INTERVIEW
INSIGHTS FROM THE INDUSTRY
Nick Michaelson, Chief Executive
TCD Review interviews Silverfox’s Nick Michaelson You’ve been in the Wire and Cable Industry for over 30 years - what do you feel is the biggest change in the industry and has it changed the way in which you do business? Well, over the past 30 years, I have seen an array of both positive and negative changes. For example, there has been a significant move to computerised labelling production, away from the manual solutions. This has saved a lot of time on projects - which is a good thing. But, the trouble with some of these newer systems is that they are often not as durable as their predecessors. This may be due to cost restrictions becoming ever more important or it may be because manufactures aren’t sufficiently vigilant in designing the necessary durability and ensure their systems and the final printed products work satisfactorily in the environments for which they’re being offered. That affects all of us.
In what way would you say Silver Fox’s cable labelling solutions set themselves apart from others? Our solutions are continually evolving and improving. This comes both from our own product development team and most importantly, from user feedback. This feedback from our customers across
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the world is particularly helpful. It’s our gold dust, if you like. We know engineers are very sensible people and their common-sense approach matches exactly our own approach to labelling. That’s perhaps part of what brings the smiles to their faces when they see our solutions. What they want are solutions that are easy to set up and easy to use, powerful enough to address their real world needs; simple and fast to run. They want labels from a dependable source and the final products that are reliable and durable. We totally agree! I recently heard a story of one oil company being obliged to erect new scaffolding in a fabrication yard, to replace the cable labels that were falling off, even before the module floated out. Quality is important! That’s why our ISO accreditation, attention to detail and independent testing is so important to us and, ultimately, to our customers. We listen very hard to our customers. For example, after detailed discussions with a design engineering company, based near Chiswick, who were working on a large project in Kazakhstan, we designed and developed brand new Professional level software, specifically for use on their project. Doing this was a huge investment for us, but it also meant that we were then able to offer a solution that was really focused on, and relevant for, major oil and gas projects globally. What differentiates this software was and is the very powerful import functionality, enabling the user to take an Excel output directly from their design packages and easily selects the exact information required, with the minimum of fuss and with total accuracy. Everything can be done in seconds. By the way, for the first time, it made it possible for the user to produce the CrossFerruling information - for the wire makers in seconds. And how do we get all these improvements out to our users? Well uniquely, both our Advanced and Professional levels of software incorporate an automated web update module. So wherever our users are, in the background, their software is automatically downloading the latest improvements. It then alerts them they are ready to install these improvements. They keep up-to-date with our latest software and benefit from the feedback from other engineers, all completely free of charge. There are lots of examples of this. Here are just two both connected with our Professional software: When using our heat-shrink or non-shrink labels, there’s now functionality that allows a user to print the labels for both ends of their wire at the same time. Uniquely, our printer allows for two rolls of material at same time, via our universal guidance system. By organising our software and printer together, the net result can be that one roll is for one end and the other roll is for the other end. It’s a first in our industry. And for existing users, this is also backwards
www.thecabledirectory.com - TCD Review Edition 12, 2014