The McIIvaine informs the infiltration of IIoT and remote O&M into the valve industry will profoundly impact the purchasing approach of plant owners. The 550 largest valve operators are increasingly making decisions for all their plants at the corporate offices. Traditional business strategy has started with forecasts of valve purchases by geographic region. This was logical because most valve decisions were made at the plant level. In the new environment decisions will be made at a central location which has access to valve performance data at all the plants. As a consequence, valve company sales efforts will need to be aligned with the corporate office locations.
This is good news for the valve salesmen assigned to the U.S. The reason is that 25% of the 550 largest valve purchasers are based in the U.S. On the average their purchases are larger than operators based in other countries. So, the role of the U.S. sales force will become increasingly important.
