Tamara Morytko, president of Flowserve's pumps division, answered several questions from Pumps & Systems as it pertained to the state of the industry heading into 2022.
What are your thoughts regarding COVID-19 vaccines for employees? Has your company instituted a mandate?
The COVID situation has been a devastating impact globally with no industry, nor person sparred from its force. At Flowserve, we live our safety value by creating safe workplaces for our associates and communities. This is foundational to our culture and a key area where we have excelled even through the challenges of the pandemic. Complying with international, federal, local and customer standards has always been a part of our safety culture. This remains true as COVID-19 vaccine requirements are being released in many places where we operate and by an increasing number of our top global customers. We are currently working through these requirements and intend to comply to ensure we can continue to differentiate our offerings with the service we provide to our customers.
How have any price increases of products or materials impacted you or your company?
We continue to see headwinds consistent with the rapid rise in inflation and the global supply chain issues facing our industry. We have been very aggressive in working strategically to combat these increases and through the work of our Transformation 2.0 activities over the past 3 years, have been well positioned to minimize the impact for us and our customers. Leveraging our spend in focused commodity areas and focusing on tighter standardization of our industrial product specifications have truly been key to minimizing this impact during the second half of 2021 and for what we can see ahead of us in 2022.
What needs to happen in regards to industry improvements?
The industry needs to rapidly embrace digitization. Connected mechanical hardware can be most optimized when leveraged with artificial intelligence to capture data that not only identifies how things are operating but when analyzed together can be predictive and opportunistic to the entire solution being serviced. From reliability of system uptime to true savings on dollars being spent on energy consumption, the digitized flow control system can be one of the most powerful tools to guide us into a new future. Predictive analytics have been used for decades and the technology is now more robust than ever before. Broader acceptance of its value and importance in not only the initial OE capital spend but more notably in life cycle management will be the next game changing step required for flow control systems across multiple industry segments.
What issues have you seen with any material shortages or supply chain issues?
Logistics is the single largest global impact today and it has significance on both sides of the product value chain. From vendor delays to customer challenges in getting goods on the sea, planning your business has never been more important and your ability to optimize plans have never been more tested and on display.
What industry trends are you seeing as we go into 2022?
Markets are returning from the COVID stagnation and as a result the ability to supply highly efficient pumps across several industries is returning with force. We have seen strong demand growth with a keen focus on Lead Time and a differentiated level of support from what was required in the past. A key focus for Flowserve is the ability to continue to help our customers build the foundations for bringing their purpose to action. For instance, with our current oil and gas customers we are engaging to help lead them through the energy transition landscape. The ability to bring more energy efficiency to their current applications, to capture the carbon elements and assist in their environmental goals, to inventing new ways to store energy, extend battery life or enhance the accessibility of renewables will redefine the future and hence the value of those who provide flow control solutions in the future. We plan to be on the cutting edge of these innovations leveraging our heritage of solving the challenging issues and lock step with the needs of our customers.
What keeps you up at night?
The health and well-being of our employees keeps me up at night. People have been asked to engage in new ways, deliver at a faster pace and redefine success in pivotal ways like never before. The pandemic has taken an emotional and mental toll on everyone and each persons ‘reality’ is different and equally important to value and embrace. We ask more and more of our employees and are driving company cultures from afar more than ever. The pure mental gymnastics that everyone must play to be seen, heard and impactful can be exhausting. We continue to raise the bar on our employee check-ins, open discussions and collective involvement on the pathways forward and how it is impacting each person, their role and their ability to feel connected and contributing in a valuable way. Is it enough? Is there another way to engage? How long can this constant cycle of change go on and how can we keep our people energized, refreshed and actively engaged with their hearts and minds. Time will tell but until then the nights will continue to be restless for leaders who care for their people.