A slow evolution

José María Pujol reveals the impact of improvements in operational efficiency in the construction machinery sector.

In your opinion, what are the main challenges currently faces the machinery sector in the Middle East?

Even though the construction sector is one of the most ancient industries in the world, its evolution has not been as fast as in other industries ­- not only in Middle East, but all around the world. The construction industry of course is progressing and new technologies are being introduced and incorporated little by little, but not as fast as they should. We have to look to the automotive industry for instance to see how much we still have to improve.

In my opinion, this slow evolution is not due to lack of research and investigation or new technology application by western machinery producers, but because of the lack of acceptance or interest by the final user to accept changes in the way things are done. Construction workers are very traditional and sceptical about trying new ways of doing things.

How do you think these challenges should be tackled?

In some countries, even western ones, machinery is used by workers with out any experience, and in some cases with a low educational background. The lack of educational background is one of the reasons why it is difficult for those people to be willing to learn maintenance habits or how to use correctly those machines.

An additional point is that many construction companies try to reduce costs by using low quality machinery. The Middle East is a big opportunity for those low quality machines, because machine failure is not machine producers fault, but workers lack of experience to blame. The purchasing of machines produced by companies, which have copied a western design and do not know the final use for which that machine has been designed for, can not meet construction and final user exigencies.

Construction machinery produced by western machinery producers is almost designed for misuse - Western construction machinery makers produce machines with high quality metals and plastics, and test those machines to overcome hard working construction sector exigencies. Western machinery makers are focused in long-term customer relations, customer product satisfaction and customer fidelity.

What solutions are emerging to improve the operational efficiency of machinery in the infrastructure industry?

To improve the operational efficiency of machinery in the infrastructure industry, working on preventive maintenance is needed. Small hints and simple little things, like keeping the machines clean and ready to use for next time. Those hints keep machines to run and last longer. As an example, an immersion vibrating poker after being used, should be sank into a bucket of sand and vibrate the sand for five seconds, before being put away.

How are Technoflex meeting specialist needs in the region?

We collaborate with our distribution network partners on their local fairs, helping them with printed brochures and documentation, in their local language. We teach our distributors on product assembly and maintenance.

Our products have to be reliable, have to meet customer expectations, but also our products have to have a technical support back up to give best customer service.

What impact did the economic crisis last year have on operations at Technoflex?

Technoflex faced a great internationalisation process during the Spanish 1992 crisis. That internationalisation process helped Technoflex then, and with the same spirit, it helped to face current construction crisis too.

Technoflex has also made special efforts in cost reduction, particularly on purchasing costs and resources during current crisis - about 80 percent of Technoflex production is exported to foreign countries and due to that we could keep going during current crisis.

José María Pujol, born in Barcelona 40 years ago, studied college at GMI General Motors' Engineering and Management Institute in Michigan (USA). Employed since then by Ficosa International, S.A., an automotive component producer with more than 6000 employees at 18 different countries, Pujol has been running different company businesses in France, Italy and Spain, and two years ago began running Technoflex, the industrial construction division of the FICOSA group.