Welcome to On Time in Full, a podcast from Design Conveyor Systems. Hello, everyone, and welcome to this episode of On Time in Full. I'm your host for today, Gabrielle. And today, we have the pleasure of having Robert Hosier, principal of solution design at Design Conveyor Systems, here with us today to discuss a pivotal topic, which is solution provider versus integrator. Robert brings a wealth of knowledge to our conversation on how the increasing automation knowledge among clients is reshaping their expectations. We'll go ahead and explore why single automation solutions often fall short, how apparent issues may indicate deeper problems, and why partnering with a solution provider is crucial in today's technological landscape. Robert will also be sharing insights on establishing a more impactful partnership with clients moving beyond the trusted advisor label. Welcome, Robert. Thank you. Thanks for having me. Appreciate the opportunity to just talk about today's topic. It's something that's, very dear and dear to my heart. Alright, Robert. So could you, just for our audience, briefly introduce yourself as well as just give us a little bit of your background, of your role at Design Conveyor Systems? Yeah. Thank you for the opportunity. Yes. My name is Bob Bossier, and I appreciate this opportunity to discuss, today's topic, solution for partners versus integrators. You know, my role at DCS is the principal of solution design. In this in this role, I would get to work with our sales team, helping customers solve problems, developing solutions, assessing their problems, and fully developing comprehensive solutions, for their business priorities. You know, I've I've got a great experience in the market, first with operational backgrounds and then into solution consulting. It's a great role. I get I get the opportunity to talk to business leaders every day on their problems and challenges, and how can we help them? How do we help partner with them on building the right solution to to give them long term success? Yeah. It's a super exciting position. And, Bob, I wanted you to give us just an overview of today's topic as well. I mean, solution partner versus integrator. What does it mean? Explain why it's relevant in the current industry landscape. But it it is relevant because there, you know, there are really two types of business improvement companies. Right? There are integrators, and I understand the term integrator is a broad term, and it can mean a lot of different things to people. And, of course, there's always the hybrid. But an integrated, their job is to install. Is they you know, they're not typically the one who builds the solution, but they're the ones that have to implement it. And and with that, they have, you know, a lower level of risk. Right? Someone else designed it. Someone else built it to meet the requirements of the customer. And the integrator is there to just, you know, install it and and probably support it after after the go live. A solution partner is is like an architect. Right? It's like someone who builds and designs the home or the building from scratch. They're there to to develop the solution. They were there to meet with the client regularly and collaborate on the design. They're focused on the problems, and they're assessing data, and they're building a comprehensive cohesive solution. A solution a good solution partner, brings a wealth of knowledge to the table. Right? They they have subject matter expertise in all different levels of automation and technology that are out there. And they and they provide, you know, education to the client on which is the better solution for them and why. And and that's where the collaboration and the partnership starts. And as the design evolves from design into into implementation, a solution partner builds the relationship across all different, types of people within the companies. It's it's a it's a test of time, and that's what makes everyone successful. Yeah. And let's talk, I mean, role definitions. Yeah. An integrator typically procures the solution. Right? Someone else developed how many feet of conveyor, how many racks, how many pieces of automation, based on the set of requirements. And the integrator then takes that and typically procures the components for the client, and installs it. And some of them train and test, some of them do not, some of them turn them back over to the client. At the end of the day, you know, there's, again, to my point, limited accountability for an integrator. Right? They they're not the person who built it. Right? They may have knowledge of the parameters that they're trying to solve to be used in testing prior to Goliath, but they're not they're not, they don't have all the skin in the game, if you will, to use a coin phrase. A solution partner is the designer. They start from square one. They work with the client on really understanding the problem. So often, we talk about this. The problem that they're trying to solve may have upstream or downstream, influences in the in the overall solution. So you look at the at the overall business and assess not just the problem that they're presenting to you, but what are some of the contributors and some of the results that come out of that specific area or problem that they're trying to resolve. You know, the the solution