Introducing Mo Manglani – Interim Water Industry Manager, Measurement & Analytics, North America

In this series of blogs, we shine a spotlight on those measurement champions across the ABB Measurement and ABB Analytics business. Join us as we discuss the skills needed to solve the most complex challenges industry can throw at them, and what drives our champions to deliver best in class solutions.

In this blog, we meet Mo Manglani. 

What is your role in ABB?
I am working as the Interim Water industry manager.

What skills make you good at your job and valued by your customers?
The water industry in North America is geographically diverse and very segmented. Being able to succeed and deliver quality solutions requires excellent personal relationships with our customers, but that has to be backed up with a solid engineering background and enough industry experience to deliver the best solution for them.

How have you developed those skills?
I have been with the company just over 15 Years. I started here as an Applications engineer working on customer proposals. I may not have appreciated it at the time, but it was the perfect foundation to build from. As a Proposals Engineer I had to develop an in depth understanding of the instruments and analyzers available and how they could be implemented to deliver measurement solutions for a wide variety of applications.  From that base I became a project manager, then Product manager for Laser and Ultrasonic level measurement. Level measurement is widely used in the water industry, and I became an Industry specialist for the Water industry. Laser is the newer of the two technologies but was not widely known in the water industry. It was used primarily for solids, but ABB updated and repurposed its use for Water and Chemicals. The measuring range of the Ultrasonic is 30ft, whereas laser level measurements start at 100ft, making them ideal for water wells, water towers, pumping lift stations, as well as sludge silos.

What are the biggest challenges you have come across in your role?
As mentioned, the water market in North America is very fragmented. Because it’s not privatised, there is no direct ownership of the sites, or the processes. The key decision makers are often in public office as such decisions are primarily made on CAPEX and lowest bid for installation, rather than TOTEX which is where ABB measurement & analytics instruments and analyzers deliver.

Additionally, Instrumentation engineers are somewhat conservative when it comes to switching technologies preferring to use tried and tested techniques rather than experiment with new technology. This was certainly the case when I was product managing laser level technologies and it continues today. Convincing customers to make a change to more “ground-breaking” or more modern technology can be a challenge.

In 2016, ABB Measurement released its LLT100 laser level transmitter.  This was around the same time that non-contact radar was also being introduced into the water and wastewater market.  There were numerous applications that could be used with this product, and through many, many discussions, we convinced more than a dozen engineers to use the laser level for measurement.

What are the common challenges experienced in the water industry as a whole?
The market is fragmented, but it is also diverse. There are some states, like Florida, Texas and California that suffer drought, whilst others have a plentiful supply. Some states are building distribution network infrastructure from scratch as cities grow.

What do you love about your role?
I enjoy attending the live events, meeting new industry members. Letting people know about the new products and solutions and building new relationships. As an engineer, I enjoy solving problems and there are plenty of issues that need attention in the water industry whether it’s in water re-use or maintaining supply or building out new infrastructure. The greatest reward is seeing ABB on the design specification that comes through. That’s when you know the customer appreciates the value of working with ABB to deliver the best solution.