Category: Differentiation

DOA Launch
When I joined Brooks Instrument, they were just completing a product launch for their new digital mass flow controller (MFC). The product launch received no response. The customer interface was digital and the semiconductor customers had not yet transitioned from analog interfaces to digital. I then had the opportunity to restart the development cycle to correct the short-comings of the DOA product. Some of the things we addressed were the lack of modular design in both the hardware and software. We spec’d out a new, more powerful processor to handle the expected performance bandwidth we needed to handle the new product definition. The main key was a dual interface that could be analog or digital. This provided the customer performance and feature improvement over the traditional analog MFCs while maintaining the legacy interface. But we also had a new technology coming down the pipe that would leverage the full digital design.
Leverage New Technology for Customer Benefit
Brooks had engaged a technology partner to develop multi-calibration capability. At the time, all MFCs were calibrated to a single gas. If you needed a MFC for a different gas you had to buy another one. This created challenges trying to find the best mix of spares in inventory. If the customers could get multiple calibrations on a single MFC they could reduce the number of spares in stock. Prior to releasing the product I wrote an article exposing the lack of accuracy in the traditional calibration technique. We were going to calibrate using a much more accurate method and provide multiple calibration capability. The market received the product well and we were first with a market differentiator. The new product enabled us to penetrate companies that we were not able to penetrate before.
Differentiation That Makes a Difference
An example of this occurred when my lead engineer and I accompanied our sales rep to a semiconductor fab in Texas. Up until this point, we had zero sales with this customer. The reception was cold, if not almost hostile. I don’t know how our sales guy managed to get the meeting, but we were there. We filed into a conference room with a long table. The Brooks contingent sat at one end nearest the projector and screen. The fab manager and two of his engineering managers sat at the other end. It did not take an expert in body language to see that we had our work cut out. I led off the presentation introducing the product, outlining the benefits in general. Then I turned the presentation over to my engineer. As he explained the technology and how it would benefit the fab operations, I noticed that the engineers began leaning forward and then chair-hopping closer, all the while asking questions. By the time my engineer finished, the fab engineers were sitting next to us. I stood and asked if there were any more questions. The fab manager turned to our sales guy and asked “So, how much would it cost to convert the fab?”