Mattis, a genial 33-year-old, is Adept Technology's Midwest district sales manager, and the company's current "salesman of the year." Most of the time he works the road, selling his $50,000 robots to the heartland, but two or three times a year he comes to shows like this one in Chicago. He is here to pursue new leads, press the flesh with old customers, and eye the competition. Most of all, he has come to "cement relationships with the systems houses" that integrate Adept robots into the automated manufacturing processes they sell to end users. He is here to see to their care and feeding.
They have already seen to his. There is no Adept corporate display in the hall. But there are six Adept booths -- six systems houses, or integrators, that have displays featuring Adept robots.
* * *
The first familiar face that Mattis sees belongs to R. Michael Farrell, proposal engineer for one of those integrators. "Should I tell you the good news now?" Farrell asks him.
"Sure.'
"Firestone," Farrell tells him. "Five of them.'
Mattis brightens. By selling Firestone Industrial Products Co. an automated assembly line anchored by five Adept robots, Farrell has demonstrated, once again, the elegance of Adept's two-part marketing strategy.
Adept has tried something different from its competitors' approach. While most makers targeted the automotive industry with robots that could do little more than muscle iron around the factory floor, Adept went after manufacturing tasks that required a defter touch -- then provided the most powerful software in the industry, plus the ability to inspect a part to make sure it is up to spec and in the right place. While most of the competition chose to design turnkey manufacturing systems around its robots, Adept chose to stay focused on the robot itself. It thus approached integrators, wooing them with the technology, and it convinced them they'd sell more systems if they included Adept robots in the solutions they pitched to end users -- a "pull-through" marketing strategy.
Having created a surrogate sales force, Adept's own sales force approached end users with applications examples, plus the names of integrators who could make the applications work. Suddenly the systems integrators were hearing from end users: design us a system, just make sure it has an Adept robot in it. To further seal the compact, Adept promised and delivered strong technical support to systems houses and end users alike.
Wandering through the aisles, Mattis pauses next at a booth featuring the robot of a competitor, Intelledex Inc. Mattis is surprised. Intelledex has been stalled of late, he says, but this machine looks pretty good -- at least what he can see.
"Can I help you?" There are two sales reps at the booth: one steals a glance at Mattis's Adept badge; the other moves to block his view.
Mattis moves on, amused. At past shows Adept has had to kick camera-carrying competitors out of its booth two or three times. One forward fellow even took the back panel off an Adept controller, got down on the floor, and started drawing diagrams of the circuitry inside.
At the end of the aisle Mattis encounters a happier surprise. PS Group, a systems integrator, has an Adept robot in its booth -- a seventh, unexpected display of his product. Even better, PS's robotics engineers, Paul Tourish and Victor Criswell, are gushing to passersby about Adept Technology.
"The software language is easy to use," says Criswell.
When PS had some problems with the robot, Tourish adds, Adept sent over an engineer. "He worked through the night and took one 10-minute break. I couldn't believe it.'
Mattis has only one complaint: PS's display features an Adept robot and a Hitachi robot cooperatively stuffing a printed circuit board. But when he gently chides them for including "that Japanese thing," the Hitachi robot knocks into the board, crunching it -- proving Mattis's point.
It is early afternoon; over in one corner of the convention hall an Adept robot has been working all day without even time off for a smoke and a cup of java. The display belongs to Automation Tooling Systems Inc. (ATS), an integrator based in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada -- "my lifeblood," Mattis calls the company, "the first to take the risk and totally embrace us.'
Klaus Woerner, president and founder of ATS, is an energetic man who once worked as a toolmaker for a watch manufacturer. He used to deal with IBM and Seiko, where robotics is a fraction of the business, and where bureaucracy is endemic. But he switched to Adept. "With Adept, if I have a problem I call the president," he explains.
Woerner believes that Adept makes the best robot around -- but that, he says, is only half the story. Adept's software is so versatile and extensive that it is now integrated into the manufacturing processes of such major companies as Ford, Digital Equipment, Eastman Kodak, and General Motors. "If Adept ever got into trouble, we wouldn't hesitate to put together a rescue plan. Companies like GM and Ford would have no choice. If Adept doesn't make it, no one does.'
Mattis hangs around the ATS booth through mid-afternoon, helping to work the passing crowd. When a Motorola engineer stops by, Mattis closes in. "I know you use Seiko," he says, "but when you see our product, the advantages are evident. . . . What I'd like to do is have our guy come out and give a presentation. . . . '
The Motorola man is noncommittal.
Mattis takes another tack: guilt. "By the way, we use Motorola chips.'
No reaction.
"We use Motorola's product. Can't we get you to use ours?" Mattis persists, but the engineer moves on.
Motorola is one of his toughest sells; he has beaten on it before, speaking to the same deaf ears. Finding applications for Adept robots is not the problem; the problem is the attitude of the manufacturers. Big companies don't want to change their ways, while smaller companies fear that understanding and servicing the robots will overwhelm their limited in-house technical talent. So changing minds has become Mattis's mission, curing labor of its fear of robots and awakeni
