Question: Who designs these larger installations? Do they seek your input at the design stage?
@Packard No, at least in the actual design stage.
I used to work at a metal stamping company (now retired). We would get blueprints for projects that I labeled as “just-because-you-can-draw-it-doesn’t-mean-anyone-can-make-it”.
That would prompt a phone call to the purchasing agent, and (hopefully) lead to me speaking directly with the engineer. I never failed to invite the engineer to visit our facility.
There were several advantages for having the engineer visit. He would meet all the key people in out company and feel he had a relationship established.
He would learn which operations were easy, were difficult or were impossible.
We would find workarounds for what he needed to get made.
And finally the tour of the factory would prompt phrases like, “I didn’t know you could do that” or “That’s an interesting process”.
If he worked one of those interesting processes into his next design, there was a good chance our competition would not be able to replicate it. That gave us a huge competitive advantage.
Even more important, the engineer viewed our capabilities as ways to make him look better to his management.
I would imagine it would work the same way in your operation.
I’ve always admired your company’s ability to created these monstrously large installations.
