), and motors and drives together. “We have never approached a marketplace as a discrete automation company,” Hogan said. “It’s always been in pieces, sold separately.”