Garwood Hears Voice of the Customer

在与Automation WorldGE FANUC首席执行官杰夫·加伍德（Jeff Garwood）首席加里·明彻尔（Gary Mintchell）首席编辑讨论了该公司的前进方向。

Automation World:您是自动化行业的新手。您能给我们一些个人和公司背景吗？

Jeff Garwood:I have a chemical engineering degree plus a master of business administration. After a stint as a project engineer and McKinsey consultant, I joined GE in 1991 and held various positions. I was named CEO at GE Fanuc in 2003.

在我在GE Fanuc的两年中，我已经看到了自从GE与日本Fanuc之间的合资企业以来的产品重点的转变。顺便说一句，它是GE的最长立场合资企业。成功的原因是结构 - 父母都会获得良好的回报，每个人都在业务中有一个很好的发言权。

Jeff Immelt (GE’s chief executive officer) says to focus on what your customers need—whether components or applied solutions. The important thing is how we approach customers. We’ve had a good focus on applying the right technology driven by the needs of our customers.

AW:有一些高调的倒戈通用电气Fanuc over the past year. Has this had any impact on the organization or your business?

Garwood:Our internal organization shouldn’t matter as long as it drives productivity for our customers. Some good people have left, to be sure, but beyond that, we have also reorganized over the past two years and removed a lot of clutter that was in the way of making decisions. We’ve moved to make acquisitions. While we focus on product development, we believe that the sales team and others who touch customers should tell us what directions we need to go in developing new products. We’ve seen some pretty strong growth recently with some nice returns.

AW:What are some of the new directions coming from Jeff Immelt, who recently took over from the legendary Jack Welch?

Garwood:做出承诺[并保留他们]。在GE上，“说/do”比率很重要。就像韦尔奇时代一样，我们仍然专注于做事有效地做事，但是我们现在也努力将技术和技术协同作用成为领导力的最前沿。我们专注于如何最好地接触和触摸客户。

有些人认为韦尔奇和伊梅尔特之间的差异是成本与增长 - 或另一个。实际上，[immelt]这两者兼而有之。

AW:What about product development goals?

Garwood:Our direct, line-of-sight focus on market segments is leading to success now. It’s listening to the voice of the customer. We’re seeing growth across almost all our segments. We are pleased with the reception and orders for the new Proficy Suite of software applications. Our product development investments have been spot on to improve the speed of implementation. Merging data into knowledge faster is what we’re up to in our software developments. The second focus is in VME-bus computers. We are continuing to build this platform, as well as customizing for specific customers who are in the military, telecom and general industrial markets. We’ve made a couple of acquisitions to strengthen the PAC (programmable automation controller) line and growing the PLC (programmable logic controller) side of the business with input from embedded technologies.

AW:任何修改在你的营销渠道?

Garwood:When I came in a couple of years ago, I learned that our channel was great, but that it needed to be supplemented with direct sales. Our direct sales team is devoted to getting our products recognized, as customers and prospective customers develop specifications for new projects. It became clear that two different skill sets were required in the sales team—channel management and customer focus. In addition, no one person can be an expert in all areas of automation, so we’ve developed a knowledge directory accessible by application ability or vertical industry ability. For example, if a sales person goes into a customer site and the customer wants to talk about material handling, that sales person can look up a directory of white papers we have on the topic, as well as access the right people to help.