My name is Barry Summers and I am the territory manager for UK, Ireland and Scandinavia of the Industrial Air Filtration business unit of Donaldson. I’ve been with the company for approximately 16 years.
The fundamental function of our business unit is controlling dust for the purpose of health and safety, and to protect and enhance manufacturing processes.
I would say that the main essence of my job at Donaldson is to direct my team to ensure we achieve the desired results while providing the best possible experience to our customers and maintain long term relationships with them by supporting and providing optimal solution for their businesses.
What are some of the most interesting aspects of your job?
My team and I get to work on some really unique projects at Donaldson. One day, you can be in a recycling plant; the next you can be with a Formula 1 racing team looking at a state-of-the-art system as they prepare for the next Grand Prix. Every job is different because we spend time understanding how our customers operate so we can best design a system that will work for them. Customer applications may look similar, but there’s always a variance in what’s needed. Every solution we design is tailor-made and built from scratch. It’s of great personal fulfillment to build an individual relationship and deliver to the different, unique specifications that are requested. It keeps things exciting!
Why do your customers choose to work with you?
One of the key reasons customers choose us is because our process is fundamentally based on forming a relationship with them. We have customers and industry partners (resellers and OEMs) who have been with us for over 20 years, who know all about our 100 plus years of filtration experience and how our company works. Our excellent relationship with our industry partners has been essential in helping us maximize the support we offer to the market.
Another thing we often see in the industry is that customers seek ease and peace of mind when it comes to dust control. This is not a business priority for them, they want to have a filtration solution partner that they can trust and who they can leave ‘that part of the process’ to. And, luckily for us, we as Donaldson are known for our quality and reliability, of our employees and our products.
For example, safely handling combustible dust is an integral part of many manufacturing processes. In our company, having decades of experience in this field, we have experts who can help guide our customers by reviewing their mitigation strategies. Our customers can get the support they need when choosing the right dust collection configuration with our sales engineers, and product offerings for fire and explosion prevention and protection solutions.
Our customers like that we work with them to identify different options and implement a customized solution that they can rely on.
What are some of the key industry trends you see through your day-to-day role?
Energy savings is a key issue for our customers, both from an environmental and cost-savings standpoint. Given the current global economic climate, customers want to obviously reduce costs and we help them to do so by providing solutions that are proven to be energy-efficient and therefore cost-effective. With the right dust collection set-up and maintenance regime, our customers see significant energy savings in their facilities.
Last but not least, sustainability and environment is becoming more and more important for our customers. And this is exactly what our company mission is: ‘Advancing Filtration for a Cleaner World’. We create filtration products and processes designed for cleaner and more efficient workplaces and continue to find new ways to better the environment.
