Focused on moving ahead

One of the foremost manufacturers of large marine diesel engines has taken the general term that applies to a vessel?s main propulsion and made it its own. Here, executive board member and the man responsible for the sales and R&D of medium- and high-speed four-stroke diesel engines at MAN B&W, Dr Stefan Spindler, tells The Motor Ship why the company considers itself the “Prime Mover”

According to Dr Spindler, “Prime Movers” is an internal and external concept targeting market leadership, technology leadership and group integration. “It is a means to follow this ambition in a joint direction,” he explains. “The potential for synergy in our company is extremely high. And in the end we want to present unique products and efficient processes to become as useful as possible for our customers. That?s how we will secure and develop our prospective market and technology. In accordance with our clientele and against the competition ? we will give evidence to having formed an integrated unity as Prime Movers in the industry with a unique portfolio from low-speed to high-speed diesel engines.”

How does the company justify applying an established general term to its own business without seeming at all arrogant?

“After all, engines ? Prime Movers ? are our products,” he replies. “On the market Prime Movers are companies who know how to create customers? solutions and thus take leadership. In applying our enormous diesel and systems competence to this goal we remain “Prime Movers” each and every day.”

He adds that customer considerations are an important factor in MAN B&W?s philosophy. “We constantly listen to our customers and make sure that all our projects are driven by customer needs. We know that an improvement of our service ? as well as increase in our innovative power ? has to be based on the customers input. They are the principal strategic factor. Only if we learn to understand the problems on the customers? side, if we anticipate their future needs in their own businesses, we will, as Prime Movers, be first in offering innovative solutions. That?s how we intend to become the market leader, it?s how we grow to be Prime Movers.”

So, what is MAN B&W?s current position in the market?

“For low-speed engines our total share together with our licensees on all markets has been steadily around 70 % of the worldwide propulsion output over recent years, underlining our position as the world?s leading suppliers of large two-stroke diesel engines. With the medium-speed engines we have reinforced our position against our competition with a very successful year 2003. We are proud to have booked an order intake more than 1300 Megawatt last year. In the booming market of China we have reached a particular increase. With a global market share exceeding 50 %, we continue to hold our position as the prevailing supplier of HFO GenSets. The high-speed market has been generally difficult in the past year with a relatively low level of project activities. We expect an improvement in this area due to our portfolio matching high-speed application requirements in combination with the market becoming again more active.”

Lastly, what can customers expect to see from MAN B&W in the near future?

“We constantly work on improved performance of the engines with respect to higher power output, lower fuel consumption and emissions. In particular, we will extend the introduction of our electronic fuel injection systems to our entire portfolio. Following the very good market acceptance of our new axial turbocharger TCA we are pushing the introduction of the new TCR turbocharger series. The diesel technology has still enough development potential to be constantly improved ? this is an ideal challenge for us as the market leader.”