Meet changing market needs
January 1st 2004 A perspective on todays compressor industry by Nick Sanders, Chief Executive of CompAir
Traditionally, the compressor industry, like many mature industries, has been engineering led. However, the changing needs of our customers have made compressor manufacturers take a closer look at their markets and what is emerging is an industry that instead of being product driven is focusing on its customers processes.
Essentially, the market has become polarised. It is still dominated by energy air. Customers compressed air needs focus on power with the compressed air system producing the energy required for a process to happen. Applications are infinitely variable from changing truck tyres to powering presses and this end of the market probably accounts for around 80 per cent of compressors sold.
With energy air, the customer focuses on value for money as this form of process can be fulfiled by standard air compressors, operating at a standard air quality. There are a large number of manufacturers and packagers who can supply a standard kW capacity compressor, with standard air dryers and filtration.
Of course, built into the value for money equation is energy efficiency which has been the driver of much product development for the UK and European market over the last three to four years. In terms of energy efficient products, the UK is one of the more sophisticated markets and users are waking up to the levels of energy wastage inherent in older systems. A huge stride forward has been made in eliminating the guesstimate factor when sizing a system and, via data logging, it is possible to accurately evaluate a customers air requirements and provide the optimum solution in terms of output and efficiency.
Another area where the market is changing is with the growth of more sophisticated industries and the decline of heavy industry which has given rise to an increased demand for machines capable of generating compressed air of a high quality for applications where the air is active in the process. These needs are more complex and are critical to the customers end product. Here the focus is on air quality at a predictable owning and operating cost matched to the process need.
Air quality has three aspects. Firstly, the properties of the air as it touches the product: volume, pressure and the content of moisture, oil, impurities, bacteria and contaminants. Secondly there is the cost of providing this quality, both the initial cost of installation and the ongoing maintenance costs. Finally there is the consequential cost of failure oil separation failure will contaminate the product and all the pipework leading from the compressor to the product.
Oil free compressors still form a comparatively small segment of the market. It is, however, a market with considerable potential. In Europe, commercial and legislative environmental pressures are driving industry to operate in a more environmentally sensitive manner. This means that oil lubricated compressors are becoming more expensive to operate. The disposal of
used oil and filters, the disposal of contaminated condensate, the risk of pollution charges due to spillage and the risk of exposing workers to oil and oil mists are all costs that now have to be considered. If no oil is added in the first place, users do not face the cost and risk of removing it.
For the compressor manufacture this end of the market, which encompasses key industries such as food and drink, pharmaceuticals, petrochemical and chemical, poses a dual challenge. We have to develop the technology to meet our customers needs and learn to think in terms of application selling, selling solutions rather than boxes. In other words, compressor systems increasingly have to be designed to suit the process and we need to look to getting air to the process in the most efficient and cost effective way.
Learning to listen to what our
customers want has, I believe, been a concept that this industry has been slow to embrace and again stems from the fact that it has been engineering led.
Certainly in terms of product development, that is changing. In CompAirs own product launch system, we have taken
the lead from the automotive industry, which applies great discipline to its product development process. The
system sees a multi-skilled team working together from the outset in a structured way, with the process always starting
with definition of the market need. And
by bringing in a wide range of perspectives at the concept design stage, we not only see a considerable acceleration in the process of bringing a product to market, but we ultimately see better products.
While the market is driving the compressor industry for high energy efficiency and high air quality in terms of product development, we need to pay equal attention to the aftermarket area. The dynamics and dimensions of the aftermarket business are very different and the criticality of after sales service and parts supply has to be understood in order for us to justifiably claim to provide a total solution to our customers needs. Both the aerospace and automotive industries have created the model and it should not be unrealistic for a compressor manufacturer to provide a 24 hour
spares service to the UK and Europe. It is what a demanding market wants and it
is a culture that is growing within the industry.
Users want compressed air but they do not really want to have to think about it. The structure of many business has changed, embracing the principle of running lean and mean by outsourcing a whole range of essential, but ancillary, services. Looking to the future, there is considerable scope for outsourcing compressed air supplies. Involving a partnership between customer and supplier, it means not only providing scheduled servicing and breakdown
cover, but also ensuring that the
customer only buys the amount of air needed to do the job. For the customer it is an approach that eliminates risk, and offers peace of mind. For the compressor manufacturer, the motivation will not simply be to sell compressed air, but to provide an installation designed to deliver operational savings by ensuring that the equipment, installation and application
are appropriate and that everything is working together to ensure plant
efficiency. More articles from CompAir Redditch: | 
