Field report from abroad

May 2014, business trip to Cambodia. My destination: A feed factory four hours east of Phnom Penh, in the middle of the countryside. The country roads are unpaved, the air is unbearably hot.  Children dressed in rags are playing at the side of the road. Farmers stand hip-deep in water, guiding their buffalo-pulled plows through the rice fields.

We reach the factory – a plant as big as a school – and walk through the open storage hall. Barefooted employees are loading sacks onto a truck. Behind the hall, next to the office of the managing director, we reach the laboratory on the first floor. Right away we see two huge analysis devices: high-quality instruments from a European manufacturer. State of the art technology –  with one hook: It doesn't work!
The managing director is stumped. The closest customer service point for these devices is several hundreds of kilometers aways in the neighboring country of Vietnam.

"Can you help me to get this machine going again?," the managing director asks. He is in luck: Our representative is a technician. With his tools, he manages to repair one of the devices. He would need replacement parts for the second one, which are only available in Saigon, which would be a two-day trip. The journey to Saigon takes six hours. What a waste of time.

We explain to the managing director that he doesn't even need any machines for his requirements. Why invest so much money – especially in a system that is so susceptible to breakdowns and if something goes wrong, it couldn't be quickly repaired? So we did some simple math: The repair and maintenance costs of the present machines alone would amount to the original acquisition price of our devices.  But: Our devices can be repaired with a screwdriver and a pair of pliers. They are so durable that they do not need any maintenance.  And that is precisely the philosophy behind our devices: "keep it simple and safe" – KISS – simple to operation and simple to service.

Low costs, no maintenance and the guarantee that feed production will run without a glitch. The managing director is convinced. He orders two behr devices and has been our reference customer in the region ever since.

J. Behr