The time is just right for B2B sales people to propose good enduring practices on plants - but is anybody really listening?
This is a key question- as plant equipment design and manufacturing continues to be outsourced or off-shored- more and more skids are being made with the short term and warranty periods in mind- the long term OPEX and reliability is taking a real hit- and so is innovation in manufacturing technology. No one can afford to spend millions of dollars every few years- so low reliability designs have to be kept in service with a lot of hand work, modification and yes compromise. Can you imagine how this is hurting productivity and competitiveness?
What large companies really need to do is focus on long term "sustainability" and not just plant start up investment costs- this will ensure a long term commitment from skid and equipment manufacturers! I cant believe how many times I see half botched designs that are expensive to run or just plain failure prone- have long down times inherent to their design and design flaws, being used at plants- maybe the time is ripe for a new executive office. A chief production engineering officer! CPEO. A sort of guru who leads a team to find low energy usage, high reliability and high throughput equipment for plants. Focuses on best engineering practices- A sort of balance to the CFO and the market demands- a healthy balance between good reliable long term plant engineering and cost control and quarterly profits!
The time for engineering to sharpen productivity and long term sustainability is here!
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