IMI's products have a significant impact on the productivity and efficiency of our customers’ operations, which is why standard solutions are rarely sufficient. By understanding our customers’ specific challenges and bringing deep engineering knowledge IMI creates bespoke, high value-add solutions that deliver measurable outcomes across some of the world's most critical processes.
James Robinson, EMEA Engineering Director Industrial Automation at IMI, leads a team of engineers responsible for turning complex customer requirements into solutions. In this article we explore how IMI approaches bespoke solutions from the first customer conversation to the final product.
Our approach is to go deep to understand the customer problem, not immediately jumping to solutions, and combining that insight with our deep application knowledge.
Starting with the customer problem
Whatever the scale of the project, the starting point is the same. "Everything we do is with a Growth Hub mindset in mind," says James. "We start with the customer: what's the problem that they want to solve?" Growth Hub is IMI’s engine for innovation that turns real customer problems into scalable, market-led innovation and ultimately, growth for the business.
The process of defining the customer problem to solve is crucial. "For some customers that might be very well defined and for others, it may be quite vague. We are able to put structure around their thinking and guide the customer to get to a point where between us, we can agree on a very clear problem statement."
Once the problem is defined, IMI moves to concept validation via a presentation, a 3D print or a CAD model, before building a prototype. Implementation follows once the customer has confirmed the solution is fit for purpose and then scale. "If we solved a problem for one customer, chances are a similar problem will exist somewhere else where we can use that learning and effort that we've put into solving one problem to go in and amplify."
Speed is an important competitive factor, particularly for field application engineers. "It is crucial that we clearly define the requirements very quickly so that the customer can sign off on what we've specified." A new valve development might take several months. A system solution using standard products can be turned around in a matter of weeks. "Often they are up against time pressure, so they are looking to us to be as fast as we possibly can be."
The role of relationships
James’s team is made up of network of engineers working across two distinct models. "We've got engineers based in technology centres across the region and also we have field application engineers who work directly with the sales teams in the countries." Technology centres run the larger projects that require in-depth development, validation testing and are more investment intensive. Field application engineers, by contrast, support product selection or designing a custom system or solution that brings standard products together.
The scope of what those teams handle is deliberately wide. "For some of our larger customers, it could be major projects, whereas some of our smaller customers are looking for simpler solutions and minor modifications."
Our teams use different channels to support customers with differing requirements, varying from dedicated key account managers to an online self-serve platform. For the bigger accounts, relationship building is crucial. "We always seek to build a relationship from engineer to engineer."
That depth of relationship is what makes it possible to anticipate requirements before they are formally raised. The team’s understanding of customers’ businesses enables teams to proactively approach them when we have new solutions to their problems. "Application knowledge is a crucial part of the data we gather from customers. When we talk to key customers about their problems, and we're coming up with a solution, we're also drawing on our vast application knowledge as well within that sector."
Connecting knowledge across geographies
One of the practical challenges of running engineering teams across multiple countries is ensuring that a solution developed in one place is visible to engineers working elsewhere. IMI is building what James calls "our application database, where, as our engineers work on new solutions, their progress is logged in the database."
Storing this data intelligently is key to being able to move faster to meet customer needs. "If an engineer in the UK has developed a solution for a customer and a different engineer in Sweden has got a similar requirement, they can use the database and make that connection." The result is faster development and deeper institutional knowledge. "The engineer in Sweden is not starting from scratch. There's already something to start from and move forward faster to a solution."
The database is relatively new and AI is accelerating its development. Internal communications tools like Workvivo are also helping engineers build connection across borders and ultimately to solve customer problems faster and more efficiently.
What makes IMI different
Asked to sum up IMI's differentiation in bespoke engineering, James returns to the starting point. "Our approach is to go deep to understand the customer problem, not immediately jumping to solutions, and combining that insight with our deep application knowledge." Others offer bespoke solutions, he acknowledges, but "our proven Growth Hub approach, is really starting to deliver."
The four phases of the Growth Hub - Discover, test, develop & assess and scale - are consistent across every project and every customer tier, and the network that sits behind them matters as much as the process. "It's bringing all of that knowledge that we have across the sites to where it needs to be at that point in time." The more problems IMI solves, the more that knowledge compounds. "The more you do, the more knowledge you've got, the more experience you've got, you're able to do things better."