partner, in many cases, finds integrators to install. Right? We're we're not, a construction company that goes in and builds it. We will find an integrator to to implement our solution. But all the while, DCS is accountable to the client for the overall solution, the implementation, the testing, the training, go live, and then on to technical support after the go live. So it is a one stop shop. And how has the knowledge base of clients regarding automation technologies increased in recent years? Well, it's significantly increased. Right? With with marketing and online tools, clients and and engineering teams that work for clients are very knowledgeable. They're reading feverishly about what's the latest and greatest, trying to get that market edge to be more profitable, for their company and for their customers. Right? It it, the trade shows. I've been going to a lot of trade shows over the last ten, fifteen years, and the attendance has increased dramatically as clients come to learn about their how to solve their problems. And and that's we we encourage that. Right? Our job as a as a solution provider is to partner with them. Right? It it it is someone that, you know, they may come to the table with a preconceived set of ideas. Right? I saw this robot at the show, and it really looked like it could help us. Our job and what we really do well is to say, yes. That robot is an alternative, but there are other alternatives as well. And let's focus on the right solution, not just a solution. Absolutely. Well, what are some of the common misconceptions, that you're seeing time and time again with clients, especially regarding just quick fixes in automation? What are you seeing? It's funny you mentioned that. We commonly hear that automation is plug and play. Right? Or it's user configurable. Or, you know, it's it's it's a black box. Right? No big deal. We're just going to drop it on your warehouse floor and plug it in. Obviously, the devil's in the details. Right? And that's where a solution partner differs from an integrator, and then a solution partner has fully gone through the vetting process. They fully have designed the solution with the end customer in mind, in many cases, through a lot of workshops and collaboration efforts between the two groups. Right? And when the solution does arrive on-site, there's ownership. There's there's shared ownership. There's shared responsibilities. And the solution is implemented correctly because it started from the original design versus just you know, this is we're not buying refrigerators anymore where people just bring a refrigerator home, plug it into the wall, and set the temperature, and walk away. Right? These are complex solutions that need to be integrated into clients' systems. They need to be thoroughly tested. They need to be flexible in their capacity. So there's a lot goes into to today's automation solutions, versus what you may hear about. Well, you just bring it home and plug it in. And can you explain how the obvious burning platform might be a symptom of broader issues? Yeah. The term burning platform means what's the highest priority or what's the biggest what's the biggest challenge that you're facing. Right? What's the what's the one thing you're trying to get out of it? In today's world, we rarely find a single problem. We usually find that there is a symptom that we're trying to address, but there are other contributors beneath the surface that are causing the problem. It it's not as easy as just cutting it out and putting something new in. Right? There's there's an upstream and downstream viewpoint needed to really focus in on the full solution from front door to back door rather than just, hey. I wanna automate this one little process because it's high labor content. We're great. We can automate that. But if we don't set up the the inbound correctly or we don't set up the outbound correctly, that asset or that that piece of automation could could become underutilized and and and not provide the solution that they're looking for. Oh, let's talk a little bit about case studies. I mean, are there any that you can share, maybe examples where a deeper analysis maybe led to better solutions in the long run? Yeah. There there there are always, there are always opportunities when you're going into solutioning to analyze data. Right? The data makes the difference on the solution. So often we hear, well, you know, I'll give you an overview of what our data is. And, you know, I've already I've already gone through it, and here's here's what you need to focus on. We typically ask for the data anyway so we can go back through and understand the ebbs and flows within the year. Right? Is there seasonality? Is there peak times? Is there downtimes? What level of flexibility do you wanna be? How long do you want the design to last for? You know, in today's world, we're designing solutions for five, seven, ten years out to to be flexible enough to handle the additional volumes as businesses project their growth. But more often than not, we're working with a with a client that wants to retrofit or change a piece of automation or solution within their billing. Right? And it seems easy. Right? We're we're just going to cut this out and put this in. It's not that easy. It it really is where the deeper the deeper dives go is to