Over the years, I've heard many inspiring stories about engineers and their triumphs. But I was particularly impressed by a tale I heard recently about a group of engineers who met some tough challenges in the power and process industry and, in so doing, set a new course for the manufacturing community at large. The events took place at Black & Veatch Pritchard, a plant engineering and construction firm in Overland Park, Kansas. The company's vice president of engineering, Ed Edmondson, who related the story at the recent Daratech Plant 2000 conference, began by describing the challenges his firm encounters every day: "We have to maintain a profitable business in a highly cyclical, high-risk, low-margin industry—all while competing against a growing number of low-cost engineering centers in developing countries. No problem, right?"
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