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Five hurdles on the new technology path (Editor's Note: The
May/June issue of Paper360°(soon to be published), will contain
an article about ozone bleaching and the problems one company faced while
trying to convince customers of the benefits of their technology. In the
process, they identified five hurdles on the path of new technology, which
are summarized below. Be sure to read the full article in the May/June
issue of Paper360° to learn more.)
Outdated Information Executives need to trust their technical specialists, but they should
also discuss the introduction of new technologies with various independent
experts and not rely completely on one internal resource.
Copy and Paste Culture The "copy and paste" model promoted by some engineering companies,
is certainly efficient as a short-term strategy, but it is the responsibility
of companies to not only ask for proven systems but to seek answers
regarding opportunities and threats in the mid- to long-term.
The Marketing Paradox Representatives of suppliers who sell both the old and new technology,
are in an unclear and difficult position. On one hand they want to promote
the new technology, but at the same time they don't want to raise objections
to the choice of the engineering company. If a conservative customer
has already agreed with the engineering company's technical choice,
he might simply buy the older technology from a competitive supplier.
On the other hand, deciding to go for the new technology would mean
that several of the executives from both the customer's company and
the engineering company would be taking a risk.
Such misguided advice can lead to a loss of coherence and a lose/lose
situation for both the company and the equipment supplier. Being proactive
and keeping the initiative regarding technology choice are key factors
for success in many projects.
Conservatism in the Industry It may happen in such a case, that the mill owner overestimates his
employees' desire for innovation and their dedication to its interests.
The technical manager in charge of the project might not be ready to
take any risks and may prefer upgrading the fiberline to a less modern
technology, but one that he is more familiar with and that requires
less change in the day-to-day production, fewer training courses, less
stress and less new expertise. In that case, the technical management
recommends a technology better than what is in use today, but less efficient
than the best available technology.
Short-Term Strategy A short-sighted investor will roughly calculate the required amount
of investment, cut it by 20% - 40% and ask his technical management
to proceed with the modernization, secretly hoping his employees will
find a way to make it work. The result is that the mill will not opt
for the best available technologies but something only slightly better
than they have today. The investor is not only depriving himself of
significant benefits but may also be forced to modernize once again
only a few years later, which in the end will cost a lot more than what
would have been required at the beginning and will have a significant
negative impact on the economics (and environmental impact) of the mill.
As financial conservatism is linked to large investments, long-term
payback, and technological risks, one of the best approaches should
remain long-term vision in an unpredictable world.
Pr. Emil Germer (Germer.Emil@gmail.com)
is with the Saint-Petersburg State Forest-Technical Academy; Alexis
Métais (Alexis.Metais@xyleminc.com),
Brendan Van Wyk (Brendan.VanWyk@xyleminc.com)
and Dr. Jean-Christophe Hostachy (Jean-Christophe.Hostachy@xyleminc.com)
are with Xylem Inc.
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