Industry perspective

Abstract

As an industry consultant, our approach was always to let the OEM suppliers sell the equipment. We just wanted to provide our experience as a resource to educate end users, helping them make the best, most cost-effective buying decision possible on the equipment necessary to meet their needs. Once installed, our goal was to make sure that the equipment operated at its optimum level for that customer's situation-specific performance parameter - be it additional capacity, energy savings, improved product quality, process reliability, or something else. When existing systems needed to be upgraded or debottlenecked, we would find solutions that minimized the need for new equipment - fully realizing that OEM suppliers would naturally try to drive a solution more toward new equipment. That's my perception of what a consultant is expected to do, and I can attest that the end users and other industry stakeholders we worked with received the service we offered with open arms, appreciating the support.