Electrical engineering giant ABB is to reorganise its automation divisions in order to take advantage of what it sees as growth opportunities in the energy efficiency market.
In a bid to align the automation units’ activities more closely with those of their customers, the business units currently in the Automation Products and Robotics divisions will be regrouped into two new divisions: Discrete Automation and Motion; and Low Voltage Products.
The Process Automation division will remain unchanged except for the addition of the instrumentation business from the Automation Products division.
“ABB’s automation businesses with their focus on productivity and energy efficiency have tremendous scope for growth,” said Joe Hogan, ABB’s chief executive officer. “We have strengthened the market approach by grouping together businesses with similar customers, technologies and service models, which will help us accelerate the development of solutions for our customers.”
The new Low Voltage Products division includes businesses producing mainly low-voltage electrical equipment that is sold to wholesalers, original equipment manufacturers as well as system integrators, and has moderate service requirements. It will be led by Tom Sjökvist, who is currently responsible for Automation Products.
Ulrich Spiesshofer, currently responsible for Corporate Development on the Executive Committee, has been appointed to run the Discrete Automation and Motion division, which includes products and systems such as robotics and programmable logic controllers (PLCs).
The inclusion of Automation Products in the Process Automation division will strengthen the division with instruments that are key to optimising industrial processes, says ABB.
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