Superman Syndrome on a CFD for Filter Design project

Have you ever noticed that consultants seem to say “yes” to everything? Why is that? I don’t want to walk away from business any more than the next guy, but it better be business that fits my capabilities and expertise. Otherwise, I’ll spend more money than I’m earning. Where’s the business sense in that? I like to focus on problems we can knock out of the park.

Consultants certainly walk a fine line to secure business now and then. To get better we have to stretch ourselves, but at the same time know when to say no. I’m starting to realize, however, that the product development community has an expectation that CFD consultants actually CAN solve anything. Last Thursday we were defining a project scope to apply CFD for filter design optimization. The CFD analysis would be for a self-cleaning air filter housing with blasts of supersonic flow pulsing numerous times over a few milli-seconds. Wow! That one gets complex in a hurry. I politely said our services are not the best fit for his design. You would have thought I told him his application was the kryptonite that was the ultimate weakness of Superman. He was astonished by our transparency to be clear. He appreciated it for sure.

Don’t you think consultants ought to stick to their strengths and walk away when it doesn’t make sense? After all, isn’t that why we hire consultants anyway? For their strengths!