Join Meghann Cook and Allen Burdette as they sit down with Josh Jenkins, Business Development Manager at Durable Controls. Discover Josh’s journey into the process instrumentation industry, the technological advancements shaping the field, and the challenges faced in hiring and industry consolidation. Gain insights into the evolving landscape and the opportunities that lie ahead.
Takeaways
- Josh Jenkins shares his journey into the process instrumentation industry.
- Technological advancements have made high accuracy instruments more affordable.
- Regulations and access to capital are major challenges in the industry.
- The influx of competitive aftermarket instruments from overseas is notable.
- Finding qualified candidates in the industry is increasingly difficult.
- The older generation’s retirement is impacting industry knowledge retention.
- Consolidation in the industry presents both challenges and opportunities.
- Hands-on skills are becoming a lost art among new engineers.
- Josh discusses the impact of industry consolidation on competition.
- Opportunities arise from competitors being acquired by larger conglomerates.
Transcript:
Meghann (00:01.081)
Hi everyone, welcome to Unfiltered Flow ELSC. I’m Meghann Cook here with Allen Burdette and today we’re happy to have Mr. Josh Jenkins on the show. Josh is the business development manager at Durable Controls. Welcome Josh. Thanks for taking the time. I know you’re extremely busy these days. So how did you end up in the industry, Josh?
Josh (00:15.208)
Thank you.
Josh (00:23.976)
I was contacted by an old acquaintance that kind of persuaded me to come over.
Meghann (00:34.757)
Okay, very good.
Josh (00:35.75)
Yeah, about six years ago, seven years ago.
Meghann (00:39.375)
Okay. What were you doing prior to, if you don’t mind me asking?
Josh (00:43.72)
industrial sales in OPE and small engines.
Allen Burdette (00:51.03)
So you’ve been in the industry for about six years now, Josh. What would you say is the most memorable or most fun project you worked on in the process instrumentation industry?
Josh (01:05.381)
I mean every application is rather unique. So I don’t know that one necessarily stands out because of that. there was one that we were working on with a wastewater facility that used some rather large flow meters. you know ones you could stand up in. So very, very large. We’ve dealt with
Allen Burdette (01:33.432)
That’s a lot of flow.
Josh (01:35.044)
Yeah, we’ve dealt with some projects that use unique pneumatic applications with variable air conditions and air pressures to operate various things and being able to control those as needed.
Meghann (01:54.885)
What have you seen in the past six years or overall as far as the advancements and changes in technology and how it’s impacted the industry?
Josh (02:06.152)
I would say most recently we’ve seen the affordability of higher accuracies coming into play. One that comes to mind is free space radar level instruments. Coming down, know, those used to be several thousand dollars and…
just recently within the last year or so there are quite a few manufacturers developing highly accurate instruments under a thousand dollar retail value.
Allen Burdette (02:43.246)
Considering what’s going on today, what do you think your biggest challenge is in the process instrumentation industry? it consolidation for vendors, access to capital, regulations? What do you feel is the…
Josh (02:58.132)
Yeah, regulations plays a big part in it. Access to capital has been a challenge over the last couple of years in just financing of projects. Then, I mean, just like many industries out there, there seems to be a plethora of aftermarket or knockoff instruments coming from overseas that are very competitive.
So yeah, those can be quite challenging.
Meghann (03:33.314)
As far as hiring, what do you see now in the biggest challenges, whether it be engineering or sales talent? Is it qualified candidates, retention, the onboarding portion?
Josh (03:50.217)
We don’t do a ton of hiring, so it’s tough to speak of, the handful that we’ve done, it is often difficult to find.
find knowledgeable candidates, qualified candidates in this industry. And at the same time, there seems to be a challenge finding personnel that is willing to learn the industry. And we even see that at the customer level at a lot of the plants. The older generation that was familiar with doing a lot of the maintenance or upkeep on the instrumentation.
is retiring and the new generation is is not up to speed with that so….
Meghann (04:42.382)
I think a lot less hands-on is what we hear as a recurring theme, Josh, you know, the wanting to get dirty and figure out how things operate from the bottom up and that sort of thing seems to be a lost art or a dying art. So, which is, one of the reasons we’re, you know, doing these interviews and that sort of thing, just to get, you know, advocacy and get this out there, right, for…
Josh (04:46.928)
Yeah. Right.
Josh (05:00.786)
Right.
Josh (05:07.133)
Yeah.
Meghann (05:11.918)
fresh group of engineers and folks coming out to show them what options are actually out there. yeah. We’re great, Josh.
Josh (05:15.943)
Yeah.
Right.
Allen Burdette (05:20.91)
Hey, one other question if you don’t mind, Josh, real quickly. Meghann and I have seen a lot of consolidation in the industrial distribution industry. Have you noticed that? I’m sure you have, but how has it impacted you guys?
Josh (05:31.943)
Yeah.
Josh (05:41.754)
I would say that some of our primary competitors getting bought up by larger conglomerates has… it’s offered a new challenge. Where you maybe didn’t compete with a certain product line or a group in this specific industry or application module.
has brought new challenges but at the same time it’s often opened new opportunities as well.
Allen Burdette (06:19.8)
Okay, just curious about.
Meghann (06:23.512)
All right, Josh, well, we know you’re busy. really appreciate you taking the time to chat with us today. And good to see you.
Josh (06:26.34)
Yeah. Well, thank you.
Thank you, have a great day.
Allen Burdette (06:33.196)
You too, Josh, thanks.
Josh (06:34.579)
Thanks. Bye.