Have you ever wondered what your peers are thinking or doing? And I'm not just talking about your immediate peers (those you work with every day). I am talking about the big picture – folks from different companies and countries.
This sort of information can prove valuable to how you proceed on a project. It can also point out an area that you can excel where others are faltering.
For example, when we asked visitors "If your plant uses a 'legacy' or earlier-generation distributed control system, what is your main concern about that system?" we learned that 53% of you were concerned with the difficulty in getting spare parts. Hedging your bets and either holding spare parts in inventory or updating your system could put you in a more-competitive position.
Polls also can provide a perspective on where you stand personally. For instance, how do your continuing education efforts compare? According to our poll that asked visitors "How many professional development or continuing education courses have you taken in the last two years?" nearly half (43%) said none. While 36% said they have taken three or more courses. If you fall into the latter category, chances are you’ll reap the benefits. If you answered none, you may be left behind.
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Another question we posed to our readers – "What factor most impedes operators' performance at your site?" – showed that 54% of respondents said a lack of ongoing training.
As the digital editor for Chemical Processing magazine, I get to select which poll questions we’ll ask visitors to ChemicalProcessing.com – with input from Editor-in-Chief Mark Rosenzweig, of course. But I’d certainly welcome your suggestions.
Do you want to find out how others would handle a thorny professional issue troubling you? Do you want to see how your plant compares to others in various technical aspects or how your company’s approach stacks up against others? Here's your chance to survey the industry.
Send questions you'd like to see answered by your peers to [email protected]. Keep in mind the questions should be broad enough to elicit a good response rate – but not too broad that the results would be meaningless. Multiple-choice questions work best. But keep in mind that open-ended questions will generate ideas that might never have occurred to you. Not confident in your question-writing skills? No worries – you can just send us a concept and we can take it from there. After all, we make a living as wordsmiths.
We will collect all the potential questions and post appropriate questions to ChemicalProcessing.com. And rest assured that you will remain anonymous in the process. However, if we decide to use your question I will send you an e-mail alerting you when the question will appear on our site.
Looking forward to finding out what's on your mind!
