The Counterfeit Conundrum
9/1/2010
Once a product leaves its manufacturer, it enters a world where it can be adultered, completely faked, diluted, relabeled, or repackaged without authorization. Trying to pinpoint the exact vulnerabilities in the supply chain is almost impossible. By Duane Sword, vice president, Thermo Portable Optical Analysis, part of Thermo Fisher Scientific Counterfeiters have become increasingly sophisticated at imitating real products, from shoes and handbags to DVD’s, chainsaws, watches, airplane parts, and drugs.

Let There Be (LED) Light
9/1/2010
Switching to LED luminaries inside one's distribution facility can lead to reduced energy consumption and operating costs, as well as better performance and less maintenance. A global, world class manufacturer of premium paper products, Rockline Industries has grown to become a major supplier of private label wet wipes to its Arkansas neighbor, Walmart. As part of its comprehensive sustainability initiative, Rockline has charted an aggressive course to reduce its environmental footprint through more environmentally efficient operations, transparency, and integrity.

Exports Go Green
8/25/2010
Small to medium-sized businesses must understand how to capitalize on foreign demand for clean technology products. by Amanda Earing, Manufacturing.net Between the U.S. Recovery Act, which included funding to stimulate training for high, tech, green manufacturing jobs and the National Export Initiative, the U.S. government has a strong interest in companies looking to export clean technology products to India and China. Manufacturing.

How A Sale Is Won ... Or Lost
8/25/2010
The time-with-the-customer approach emphasizes product configuration, pricing, quotation, and proposal development. These are areas where a sale is won or lost, and can ultimately determine the success or failure of a company. by Dana Henriksen, FPX, LLC During the last 20 years, B2B manufacturers have invested heavily in applications designed to improve the prospect-to-revenue business process which includes functions such as lead generation, contact and account management, opportunity management, contracts, financing, and order entry.

To Scrap Or Not To Scrap
8/19/2010
Distributors need to emphasize to their customers that both parties have a vested interest in identifying and minimizing nonconforming parts. by Jason Howton, Take Supply Chain Every manufacturer deals with shipments of nonconforming parts (also known as “part deviation”) from suppliers. Quality control systems simply do not eliminate nonconforming parts altogether. However, by better managing deviation and minimizing its impact, manufacturers can reduce costs, strengthen customer relationships and build stronger ties with suppliers and partners.

Beat Outsourcing's Unwanted Byproducts
8/18/2010
A reliance on outsourcing often necessitates a reorganization of one's international supply chain and an evaluation of one's warehouse operations. by Mike Schmidt, Associate Editor, Industrial Distribution Logistical challenges and inefficiencies are often unwanted byproducts of a globalized industrial distribution enterprise. AquaPhoenix, a U.S. manufacturer and distributor of water treatment chemicals, was a company whose global presence and reliance on outsourcing necessitated a reorganization of its international supply chain.

The Apple In The Supply Chain
8/12/2010
by Amanda Earing, News Editor, for Manufacturing.net In its search for the latest technology to aid a growing supply chain operation,  Markley Enterprises, a small manufacturer of point-of-purchase displays, found the solution in Apple’s iPad. As technology continuously changes, your supply chain and its processes should be revolving continuously, too. That’s why Tim Markley, President of Markley Enterprises, is constantly searching for innovative ways to improve his supply chain operations.

Boeing's Bold Supply Chain Model
8/11/2010
by Mike Collins, Author, Saving American Manufacturing The design idea was to make the plane light and fuel-efficient, to be a long range airplane. The dream for this aircraft was to move manufacturing to its Tier 1 suppliers who would coordinate with Tier 2 and 3 suppliers, and all Boeing would have to do was assemble the parts and save a whole bunch of time, effort, and money. This decision was a huge gamble, considering Boeing was designing a revolutionary airliner made out of composite materials, and giving up “hands on” control of most of it.

Do Your Customers Value Your Services?
8/4/2010
by Bill Moore, Senior VP, Channel Management for SKF In an era where purchasing departments often place lowest cost among their primary buying criteria, it’s up to specialist distributors to prove their worth. Job #1 is to sharply define your specialty and then convey it to customers in ways that clearly demonstrate a competitive advantage. Specialist distributors can fall into one of several categories. One thing they all have in common is an overall offering that far exceeds the mere supply of products.

