Industrial & Electrical Equipment Industry - Introduction

Pop quiz. Back in 2001, what was the world's most valuable company? Thinking internet boom, personal computing, maybe Microsoft, IBM, Apple? Sensible guesses, but no. The answer is General Electric, GE, a century-old giant founded by Thomas Edison and known for not-so-flashy products like pumps, air compressors, and electric motors. GE's domain? Industrial and electrical equipment. In short, the equipment and machines used in manufacturing and other industrial sectors. The stuff you need to make other stuff. Originally, making stuff, goods, was just a matter of two inputs, materials and labor. With the industrial revolution, we added a third input, powered machines, presses, pumps, furnaces, and so on. This was the first generation of what we'll call equipment. GE was a pioneer here, making some of the earliest electric motors and systems used in 19th century factories. Today, that equipment is far more sophisticated, embedded with chips, sensors, and software. And every manufacturing sector, from aerospace to auto to semiconductors, depends on this equipment. Maybe now you can see why in 2001 GE was the most valuable company in the world, and why its peers, Siemens, Schneider, Mitsubishi, ABB, are still industrial giants today. These companies are what we'll call the equipment OEMs. OEM stands for Original Equipment Manufacturer. These companies are the focus of this primer, the makers of all the stuff that we need to make other stuff. And yes, the customers of these equipment OEMs, confusingly, are often a different kind of OEM, say a smartphone manufacturer or an automaker. In this primer, we'll explore the world of industrial and electrical equipment. We'll cover the different types of equipment, the associated services, the companies behind it all, the main production models, and the trends shaping the industry.