NEWS RELEASE                                                                                        May 2019

Innovation in the Combust, Flow and Treat Industry is a Product of Wisdom through Interconnection

A survey by McKinsey shows that 70 percent of senior executives believe that innovation should be a top driver of growth. According to the survey “Innovative cultures don’t magically descend from heaven. The top two motivators are strong leaders who encourage and protect innovation and top executives who actively manage and promote it. In fact, senior executives say their most common sin against innovation is talking it up but failing to act. The second is a failure to model innovation by encouraging behavior such as risk taking and a willingness to consider new ideas”.

Should Combust, Flow and Treat (CF) executives blame themselves for the failure of the industry to innovate or is it systemic? If customers cannot easily determine the lowest total cost of ownership of a CFT product, there is less incentive to create a better product. If the CFT industry is not interconnected in such a way that better product information will be properly assessed then innovation is stifled.

The holistic approach to innovation starts with fundamental issues such as what is the definition of “better”. The McIlvaine company has developed a unique metric to measure all harm and good Sustainability Universal Rating System. These fundamentals are the bottom of a pyramid which is supported by millions of details in organized systems. For example what are the unique requirements for a slurry flow control valve in a dry FGD system?

The interconnection extends to the various media. Mcllvaine writes dozens of feature articles per month in magazines on materials, processes, pumps, valves, controls, chemicals etc. A new collaboration with International Filtration News features monthly “true cost analyses”. McIlvaine has more than 40 CFT reports, databases and other services which are valuable in pursuing innovation.

One of the most valuable recent initiatives is to forecast the market for each type of CFT product for each of the top 20,000 purchasers. The identification of the opportunity at BASF, Chevron, Sinopec is the first step toward developing better customer specific products. These detailed forecasts are the foundation for bottoms up collaboration among technologies, divisions and geographies.

This concept is explained in more detail in Most Profitable Market Program at www.mcilvainecompany.com

Bob McIlvaine is available to answer your questions at 847 226 2391 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.