Business View Magazine | February 2020

65 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE FEBRUARY 2020 NORWEST ENGINEER ING pulp and paper side and began applying it to refineries, and then from there, we grew into terminal work. We still do work in pulp and paper, but those two - terminals and refineries - are about 80 percent of what we do now.” Other sectors served include marine terminals and in- water structures, and chemical processing. Norwest has about 50 employees, including engineers and designers, many of whom have expertise in CAD (Computer Aided Design) and 3D modeling, which Smith says, affords them “a really good sense for showing how all disciplines fit together.” This multi-dimensional software has come in handy in recent decades, and many of Norwest’s clients have begun to rely more and more on their ability to use these newer technologies to visualize their projects. “The biggest change I’ve seen over the last 20 years is how lean our clients have become and how we really support them, now, from the inception of projects all the way to construction assistance and field installation,” Smith relates. “Our clients come up with an idea that they think is going to have the possibility of making a good return on investment, and they come to us to help them out with the front-end work and cost estimates to see if this project has legs or not. And if it does, we go into the detailed engineering phase with them, and then we stay with projects all the way through construction.” Smith believes that the ability to provide complete EPC (Engineering, Procurement, and Construction) services has proven valuable to Norwest. “The most competitive edge we have is that we have gone all the way through to construction and operations with our clients, so we get fantastic feedback through this process, which means that we can continue to improve our expertise in the design of terminals and refineries. We’re really looking at the end of the project and how it’s going to function, and making sure that it’s safe, that it operates efficiently, and that the end user is happy with