Ask for More Engineering
August 27, 2019 by Christian Sommerhoff
What is the right price to judge on the payoff of modernization? More importantly, how do you approach these kinds of projects best?
Every producing company faces the need for automation to be globally competitive somehow. However, some companies are more hesitant than others in taking action, and often enough, the initial approach for desired or required change is unfortunate. Why? Simply, because the communication towards suppliers often begins too late and based on fragmented factors and assumptions, including a wishlist, but excluding external expertise in the equation.
Down the road, and as part of internal discussions, investments are questioned regarding their justification and the process is narrowed down to collecting budget offers from potential vendors who could contribute even more to the process with their expert opinion early on. This isolated approach is the root cause of avoidable opportunity costs, and where a good initiative can easily be kicked off the wrong way.
The technical upgrade of any existing infrastructure is characterized by a certain complexity which cannot be dealt with by accumulating price tags. No setup equals the other, and if the initial approach to a problem is wrong, the outcome is consequently put up for failure – failures again equal costs. Having said that, you always get what you ask for – ask for more!
Picking someone’s brain, a company’s experience and expertise by involving them early on in a consideration process, leads not only to better results; it puts everything into a more objective perspective. Fundamental key learnings about not only the subject matter but also a potential collaboration are made within this mode of interaction. Any project up for realization requires teamwork and meaningful dialogue between potentially partnering parties paves the way.
Ask for more, and don’t limit the potential. You should always expect a solution provider to broaden perspectives. IWB offers 30 years of deep industry and engineering knowledge. What else do we bring to the table? The unique combination of engineering and in-house software development. Following the concept of exceptionalism, our turnkey solution CRYO.TAS is the robust combination of any required hardware infrastructure – plus tailored management executing software (MES). It is deployed by global leaders in the gas industry.
While we love to process things, any automation project is a process in itself. We encourage you to touch base early on; it is a service of ours to contribute with ideas and concepts. Most importantly, we think long-term and are eager to support your company’s overall vision – way beyond any carved out stone that needs to be turned. That is the reason why any solution we offer is fully scalable with regards to future requirements. So, to answer the initial question: the best value for many is a good future-proof investment.
