Pressure Point Blog | Lorna Hicks (2)

Karim visited Swagelok Bristol in April this year. He was here to support some of our customers and we took the opportunity to ask him some questions about his role.

Karim, what's your background? 

I have worked with Swagelok for the last 13 years. I am responsible for growing sales of all existing AI products as well as strategic development of future growth initiatives in this key product segment, including annual business planning and product/technology road maps. My responsibilities as a product manager include developing products through market research then combining those findings with general requirements, specifications, timetables, pricing and plans to complete development and marketing strategies. My focus is aligning Swagelok with customer needs and addressing the significant trends facing our customers in the Analytical space to help increase their asset operational efficiency in a safe, reliable, & cost-effective manner. 

What are you currently working on? 

I am working on expanding Swagelok's application solutions to provide customers with an entire set of solutions to their most demanding systems from the extraction of the sample up to their laboratory. 

Where was your last field trip? 

I travel extensively for my role, the last countries visited were within Europe, Prague, Germany, Sweden and now the UK. I support customers globally in my everyday role. 

How have you supported our customers here in the South West of England? 

Visiting customers allows me to align marketing and customer needs with my strategies and initiatives and the goal of becoming a complete solution provider. I identify common customer requirements around the globe and communicate these to Swagelok distributors to ensure Swagelok is continuously seeking to improve customers pain points. 

Tell me a success story! 

Koch – Ammonia sampler system. This was initially a bespoke project for a customer and now is a patented system. Our Ammonia Sampler is the only semi-automated system that is easy to install and operate limiting operator exposure and increasing process efficiency for our customers.

Do you focus on individual components or a holistic approach when reviewing a fluid system? 

A holistic approach, my approach has been to look for ways to understand and fulfill what matters to our customers. Each application are so unique and I always look at the big picture, focus on areas where our customers experience the most challenges and try to work with my team to create solutions that are fully customisable to help our customers maintain what matters most to them (safety, sustainability and their process efficiencies).

How many projects are you working on at one time? 

Currently 5 projects, the number always changes based on complexity and my level of involvement

How do customers get the opportunity to work with you? 

Through local distributor interactions, they engage with me for opportunities regarding these applications. 

(If you would like to work with a Swagelok Product Manager - Get in touch with Swagelok Bristol through the form below and we will start a conversation with the right product manager for your needs.)

What are the 3 most essential tools or systems you use to complete your projects? 

Voice of the customer, insight trips, market research and working with different service groups, operations, custom solutions and marketing. 

Tell me your product of the moment 

Analytical Instrumentation: measurement is a very important part of most customers businesses, for example in refinery and petrochemical processes, pressures to decrease downtime, minimize corrosion, and reduce waste and the use of chemicals has increased. The value of process analytics in these environments is substantial. We deal with measurement and control of various physical and chemical properties such as chemical composition, pH, density, viscosity, flash point, etc. My product line plays a very important role in various industries such as chem and refining, research laboratories, oil & gas refineries, research space, and food-processing laboratories. It also plays a critical role in enabling my customers monitoring of process conditions, product quality during custody transfer and control of environment emissions.

Swagelok Grab Sampling is one of our breadth of solutions that we offer that provides a means of capturing a representative sample. It is used in different markets and it is customisable to customer needs allowing for safe, efficient sample capturing.

....and finally, what do you think of this statement from the  

"IEEE Pulse of Engineering survey 2018" 

"Engineers are facing greater challenges and increased pressure in their profession. Seventy-nine percent agree or strongly agree that designs are more complex/sophisticated, 72 percent agree or strongly agree there are more time-to-market pressures, and 65 percent agree or strongly agree that design cycles are shrinking. " 

I agree. There is a general trend where time, speed and complexity are getting stringent. Customers want to do more with less. Automation is one aspect that is solving some of these issues. The above also ties into my intention to leverage the technology to enable our customers to have better visibility to their system parameters and become more predictive than preventative. 

Thank you Karim!

Would you like to learn more about Grab Sampling? Karim has written an article entitled 'Grab Sampling 101' use the links below to find out more.

Configurable, Local, Reliable.

This month's product focus is looking at Grab Sampling. The  article below discusses the benefits and reasons our customers choose us to supply components for a grab sample panel, or request a fully built panel that is simply installed.

Considering individual customer requirements grab sampling can be fast, reliable and efficient with a Swagelok sample panel. 

With the team putting in their preparation efforts around work, we have started with a chassis and the first edits have been made.

There is an intention to get some Swagelok components onto the final design. With our products able to sustain extreme environments some of the discussions have been elaborate! 

Last month three of our Swagelok Bristol team went to Swagelok Aberdeen for a Europe-wide collaboration and training with Sam Dibert, President of Swagelok Dibert Valve and Fitting Co. Sam gave a demonstration of a more varied range of applications for the 60 Series ball valve.

At Swagelok Bristol we most commonly deploy the 60 Series Ball Valve in challenging process applications where higher flow, larger tube sizing (1/2" -2") and a broad range of temperature adn operating parameters exist, mainly within industries such as Chemical, Refining and Nuclear. 

Alex Chu is a Swagelok Field Engineer based here in Bristol, UK. Alex has worked at Swagelok Bristol for over 5 years and supports Swagelok globally.

Preparations are underway for a team at Swagelok Bristol to design and build a Soapbox racer to be raced in July 2019 in Portishead.

Information about the race can be found here -https://www.portisheadsoapbox.co.uk/

Swagelok Bristol has a history of providing quality training for our customers. The training requirement has evolved over the years and we find ourselves currently offering a wide variety of support across the many aspects of a fluid system.

With technology advancing rapidly, individual job roles becoming more and more specialised and the availability of experienced engineering expertise shrinking in market, skill gaps in the workforce are an issue that many businesses are faced with. While there are many remedies for this modern problem, from investing in internal training for existing employees to increasing the size of the workforce, often the most effective solution is to utilise external expertise.