AS/RS Means More Yogurt To Go Around
8/4/2010
YORK, Pa. — FAGE USA’s yogurt manufacturing venture in the USA has been a great success, so much so they are already expanding the facility. Back in early 2008, FAGE USA opened their new manufacturing plant and attached distribution center in Johnstown, NY. The original facility includes a Westfalia High Density Automated Storage and Retrieval System (AS/RS) and Savanna. NET® Warehouse Management Software for handling, buffering, and order picking of various yogurt products as they emerge from production area cooling tunnels into the 40° F warehouse.

With Health And Safety, 'Talent Is King'
7/28/2010
The Executive Edge leadership track brings together business executives and top leaders in environmental, health and safety (EHS) management. Top decision-makers are increasingly discovering that well-integrated EHS management systems create worldclass organizations with competitive advantage and business sustainability. Dynamic dialogues, cross-sharing among leaders, and interactive workshops aim to sharpen leadership skills and capture leading evidence-based solutions for successfully integrating EHS into business operations.

Ten Tips To Better Pricing
7/28/2010
Editorial by Rafi Mohammed, Author, The 1% Windfall Pricing is one of the most powerful – yet underutilized – strategies available to businesses. A McKinsey & Company study of the Global 1200 found that if companies increased prices by just 1%, and demand remained constant, on average operating profits would increase by 11%. Using a 1% increase in price, some companies would see even more growth in percentage of profit: Sears, 155%; McKesson, 100%, Tyson, 81%, Land O’Lakes, 58%, Whirlpool, 35%.

The Power Of A Marketing Mindset
7/21/2010
Editorial by John Graham, President, Graham Comm. As the insurance organization’s marketing meeting began, the president stated, “We need more sales.” This may seem like an inappropriate comment for a marketing meeting, but it accurately expresses the confusion that exists in so many companies when it comes to marketing and sales. A sales mindset is based on figuring out how to get in front of customers to persuade them to buy.

An Efficient Way To Control Customer Data
7/21/2010
Cisco-Eagle is a material handling distributor and integrator, one which provides its customers with solutions for the movement, storage, retrieval, control, and protection of materials and products throughout their manufacture, distribution, consumption, and disposal. For Cisco-Eagle, it’s all about enabling their clients to get the right amount of the right material to the right place at the right time. Founded in 1970, Cisco-Eagle has grown to 110 employees spread across eight offices throughout Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas, with its corporate office located in Dallas.

Optimize Your Price Matrix
7/14/2010
by Barrett Thompson and Rafe VanDenBerg, Zilliant Business-to-business manufacturers often find pricing for profitable growth can be a daunting task. Of course, the quality and accuracy of the price-points themselves can mean the difference between winning business profitably, winning business at a loss, or losing business altogether. In this extremely competitive environment, having the “right” price is essential for top-line growth and bottom-line performance.

A Fully-Equipped Warehouse
7/14/2010
The largest heavy-duty truck manufacturer and leader in medium-duty and commercial vehicles, Daimler Trucks North America (DTNA), is now fully equipped with a warehouse identification and floor marking system to beat the competition, following a premier installation from the country’s leading manufacturer and installation firm, ASG Services. Daimler Trucks North America, whose brands include Freightliner, Western Star, Thomas Built Buses, Freightliner Custom Chassis & Detroit Diesel, created its new purpose-built 376k SF facility in Atlanta, which went live in Nov.

The Re-Emergence Of SRM
7/7/2010
Blog by Dylan Persuad, Managing Director, Eval-Source As the year 2000 approached, the catchphrase “lean manufacturing” was loosely thrown around in manufacturing industries. The media and software vendors led organizations to believe that a supplier relationship management (SRM) system could achieve the promise of lean. Yet the benefits promised by SRM systems were not kept. As organizations matured, they realized how the benefits were interrelated.

Automation: A Matter Of Dollars And Sense
7/7/2010
Thanks to the implementation of a reliable accounts payable automation solution, Perishable Distributors of Iowa reduced invoice processing time by 80% The Situation Perishable Distributors of Iowa, Ltd. (PDI) is a wholly owned subsidiary of HyVee, Inc., Iowa’s largest employer. PDI is one of the nation’s largest food distribution companies, supplying more than 5,000 perishable food products — including fresh chicken, beef, and pork; seafood; boxed frozen foods; bakery, dairy and deli products — to grocery customers in eight Midwest states.

Receiving The Right Demand Signals
7/1/2010
By Glenn Steinberg, IBM Global Business Services When it comes to getting the right amount of the right products to market, we need to get the right demand signals to make our critical manufacturing and inventory management decisions. For better or worse, we depend on many aspects of these demands signals: where they come from (our transactional systems, marketing activities, customer research); how complete they are; how accurate they are; and how fast we get them.

