Staying Ahead Of The Control Panel Technology Curve

August 29, 2022

By UCEC

There’s a tendency in every industry to gravitate towards, and heap excessive praise on, new technology. You can see companies of every shape and size purchasing or installing the newest tech gadget and then shouting from the nearest mountaintop about how it’s going to revolutionize their entire operation. Guess what? The control panel industry is no different — and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. We just want to offer some additional insights into what you should be looking for in your control panel partner — in addition to the latest shiny new toys.

One piece of the puzzle

We aren’t ones to toot our own horns, but a lot of the technology our competitors are now touting we implemented back in 2013. That means that while our competitors are busy learning the ins and outs of their new machinery, our people are learning how to improve efficiencies by concentrating on things like UL standards and other best practices. It’s one of the inherent perks of being an early adopter of technology in the space.

As we said in the intro, we think tech is great, but in and of itself it isn’t a substitute for experience and knowledge base. That’s why as our competitors spend money and resources on tech, we spend our money and resources upgrading our labor force. By hiring, training, and retaining the best and the brightest people in the industry, we’re able to level up our service offerings. The bottom line is this: tech is just a tool that doesn’t really accomplish much by itself. People are the biggest asset and most powerful tool in any company’s toolbox.

Meeting challenges head on

Just because you have the latest technology and amazing employees doesn’t mean you won’t still face your fair share of challenges. One of the biggest challenges right now coming out of the pandemic and with the economy battling inflation is costs. Historically, we’ve addressed the challenge in several ways. First, we’ve bought and paid for our machinery years ago and own our own building, so we essentially pay ourselves our own rent. And second, we understand that addressing challenges isn’t always about growing revenue, it’s also about cost containment.

This manifests in how we manage our supply chain now. (Talk about something that’s experiencing massive ripple effects from the pandemic.) As a result, we’re forced to order things today for projects we’ll be working on months down the road. But, as always, we’re building relationships and working with our partners to make those deadlines.

Practical applications and how we work

So, why do we tell you how we address challenges? Because we want you to know what it’s like working with us day in and day out. We pride ourselves on old school values, and that includes a “no bureaucracy” experience along with telling it like it is. That goes hand in hand with our goal of being the best panel shop there is.

We state that simply because we’ve seen what happens to panel shops when they lose their focus. They start churning out “expertise” as production technicians, CAD designers, press brake operators, inside sales, project engineers, electrical engineers, inventory specialists, and painters. The question becomes: are you a panel shop or not? In our mind, it represents the old adage of “a jack of all trades and a master of none.”

More practically, that means not trying to be all things to all people. Be focusing on our core competencies, we can work to strengthen them so they’re unmatched as far as quality and UL knowledge. That also means us not competing with engineering firms. We can certainly help locate engineering services and partners. But we want to work to be an extension of that firm by leveraging our expertise to offer them some practical things as far as layouts and routings via UL.

In the end, you get what you pay for. It’s ultimately your project. We just want our people to do our part so you don’t have to worry about it. And that’s our ‘secret’ to staying ahead of the control panel technology curve.

https://www.ucec.com/news/2022/7/7/staying-ahead-of-the-control-panel-technology-curve