HydroChem LLC’s Vice President of Technology and Automation Frank Moll knows his technology center has driven a “new wave” of hands-free hydroblasting, but he insists the most important part of the company’s approach to technological innovation is listening to the feedback of employees in the field. BIC Magazine recently sat down with Moll to discuss his past success and future goals for his position.
Q: What led to your position at HydroChem?
A: The short answer is water cuts. In 2008, our industry was experiencing more and more water cuts, most of which were associated with flex lancing tubes. Long story short, HydroChem committed to coming up with a way to automate the flex lancer. We came up with our Duraflex, and it took off. So HydroChem opened the technology center and dedicated it to getting our company 100-percent hands-free in hydroblasting.
Fast forward to where we are today: In 2008 we were 0-percent hands-free, and we closed 2015 nearly 85-percent hands-free. The industry had been the same for 20 years; no one did anything new. There were a couple key customers who really embraced it, and now the whole industry does.
Q: What is the most important part of your position?
A: Listening to the field. You’re only as good as that $15/hour employee. Period. When we came up with the Duraflex, we made it mandatory not to do any flex lancing by hand, which forced our employees to call in and tell us what wasn’t working. Then we built a structure to listen to all that feedback, which forced us to come up with solutions. We turned it into not only a safety solution but also greater productivity, higher-quality clean and repeatability, so now we are awarded accounts due to the overall value our technology brings to our customers.
Q: What is your best management tactic?
A: Having that program to listen to our field personnel is all that matters. We get calls every day from field people with great ideas. That’s why we have this center: If that field person thinks it makes sense, the customer is going to think it makes sense, too.
Q: What are your goals for your position?
A: We were hoping to get to 100-percent hands-free last year, and we’ll get there soon. At a lot of our sites we’re already at 100 percent, so we know it can be done. That 15 percent that’s not hands-free is only a small job here and there. We’re trying to develop more portable tools so we’re not creating a hazard by eliminating a hazard. Just in the past month, we’ve built five new specialty tools to solve repeat problems for customers. We call it our custom solutions group. So we’re very confident we can get to 100-percent hands-free.
Q: What is your biggest lesson learned?
A: It’s all about our people; they tie it all together. It’s easy to come up with new tools and then complain about needing better maintenance or training. But we spend a ton of time just listening and improving. The tooling has to be not only hands-free but also maintenance-free. We do all of our repairs at three centers and log everything we do. When we see we’re replacing a certain seal every time, we come up with a different seal. When customers see the end results, they say, “Wow, it’s a no-brainer.” And that allows us to keep growing our infrastructure.
For more information, visit www.hydrochem.com or call (713) 393-5600.