Wash, Wax, Waste Of Money
6/30/2010
by Anna Wells, Executive Editor, Industrial Distribution When it’s summer and the sun is shining, there are a few things that bump up on my priority list. One is managing my free time to include lots of outdoor walks and runs, and then DVR-ing anything that interferes with Brewers games. Another is keeping my freezer stocked with various frozen treats… or at least re-routing home so I can swing by Sonic for a fresh fruit slush.

T.R.I.U.M.P.H. Over Your Competitors
6/21/2010
The sales T.R.I.U.M.P.H.S. model is an approach to sales that emphasizes active listening to help built rapport and acheive a better understanding of customer needs. by Jack Singer, Ph.D. Susan has been doing well in her sales career for many years. She understands how to make cold calls, how to follow up on leads and referrals and how to offer excellent customer service. Yet, she’s amazed at how much more successful her colleague, Michael, is, when she puts much more time and sweat into her work than Michael seems to do.

Taking A Swing At Collaboration
6/21/2010
With the help of a savvy distributor, Radial Bat has brought the wood bat back to baseball with a new and innovative design supported by advanced adhesive technology. It started with a simple but brilliant idea. Ward Dill, the President of Radial Bat™, a New Jersey-based company that makes engineered solid-wood baseball bats, wanted to forge a baseball bat from multiple wedges of wood. The path from concept to completion would prove challenging.

Eye And Face Safety Standard Explained
6/16/2010
The Industrial Safety Equipment Association (ISEA), of which MSA is along-standing member, announced on April 13, 2010 that the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) approved a new standard for eye and face protection. The new Z87.1 standard, titled “ANSI/ISEA Z87.1-2010 American National Standard for Occupational and Educational Personal Face and Eye Protection” (referred to as Z87.1-2010 in this document) was adopted as proposed to the Institute.

Avoid Network Security Nightmares
6/16/2010
This is the second of two installments in a series of articles that discusses the advantages of e-commerce integration. The first installment emphasized that an online presence for one’s distribution business is a necessity. This piece focuses on the need for distributors to understand the security vulnerabilities involved with e-commerce and the solutions available to deal with them. by Larry Wine, President and CEO, Paymetric Inc.

Self-Billing To Gain Carrier Support
6/9/2010
by Niko Michas, President & CEO, BridgeNet Solutions Instead of auditing the invoices you receive from your carrier, why not ask your carrier to review and analyze invoices that you create and send to them? If your carriers are billing you according to their public rates and/or the rates outlined in your carrier agreements, why can’t you self-bill your carriers using the same information, and leave the time and effort it takes to go over the charges for each shipment to them? The truth is that you can.

Better Manage Supplier Relationships
6/9/2010
New trends, tools, and techniques to help industrial distributors better manage their supplier relationships are becoming increasingly prevalent in the business-to-business marketplace. Kristin Muhlner, CEO of RollStream, a provider of enterprise resource management technology, recently sat down with Industrial Distribution to discuss supply relationships, some of the new technologies, and how they are being received by the industrial distribution community.

Connecting With Customers - A Click Away
6/2/2010
by Larry Wine, President and CEO, Paymetric Inc. Today, it’s expected that most merchants will have an online component to their sales channel. Certainly, for wholesalers, Internet sales of durable goods have opened up an entirely new revenue stream that requires very little overhead. Because they already stock a large inventory of products, distributors are in a strong position to sell products beyond their traditional market. Over the past five years, many distributors and manufacturers have moved more of their business online, from offering product catalogs to selling a broad range of items through electronic storefronts.

Buy American
6/2/2010
Distributors must have, and continually gain, market knowledge in order to effectively understand the customers they serve. Two key issues for American manufacturers are the “re-shoring” of manufacturing jobs and the ongoing struggle to convince consumers to buy American products. The following is a Q&A with Harry Moser, re-shoring leader & chairman emeritus, AgieCharmilles. Harry is a national leader in attracting more of America’s youth into manufacturing, in accelerating the trend to re-shore manufacturing jobs, in providing strategies for competing with low wage countries, and in the campaign for government policies that support manufacturing.

Washing Off All This Oil
5/26/2010
by Anna Wells, Executive Editor, Industrial Distribution What’s scary about running a business is the sometimes latent and foreboding knowledge that there are far-reaching effects to everything . As we’ve seen time and again—and especially lately—natural disasters can have the ability to shut us down completely, whether or not we even operate in the hard hit areas. When most people hear the words “oil spill,” visions of seals and seagulls covered in black sludge come to mind.

