New customer centre opened!

In our recent item on a Process Control Seminar (8/9/2014) we mentioned that it was sceduled to be held in the new facility of Endress+Hauser in Greenwood (IN USA). Now we have more details.

This was inaugurated recently and is a new 80,000 square feet state-of-the-art Customer Centre. This 16 million dollar investment in infrastructure helps to optimise customer support and further underscores Endress+Hauser’s commitment to the US market and its loyal customers in the Americas.

Klaus Endress cuts the ribbon at the opening of this facility

(Pic from a tweet by Flow Control Mag)

Over the past few years, Endress+Hauser has continued to grow its market share in the United States and around the world. This growth is due to the high degree of trust customers have in Endress+Hauser to make their processes reliable, safe, efficient and environmentally friendly. Endress+Hauser answers to this development with sustained investments into US infrastructure which allows the continual strengthening of its market presence. “We want to be close to our customers providing the best possible support,” underlines Matthias Altendorf, CEO of the Endress+Hauser Group, adding: “Our investments reflect both our commitment to customers in the process industry and our promise to sustainably generate outstanding value for them.”

In the last 5 years, Endress+Hauser will have invested approximately $150 million (€116 m) into its US operations alone in order to expand its flow, level, pressure, analytical and temperature manufacturing capabilities as well as investments in support structures, projects, services and training organizations. This figure does not include expenses related to the recent acquisitions of SpectraSensors, Inc. and Kaiser Optical Systems, Inc., both specialised in advanced analyser technology.

Added value for customers
Endress+Hauser’s dedication to its customers extends far beyond manufacturing and R&D. Demands on customers for higher productivity in the process control industry isn’t changing. Today, customers are faced with an experienced workforce of operators and technicians retiring in coming years which means they will need to train their next generation of employees. Endress+Hauser’s customer training program recognizes this trend and has built multiple PTUs (Process Training Units) nationwide to address this complex problem.

To help customers keep up with today’s challenges, Endress+Hauser’s new, state-of-the-art Customer Center is suited to greet visitors with a top-notch certified training facility with multiple classrooms and its largest yet PTU controlled by Rockwell Automation’s PlantPAx system for real-world process simulation with over 120 measuring points.

Todd Lucey, Managing Director of Endress+Hauser Sales Center USA, believes that one of the keys to market success in the US is owed to heavy investments made in customer training – the new Customer Center being one of them. “Customers can send operators, maintenance personnel, engineers and other process people to our new Customer Center to get hands-on, real-world application expertise in a state-of-the-art customer training facility,” he said, adding: “Customers are increasingly faced with process and business issues and they can’t get this type of unique training anywhere else.”

Investments made in building the new facilities were to help stay ahead of increasing customer expectations. “5 to 10 years ago we had a handful of products at a typical customer plant site and the customer expected us to deliver high quality instruments,” said Lucey. “But today, the whole plant is full of Endress+Hauser instruments so expectations are considerably higher on us in terms of our capability to support them and help solve complex customer problems. Frankly, the more complex problems we solve, the more complex problems we get from our customers which is really the position we want to be in – and we look forward to that challenge.”

The Customer Center allows Endress+Hauser to provide additional, tailored service and support to its customers, for example with factory acceptance testing. Training, repair, and calibration are now stationed under one roof for faster, more accurate and efficient customer service and turnaround – with additional space for increased customer technical support with technicians available around-the-clock to answer customer questions, needs and concerns.