Aquatech International

Source: Exec Digital USA

Date :01/06/2007 12:53:03

Making sure there is more than a drop to drink is a worldwide water purification job for Aquatech

Written & Produced by James Buchanan & Nick Ledue

With increasing global population as well as growing manufacturing and production capacity, water and wastewater treatment systems and services are in higher demand worldwide. Therefore, the company that can best manufacture and deliver these supplies and services will be well positioned to act on ever growing opportunities throughout the world.

For Aquatech International, the company’s size and scope of operations is an asset it clearly takes pride in. However, success can come with its own challenges and chief among those for Aquatech is matching its manufacturing capacity with its volume of sales.

According to Ken Kennedy, senior manager of manufacturing, it is an “Hour to hour, day to day and month to month process that requires a certain amount of micromanagement.”

Meeting Demand…

Aquatech International is among the leaders within the manufacture and supply of water and wastewater treatment systems and services. Its products are sold internationally to customers that expect a high degree of flexibility with regard to the customization of the company’s products.

Therefore, since the company does not take a one-size-fits-all approach to its products, neither can it have a manufacturing facility that is unable to adapt to the design needs of each customer. As the volume of sales ebbs and flows, the shop floor can become a rather busy place that is densely packed with equipment relative to what the company is working on at any given time, says Kennedy.

“The main challenge for us,” he says, “is to grow our productivity on a number of levels and make our manufacturing process as efficient as possible. We need to do more with less in a finite space.”

Asked if growing the manufacturing infrastructure of the company is in the offing, Dennis Gray, director of operations, says no, “We haven’t maxed out our current capacity, but we may consider it should we grow beyond the current capacity.”

Working on a project basis with little control over how the work is going to flow in, says Kennedy, requires a finely choreographed operation. Key to helping them synchronize all of the logistics is the company’s enterprise resource planning system (ERP), which is based on SAP software. This line of software allows the company to manage its accounting, production, operations, materials, personnel, and more in an integrated database.

In short, under this incarnation of an ERP system the company can form a virtual fulcrum point in order to coordinate all aspects related to the manufacture of various projects. It provides the company with a full enough picture of the data to manage the details of Aquatech’s operations, says Kennedy.

“Our SAP system helps,” adds Kennedy, “but coordination requires our people to have an intimate working relationship with one and another. They must understand that what they do will affect others in the line and how what happens in other stations will affect them. Again, it is an hour by hour process of managing how it all fits together.”

When the system works as it is designed to, says Kennedy, the people are in place with the knowledge and resources to deal with any issues that may pop up. While the process might be micromanaged, he says, it is important to note that the functions and work of their employees are not.

“Our people have the freedom to take actions,” Kennedy says, “but they also are aware that the freedom to act comes with a responsibility for its outcome.”

Marketing…

As the company grows, Aquatech is seeking to diversify the markets it operates in and its offerings to include new technologies, products, and services. However, the company has already achieved a high degree of international expertise as “there isn’t a corner of the world we haven’t worked in,” says Gray.

Because the company has offices across the U.S., Canada, India, the Middle East, and China it has the edge over other companies that may seek to compete in these markets. Further, with a strong and diverse customer base Aquatech has a track record they can rely upon to assure prospective clients of its capabilities.

Also the company boasts of having extensive marketing and business development departments. “A lot of our business is repeat business,” says Gray. “We also go out to tradeshows, rely to a certain degree on word-of-mouth, information from current clients and news stories to seek out new opportunities and markets for our products.”

Lastly, Aquatech promotes its size and scope as offering a number of benefits, which includes being a single source supplier for the company’s clients’ needs with a broad array of product offerings to meet the specific needs of its customers.

According to the company’s website, its global sourcing network maximizes value by deleting non-value-added expenses that other companies without Aquatech’s breadth may not be able to avoid.

And the company’s network of trained service engineers, which are strategically located throughout the world, enables the company to provide fast and efficient service. Coordination of these far flung offices is done through a very departmentalized, very military-like structure, says Gray. “There is not a lot of international flare, change, on our organizational chart,” he says.

Customization also allows the company to manufacture to the customer’s needs, which according to Gray is unique within the company’s industry. He says there are a number of companies that provide water and wastewater treatment systems, but most tend to operate on a retail-like basis in that products may be varied, but not customized to each client’s requirements as Aquatech’s are.