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Cost or Quality? – Implementing consumer vs. industrial grade components

December 12, 2011 by Natsumi Nakamura — Marketing, PFU Systems

In our post on Nov. 14, we wrote about the importance of selecting industrial-quality I/O (input/output) components to ensure the reliability of a kiosk system.

In an ideal scenario, industrial-quality components are available at affordable prices, but in the real world, organizations often face a dilemma between cost and quality.

As a kiosk manufacturer, we face the same dilemma all the time. PFU is a Japanese company that has extremely strict standards when selecting outside components. The selection criteria we follow consider multiple elements of these components including features, quality, durability, environmental conditions, toxic chemical usage and availability. We often visit vendors' factories to make sure that they have good manufacturing practices in place. Given our strict standards, we have a history of selecting the very best components largely from well-known and established Japanese manufactures, which help make our product premium.

Over the last few years we have learned that this approach does not always work in the U.S. market. First, it does not make sense for us to bring kiosks made in Japan to sell in the U.S. given high fuel prices and the strong Yen against the U.S. dollar in recent years.

As we worked with U.S. component suppliers, we quickly realized that as a component buyer, we are following a more demanding selection process than what our vendors are accustomed to. For example, our tolerance (allowed variation from specified dimensions) was much tighter than those that they usually comply with, and after the series of tests that we typically conduct, hidden defects unknown to suppliers are often revealed. We believe in being meticulous as the little things do matter in order to build up high quality kiosks, however we have to find a balance with our vendors to avoid being counter-productive.

Also, when we develop custom kiosks, some U.S. customers request us to use off-the-shelf components in order to lower the unit cost. It is understandable – they do value quality, but they also have to stick within limited budgets.

Generally speaking, combining consumer- and industry-grade items is the most realistic and cost effective way to move forward. When do you use and not use consumer-grade components? We recommend selecting industry-grade components if they fall into one of the following two categories.

The quality of the component directly affects the performance of the kiosk

Certain components could play critical roles in overall performance of a kiosk system. For example, if your kiosk needs to handle important online transactions, selecting industry-grade network devices is recommended as there are usually much higher security settings required for Internet connections in the business environment rather than a less reliable home network.

The availability does matter

Since consumer products tend to undergo frequent model changes, there is a higher risk that selected components will reach end-of-life (EOL) and no longer be available for order. After EOL, it becomes difficult to purchase the same model and obtain repair parts, which will force you to use new or different models for a kiosk project. If the EOL of a component could affect the performance of the kiosk, consider selecting an industry-grade one instead. Industry-grade component suppliers usually offer a longer product lifetime and better product support, so even if it reaches EOL you will still be able to receive advance notice allowing you to evaluate new and different models ahead of time.

Similarly, firmware updates could also affect the performance of the kiosk system. Again, industry-grade component vendors will give you better support with advance notice of updates and assurance of compatibility.

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