Farthing is driven by the belief that construction needs to move forward more rapidly than it has in the past, and that clients deserve better value for money. "Innovation in construction is slow because it's a risk averse industry. Introducing a new product is difficult because people want to work with what's tried and tested."
Farthing's vision of the future is built on many years' experience in engineering and manufacturing. "I was apprenticed at Woods of Colchester. I studied electrical, mechanical and environmental engineering, as well as business studies," he says. He moved up at Woods, working on a number of underground railway projects. The move to Trox was, he says, 'a big step'. "I've had about eight or nine positions here before sales director. I really joined as a design and applications engineer, but moved over to sales and marketing after a few years."
Projects Farthing has worked on include being asked by Norman Foster to develop a system of underfloor air conditioning for the Hong Kong Shangai Bank; and supplying fan-assisted vav units to the Canary Wharf development.
Like many manufacturers, Trox has invested heavily in new product development. "We are always developing new product ideas – it's part of the company philosophy."
But Farthing says that innovation isn't easy. "In the past we have suffered from consultants calling us in and getting us to look at a component in a system, rather than the whole. We really want to get involved at a much earlier stage.
"But there is a reluctance in the industry to talk to one person. There's a feeling that unless you've gone out to tender to six people, and they have all gone to six suppliers, clients aren't getting good value."
Farthing wants instead to encourage co-operation at the technical design level. "We have all this talk of partnering, and there are some successes. We believe that one way of making it work is by having our technical people talk to their technical people, and trust grows from there. We had this experience with one of our suppliers, and we thought 'why can't we apply this to our clients?'".
So Trox has introduced its Design Bureau. "There are six steps in the Bureau process: conceptual design, detailed design, testing and refinement, design approval, function and co-ordination, contract implementation. For the first three there is no commitment in terms of money or single-sourcing agreements. But if clients want us to devote 100% attention to the project then we do look for more commitment."
For anyone who thinks that this process sounds far-fetched, Farthing already has a few practical examples. "Morgan Stanley accepted our challenge, and asked us to go and have a look at their one of their computer comms rooms. They wanted to increase cooling capacity to high heat gain cabinets. We were asked if we'd be interested in working for them within our Design Bureau. If it worked, they would purchase it, and we'd market it together." The project was successful, and Trox now has the patented CoolIT product as a result.
For Farthing, this is an example of true partnering. "How do we get together and have a win? How do we bring something to market that is to our mutual benefit? This is where I believe partnering can kick off in a big way: technical people, talking to technical people."
Developments like this, believes Farthing, are hugely important for UK manufacturing as a whole which now faces increasing competition from cut-price suppliers in the Far East.
For him, the vital point is that UK suppliers must demonstrate their greater technical expertise and client support: "It's true, if you take a basic commodity product it can be manufactured in India at much lower cost.
"But what engineering support with clients receive in those circumstances? Clients don't have a duty to support UK manufacturers, but they should certainly listen to what we've got to say about our design capabilities."
Source
Building Sustainable Design
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