Globe Motors & other FIRST Suppliers at Design Show

FIRST General Forum
#1

Posted by Andy Baker, Engineer on team #45, TechnoKats, from Kokomo High School and Delphi Automotive Systems.

Posted on 3/18/99 7:06 AM MST

I spent yesterday at the National Design Show
in Chicago’s McCormick Place. Whew, what a day!

While I was up there searching for new and exciting
stuff to help me do my real job (designing automated
production equipment), I also ran into many vendors
who supply our Kit Parts (Kerk, Serpac (sp?), Valve
Plastics, and Globe Motors).

Talking to the Globe Motors salesman was interesting:

me: “We’re using your motors for the FIRST
Robotics Competition.”

Globe Motor Guy (GMG): “Oh, yes, we know of you!”

me: “Why can’t we buy spare Globe Motors straight
from you instead of buying a very expensive
gearbox assembly from my friendly GM dealer?”

GMG: “FIRST said that you would be cheating if you
bought from us.”

me: “What? Cheating? I’m just trying to get spare
parts… what’s the deal?”

GMG: “Well, I guess you can buy the motor with a
slightly different reducer. The reduction would
be the same, but the housing might look a little
different.”

me: “Well, maybe that would get us by.”

I didn’t push it from there, 'cause our team doesn’t
really need spare Globe Motors. But I know that there
are other teams out there that do. The only reason
that they could be resistant about selling the correct
motor-reducer provided in the kit is because that motor
was made specially for its application, and Globe has
aggreed not to sell it to anyone else.

Regardless, here is the name and number of the Globe
Motor Guy:
Robert L. Cox
Regional Sales Manager
937-229-8591
fax 937-461-1017
(Dayton, OH)

Hopefully, this info will help someone out there.

Regards,
Andy Baker
TechnoKat Engineer

#2

Posted by Joe Johnson, Engineer on team #47, Chief Delphi, from Pontiac Central High School and Delphi Automotive Systems.

Posted on 3/18/99 6:23 PM MST

In Reply to: Globe Motors & other FIRST Suppliers at Design Show posted by Andy Baker on 3/18/99 7:06 AM MST:

To all,

While I am sure that Mr. Cox would like to sell Globe motors to every FIRST team. I know that it would be a huge bother for them to do so.

So much so that they might rue the day they decided to donate very expensive and very excellent motors and gearboxes to the FIRST kit of materials.

I am begging teams not to contact Globe to buy a motor or, worse yet, ask them to donate even more motors to FIRST.

Globe is a great company. They agreed to donate very expensive parts to the FIRST kit. It was not easy to convince them to do this, but in the end they agreed that it was a worthy thing to do.

By asking them to sell you motors, you put them in a bad position. If they say yes, then they loose lots of money because they could not really make you pay the true costs of an engineer heading on down to the factory floor, getting it to the dock, getting a request for shipper filled out, having the dock personnel pack it and send it out. To top it off, for a large automotive supplier, the cost of actually cashing any checks you’d give them would probably be more than the check is written for.

If Globe refuses to sell or give you motors, then they look like the bad guys and get a black eye for doing something great (donating motors to the kit).

As to Mr. Cox’s explanation of why teams could not buy them directly and whether or not it would be cheating, chalk that up to Globe being new to this FIRST thing an not fully understanding all the ins and outs of the FIRST competition rules.

In conclusion, as someone who works for a company that donates a lot of stuff to the FIRST kit (and is often on the receiving end of requests for free motors, etc.) and as someone who spends a lot of time in the off season trying to get great new stuff in the kit (Globe motors for instance), I urge you to take the advice of Eric Rasmussen of FIRST in one of the updates:

Please do not contact Globe Motors asking for spare motors.

Thanks,

Joe J.

#3

Posted by Andy Baker, Engineer on team #45, TechnoKats, from Kokomo High School and Delphi Automotive Systems.

Posted on 3/19/99 8:44 AM MST

In Reply to: more to the story… posted by Joe Johnson on 3/18/99 6:23 PM MST:

Joe,

Good points. Beleive me, I don’t want to step on the toes of a good
supplier, especially when they are doing us and FIRST a valuable service
by donating some very good motors. Also, I personally apprectiate people
like you who bust their behind to get suppliers like Globe to donate
motors to FIRST.

I understand that as Globe is an automotive supplier, they sell possibly
millions of these motors. Therefore, their profits are very small per
motor, especially after WWP (purchasing) got ahold of 'em! So, someone
who wants to buy 1 or 2 at a time is not worth their time.

But,… (you knew there’d be a but)

With all of this considered, they STILL have a booth at a prominent design
show which I have attended for many years, and they are trying to sell
motors to people who attend this show. In my opinion, any vendor at this
show should be able to sell to not only huge accounts, but also small
quantities. Most people who attend this show are from much smaller
companies than Delphi.

Let’s say that our team doesn’t need and spare Globe Motors. As an
engineer, using their motor on our robot and seeing their booth at the
design show, I suddenly think “hey, I could use that neat Globe Motor
to power a conveyor line I’m designing at work. I know what that motor
can do, and I want to buy from Globe 'cause they were sooo generous in
donating motors to FIRST.” So I ask the salesman that I want to buy 2
of the same size (and reduction) motor that I used on the FIRST robot.
I would be surprized if he said “no”. Granted, I’m going to have to pay
more for them, since I’m not ordering 100,000, but he’d still sell them
to me.

That’s why he’s there at the trade show. He’s trying to sell motors.
The motor is already developed, designed, and a proven good product.
It’s just gonna cost me more due to the small order. Also, he told
me which distributor reps my area, so I can buy through them. The
distributor takes care of all of the tedious paperwork and overhead
that Globe doesn’t want to deal with. That’s why they have distributors.
The distributor would mark it up, and we’d pay for it.

I would think that the above case is one of the many reasons why Globe
is donating motors to FIRST anyway… to get guys like you and me to like
and use their motors in our “real jobs”.

Well, that’s my take, for what it’s worth.

I’ll agree that we shouldn’t buy from them, since FIRST and you both
say so, and I repect both you and Eric.

Regards,
Andy Baker
TechnoKat Engineer

#4