look at the volumes and the flows and how the units and materials work from door to door. That really sets the example part. I mean, recent example, client client called and said, hey. I want I gotta pick faster. I wanna get more throughput. Right? I I've gotta I've gotta meet some demands becoming faster. Is the is the front end bringing inventory to the picking engine, size correct? Is the outbound loading dock sized correctly to get it into the truck? You typically see that when you're doing retrofits where people are replacing aged equipment or looking for the next best thing. Where we have to do a better job of analyzing the data and the business case to be able to have a successful solution. Well, how important is a thorough assessment but also customization when it comes to solution design? That's a great question. Assessing the the business, assessing the, not only just the the business parameters, but also the the staffing and solutions of of labor, is key in building a solution. Right? You wanna make sure that it's that it can be managed and run. It's like giving some like, buying a new car and never figuring out that you don't know how to drive stick shift, if that's the the car you buy. So you really need to assess, you know, the problems. Because so often I said before, the problem is never always just the problem. There are other things that go into the problem that need to be addressed. Customization is is really, you know, key because not everyone has the same needs or or requirements to solve for. We like to call it configuration, not as much as customization. Configuration is really configuring a solution, piece of automation, a robot, could be a system, configuring that to meet the business requirements that allow the operators to improve. And and and ultimately, make the company more successful. Absolutely. And, you know, why does having a solution partner make more sense in today's environment with all of these emerging technologies? Well, because you can't be smart on everything. Right? And as as a client or customer looking for a solution, you you you may have seen something that that, you know, the the next great solution that's out on the market due to marketing. Today's technologies are not simple technologies. They all have behind the scenes integration requirements to tie into the system. Right? The solution provider understands that they have the staff, the expertise within the staff to understand how that piece of equipment will operate and what makes sense for their business. So often we we provide at DCS, we provide automation alternatives. Right? The pros and cons of each of the automation, concepts that that come to come to mind when we're trying to solve a solution. It's no longer just a single, put a piece of conveyor down or throw up a rack to hold a pallet of merchandise. These are complex solutions that need to be fully integrated across, the business. And lastly, I mean, how can solution providers move beyond that label of trusted advisor to establish maybe a more impactful partnership? Well, the term trusted advisor has been around for a while and and it it's often misused, but the simple fact that a trusted adviser back in the day was someone that worked with the client to build trust, obviously, the word trust. But the term advisor has gone to the wayside. Right? We're no longer advising clients. We're solutioning. And there's a a key difference there. Advising means you're recommending or giving guidance. Solutioning means you're diving in with both hands and solving the complex problems. You're analyzing the data. You are developing, alternatives to the solutions. You're not just advising them at a higher level. And so in today's world, well, we all wanna earn the client's trust. I mean, that's paramount. It's better to find someone that builds strategic solutions for you as a client. You you need flexibility. You need to be able to expand. You need to be able to have configuration capabilities for next year, for things that you don't even know exist today in your problem statement. You need to have someone that really understands your challenges. They they gets to know you as in a relationship as it should be with, you know, the ebbs and flows of your business and what you're trying to solve. It's key to to the future success. We we all wanna have, you know, someone that comes in and looks out for us, and that's really what we try to do at DCS. We are focused on what's doing I'm doing we are focused on doing what's right and creating meaningful relationships, partnerships, if you will, with our customers to get them through their their journey to future success. We're we're we're maniacal about making sure that there is, carry on beyond the solution, right, for the next project and for the next piece of automation that comes down the road. Absolutely. And that wraps up the conversation for today. So thank you, Bob, for joining us on today's episode to discuss how the increasing automation knowledge knowledge among clients is reshaping their expectations. It was a pleasure to have you on the podcast. Thank you. Thank you. Of course. And as always, if you wanna learn more, please visit design conveyor dot com and look for this podcast wherever it is you get your podcasts at. I've been your host, Gabrielle. Thanks for tuning in.
