J-Tec Material Handling, Kapellen, Belgium, which last year opened its North American headquarters in Houston, TX (see EBS News for weeks of 19 October 2015) at the end of last year won its first US contract. During the negotiations it quickly became clear to J-Tec that it had a lot of expertise to offer regarding loading of bulk products, process technology and automation. During the conceptual design the company’s team proved this by participating faster and better than its US competitors and by anticipating the client’s wishes. With local engineering support provided by its parent company Katoen Natie it was able to outshine local competition.

 

During the course of the past six months J-Tec became aware of major differences between the European and US markets, technically as well as commercially. For example:

 

• Certain conditions in contract negotiations are easily accepted or rejected, owing to different legal systems. Also the development of a project according to NFPA regulations in comparison with those of ATEX differs greatly.

 

• In a sales-related conversation the underlying tone and body language can be important in estimating whether the conversation is going well or not; an American behaves more enthusiastically than the average (Western) European, and expects the person with whom they are communicating to be equally enthusiastic; if not the salesperson loses credibility.

 

• A second remarkable trend is ‘the bigger, the better’. In the USA larger safety margins are calculated for power and capacity, while in Europe maximum effort is taken to ensure high output from a smaller installation.

 

• Americans regard a project as a series of components rather than a total package; J-Tec aims to offer a working operational concept and a complete vision. www.j-tec.com 

 

 

J-Tec’s North American headquarters