Control Panels guide for OEMs

Equipment control panels that are well designed and visually appealing generally help equipment sales. That’s because your equipment control panels affect how people feel about your equipment.

• Control panels can be a deciding factor when it’s a close call.
• Improving your equipment control panels can help equipment sales.

Customers choose your equipment over the competition when they feel you have the best package. When your equipment and control panels are better than the competition they feel better about your package.

1 • Marketing your control panels

Your equipment control panels should be well designed and visually appealing to enhance your equipment package. When this is true customers see your equipment package as unique, attractive and reliable. This generally helps equipment sales. Should you be marketing your control panels ?

• YES – When they’re well designed and visually appealing.
• NO – When they’re the weakest part of your equipment package.

If you want to start marketing your control panels you may need help making them marketable. Ideally you can do this on your own. If not, see Electrical Control Panel Builders can help for some things to think about.

2 • Quoting control panels to specification

Being able to quote equipment and control panels to specification quickly and accurately creates opportunities to sell more equipment at a greater profit. When customers ask you to produce your equipment and control panels to their specification they’re willing to pay a premium. When quoting theses opportunities you have two choices.

1. GOOD – Thoroughly review all specifications and quote everything to specification.
2. BAD – Review and quote your equipment to specification and quote your standard control panel.

When you can’t easily quote these opportunities you turn them down or you start guessing. The problem with guessing at control panel cost is you can be off by a factor of ten and not know it. When you guess high you’re out of the running. When you guess low you may get the order, but it may not be profitable.

3 • Producing control panels to specification

The only way you get control panels you want is by specifying the requirements clearly. The problem is specifying control panels can be tricky. It’s tough to find the right balance between too little and too much information. The right balance depends on who you’re working with and how you’re communicating.

• Verbal specifications can be good or bad depending on who you’re talking to.
  • A panel builder that knows you can fill in the unspoken details they know are important to you.
  • A new panel builder can’t fill in the unspoken details and may not understand what you want.
• Written specifications can be good or bad depending on who’s reading them.
  • A panel builder that knows you will focus on the details they know are important to you.
  • A new builder builder may not see details important to you in an ocean of unimportant ones.

When you specify what you want in writing, use the shortest accurate description that clearly conveys what’s important to you. An outline format or spreadsheet format works best.

4 • Verifying control panels meet the specification

Whether you specify what you want verbally or in writing, eventually you’ll need to verify your panel builder is planning to produce the control panels you’re expecting to receive. Make them show you what they’re planning to produce before they start production.

Ideally your panel builder should provide a detailed engineering submittal for your review and approval prior to production. At a minimum it should include datasheets for each provided part, physical layout drawings, electrical schematic drawings, and field connection drawings. Whatever you do, before you place an order verify you’re getting what you’re expecting to receive. No surprises.

5 • Developing a specification checklist

Control panel specifications can be extensive, so you have to break them down into sections to make sense of them. This is the same technique you should use to tell a panel builder what you want them to produce for you. Below is an example of what I mean.