ARC Rapport
36 / 106
AMNYTT #1
ARC Insights, Page 4
7 process control platform, it made it clear this week that the S7-1500 will be
developed over the years to eventually replace the S7-400 in high-end applications. This implies that the S7-1500 will someday become Siemens’
process platform as well.
Yaskawa and VIPA: The Last Singles at a Dating Party?
Two days before the fair, Yaskawa, a $3 billion Japanese motion control
supplier, announced its acquisition of VIPA, a smallish $55 million German
PLC maker. This move surprised the market because, at first glance, the
two companies seem to have little in common. A press conference was organized at the last minute to explain the rationale behind the decision, with
limited success.
Yaskawa is the world leader in motion control with a dominating 17 percent global market share and nearly a third of the Asian market. VIPA, on
Best-of-breed suppliers are becoming an
increasingly rare breed, because it's
only a matter of time before they are
picked up by a larger player to fill a
portfolio gap or buy market share.
the other hand, doesn't quite make it onto the PLC
market radar. So why the attraction? The answer
might be "survival of the broadest" (portfolio) - that
irresistible urge for a company to move out of its
niche and into the mainstream. Best-of-breed suppliers are becoming an increasingly rare breed,
because it's only a matter of time before they are picked up by a larger
player to fill a portfolio gap or buy market share.
Yaskawa is both too large to fill someone else's portfolio gap and too dominant in its motion control niche to grow much more; so it needed a new
tactic. The company’s single-digit market share in Europe clearly betrays
its potential on the old continent. Adding German PLCs to a Japanese motion portfolio could be seen as a move in the direction of solution selling,
but Yaskawa would still have a long way to go to compete with similar
suppliers like Hoerbiger or Bosch-Rexroth.
Quo Vadis SPS/IPC/Drives?
The SPS/IPC/Drives trade fair has long since surpassed the Hanover Fair
as Germany’s premiere show for electric automation. Since its 1999 move
to larger fairgrounds in Nuremberg, the show enjoyed double-digit growth
until the financial crisis caused a dip in 2009. Once considered a regional
show, the fair has attracted more and more non-German visitors in recent
2013