The engineering knack you can’ t download
EDITOR’ S CHOICE THE HUMAN ADVANTAGE
AXAIR FANS
The engineering knack you can’ t download
Andrew Jones, Technical Director at Axair Fans explains why engineering judgement and initiative matters, and why that won’ t change with the growth of A. I use any time soon.
I’ ve been selling and specifying industrial fans for a while, I started at Axair in 2010. In that time, I’ ve seen a lot of things change; lead times, energy regulations, the way customers expect to be communicated with. What hasn’ t changed is that getting the right fan into the right system still requires someone who understands what’ s going on inside that system, and increasingly, that’ s becoming a differentiator rather than a given.
There’ s a lot of noise right now about A. I transforming technical sales, and yes like most people we dabble with A. I tools, I’ m not precious about it’ s use and I’ m not oblivious to the advantages of getting things done more efficiently. But there’ s a gap between what these tools can do and what people seem to think they can do, and in industrial fan specification and supply that gap matters enormously.
When an enquiry comes in, what’ s written down is never the full, complete picture. A customer will tell you they need a fan to move a certain volume of air at a certain static pressure, but what they often don’ t tell you, because they don’ t always know it’ s relevant, is that the system has a long duct run with two 90-degree bends, or that the installation environment hits 60 ° C in summer for example.
An A. I tool will work with what it’ s given and if customers don’ t know, how can ai? An experienced engineer
A. I will no doubt help engineers work faster, but it can’ t replace the experience that comes from years of seeing systems succeed, fail and surprise you.
asks questions that the customer never thought of. That’ s not a small distinction, that’ s the difference between a fan that works and a fan that causes a phone call further down the line.
As an independent technical distributor, we intentionally work with a breadth of manufacturers. It means when a requirement comes in, we’ re not constrained by a single product range, we’ re looking across the market for what actually fits, but that only works if you know the ranges well enough to make the call quickly and confidently. There’ s a skill in knowing which manufacturer to approach first for a particular application, which product family delivers the required efficiency, and which solution can meet both the duty point and the customer’ s lead-time requirements. Customers come to us because they trust the recommendation, not simply a list of products that appear to match a specification.
The judgement required to pull that together, sense-check it against the application, and come back with a confident recommendation is still a human skill. Experience teaches you when something doesn’ t quite add up and needs further investigation. That’ s not a knock on technology. It’ s just honest about where the value sits.
We’ ve built Axair’ s approach around the idea that technical support isn’ t a bolt-on. It’ s why we spend time understanding applications, challenging assumptions where necessary, and helping customers arrive at the right solution.
I’ m not making an argument against technology. We use it, and we’ ll use more of it, but the conversation about A. I replacing technical expertise in industrial fan supply is, at best, premature. In our world, there are still too many variables, unknowns and situations where the right answer starts with a question rather than a specification sheet.
A. I will no doubt help engineers work faster, but it can’ t replace the experience that comes from years of seeing systems succeed, fail and surprise you. That’ s where the knack comes from. It’ s built over time, and for now at least, it’ s not something you can download.
For further information, please visit www. axair-fans. co. uk
28 PECM Issue 81