Driving digital transformation

Kuwait

Mohammed Mohaisen, president and CEO of Honeywell Middle East and North Africa, talks to The Energy Year about the first years of the company’s manufacturing facility in Kuwait and the importance of digitalisation. Honeywell is a software-industrial company that blends physical products with software solutions to help companies improve performance, enhance safety and security and maximise profitability.

How do you assess the first years of existence of Honeywell’s first manufacturing facility in Kuwait?
This facility was built because we wanted to locate projects here in Kuwait to service the country properly and reduce dependencies on outside countries. Developing our projects here helps us deliver projects faster, reduces costs for our customers in Kuwait and helps us grow our local capabilities.
Kuwaiti companies can come to our facility and learn and build on our knowledge and know-how. Having a manufacturing facility in Kuwait has been a very good experience for us so far. The government has been very supportive of us. We continue to use this facility for our projects.
Our commitment to Kuwait didn’t start yesterday. We’ve been committed to Kuwait for a long time. Part of our commitment includes the foreign investment licence we obtained from Caterpillar. We obtained this licence because we believe we need to be more local to support Kuwait’s economic growth. If you’re a part of the country’s future, you have stakes in it, and thus you have stakes in making Kuwait work. Consequently, we’re very focused on making sure we’re supporting Kuwait in its Vision 2035.

How important are digitalisation programmes with Kuwaiti companies for Honeywell?
We have many programmes with Kuwaiti companies to drive digital transformation across the board. KPC has designed a clear digitalisation strategy and we’ve been happy to have been a part of that. We’re going to continue to support them in this transformation. It’s a journey; it’s not automatic. The technology exists, but companies need to adapt their processes, build their people and capabilities around new technology and change their culture as well.
Digitalisation is the top priority for us. Cybersecurity training and capacity building are also very important.

What growth do you expect to see in the local energy industry in 2023?
Large upcoming projects such as the Al Zour petrochemical complex are very exciting. Everyone is waiting for that. There are many infrastructure upgrades that are happening within KOC and also within KNPC. We have huge maintenance and service contracts. You need to keep these assets operational, and this is a huge operation on its own. I think 2023 will be the start of a new investment cycle, which is what we all hope, particularly regarding the upstream, KOC’s drilling drive and the different upstream projects.

How important is investing in training for the company?
We have provided over 2,000 hours of training over the last year. Training can be a part of projects or ad hoc based on requests. With training we’re importantly trying to build local capabilities.
Moreover, we’re trying to get recent Kuwaiti graduates and those with junior experience to come into the private sector. The government supports this with their current incentive structure, which is fine. But I think you need to try to attract talents and give them the motivation to grow within the private sector and stay within the private sector. This, I think, is critical for the economy in the long term.

How did the Covid-19 pandemic impact Honeywell’s operations in Kuwait?
The pandemic presented many operational challenges. The good thing is we have been present in Kuwait now for over 50 years, and we have our people in the country. We have our manufacturing facility in the country. We have expertise here. It was very easy for us to continue to support our key customers and their companies and finish projects.
Throughout the lockdown, we worked on the Clean Fuel Project, which was successfully accomplished and commissioned. We are also working on the Al Zour Refinery, which is very close to being commercially running. For both projects, we have been the main automation provider.

What is your growth strategy for the country?
We are always looking at how we can bring in the latest trends and technologies into the country. We have our latest innovations in the fields of sustainability, cybersecurity and digitalisation. These are key areas in which we’re working with our key partners here to try to drive them moving forward. The main focus now for many of our customers in Kuwait is to finish their projects, but they need the expertise to operate these systems, and to do so efficiently. Therefore, capacity building and digitalisation are critical. Of course, cybersecurity above all has been – not only in Kuwait, but I think globally – a key focus for everyone, with the increase in cyberattacks and security concerns.

Read our latest insights on:

• Kuwait