20 Customer Care Actions To Boost Sales
5/26/2010
Editorial by John Graham, President, Graham Comm. It’s easy for just about anyone in business–including companies, salespeople and marketers–to fall into a “pattern” when dealing with customers. We all develop shortcuts and “templates” to help simplify our daily routines, which also make it easier to manage the workload. With more to do and less time to do it a smoother routine is appealing.

Passing The Torch
5/18/2010
by Anna Wells, Executive Editor, Industrial Distribution If there’s one thing we’ve learned over the years it’s that change is elemental to our survival as professionals. Sometimes this change is hard, but inevitable. Still, our hope is that these changes make it possible for the best to emerge even better than before. There are few publications out there with histories as long and as storied as Industrial Distribution .

Rising Chinese Currency Won't Save U.S.
5/18/2010
Understanding end user issues and how they affect purchasing decisions is an important way to bring more value to your industrial customers. The following is an interview with Josh Green, CEO of Panjiva, an online resource for sourcing executives to gain credible and valuable knowledge about suppliers and manufacturers around the world. Industrial Maintenance & Plant Operation, Industrial Distribution's sister publication, conducted the interview.

'Agnes' Handles Materials With Tape
4/22/2010
With more than 500 retail stores in 36 states, Eye Care Centers of America Inc. is the third largest retail optical chain in the U.S. To meet Eye Care Centers’ need for product, parent company HVHC Inc. has to produce huge quantities of eye glasses in an array of configurations. To help meet this demand, and do so in an efficient, cost effective manner, HVHC opened a modern new production plant in Schertz, TX.

Ace Makes The Grade
4/22/2010
Carrie Ellis, Editor, Chem.Info Ace Hardware Corp. manufactures only one product that bears its name brand amongst all of the do-it-yourself tools, equipment and other miscellany occupying its more than 4,600 retail stores nationwide. That product is paint, or more specifically, an entire line of interior and exterior water-, latex-, oil- and solvent-based paints, stains, varnishes and coatings.

How Modular Conveyors Can Reduce Costs:
4/22/2010
From the smallest manufacturing plant that employs manual methods to create their product to the most elaborately automated plant where conveyors dominate floor space, the majority of manufacturers have at least one conveyor in their plant. Whether it’s a single conveyor employed to take away product from a packaging machine, or the transportation system that connects all areas of a plant, conveyors, like the tires on a vehicle, are often the least thought about component in a processing line.

Q&A with Greg Polli, MSC Industrial Direct
3/23/2010
A resident of Asharoken, NY, Greg Polli is Vice President of Product Management for MSC Industrial Direct, bearing responsibility for strategic positioning of product categories and brands through all MSC Direct channels. He has been with the company for twenty years, holding a number of titles ranging from Product Manager to Strategic Business Unit Manager to his current position. A graduate of Hofstra University with a BA in Marketing, he has served on the ISMA Board of Directors and is currently on the ISA Board of Directors.

Step-by-Step To Finding The Perfect Workbench
2/10/2010
by James Anderson, Vertical Market Manager, Lista International Purchasing a workbench or workstation may at first seem like a simple task. Your employees have work to do, and they need an efficient, comfortable, and practical place to do it. But behind that deceptively simple proposition may lurk a number of variables that must be considered to make sure you get what you actually need. So, whether you are looking for technical workstations, height-adjustable workstations, assembly workstations, industrial benches, packing and shipping benches, or accessory systems, take the time to perform the necessary up front work by following this step-by-step self examination that will help you choose the right workbench for all your needs.

Q&A with John Ratzenberger, Nuts, Bolts & Thingamajigs
2/9/2010
by Anna Wells, Editor, IMPO Through its manufacturing summer camps and scholarships, NBT is inspiring the next generation of manufacturers, welders, plumbers, carpenters and more... one tinkerer at a time. John Ratzenberger, a founder of NBT, speaks on behalf of the organization and how it's addressing the urgent need to engage young people in career preparation for well-paid, fulfilling jobs that require hands-on skills. Ratzenberger is best known for his roles on "Cheers" and "John Ratzenberger's Made in America," and is the only actor to voice a character in every Pixar film.

Operating In A Carbon-Constrained Marketplace
12/8/2009
by Casey Whelan, Vice President, Strategic Initiatives, U.S. Energy Services As Congress moves towards implementing a mandatory carbon dioxide (CO2) compliance system and a cap and trade market, industrial companies need to evolve to keep up with the changing risks and opportunities. In the past, manufacturers only needed to focus on price and reliability. Now, businesses need to account for CO2 content along with direct energy costs. Earlier this year the American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES) passed through the House.