Small manufacturers offer the total package
Flexibility, better supply management and systems win over size
By Zerla Stayman -- Industrial Distribution, 2/1/1998
The abrasives converter industry started in the 1940s and my father, Henry M. Field, was one of the founding pioneers of the business. Seeing an opportunity to satisfy a market need, he used techniques learned from abrasive manufacturing for the dental industry to produce cartridge rolls for aerospace and other industrial applications. In time, many small, regionally focused abrasive converter businesses developed to serve the need for industrial products. You can see the same type of growth pattern for numerous industrial product manufacturers in the U.S. -- a market need is identified and if the current businesses don't service it, opportunities arise for small manufacturers to fill the gap.Today's business climate appears much more complex than when my father started out. Integrated supply, consolidation, business system re-engineering and advanced manufacturing techniques can make today's industrial market appear confusing to navigate. Where new product developments were the main engine of growth in the past, distributors must look to total product packages from their suppliers today. An attractive total product is what the end user needs, and although the business environment looks more complex today, the basic business axiom of fulfilling market needs still exists.
How does a distributor recognize an attractive total product package from a supplier? Chances are you'll feel it when it crosses your path. The total product involves the product itself, its quality, its delivery, its service and support and the business system backing it. A good product alone does not satisfy the needs of today's end user. End users want a reliable product for sure, but they also want it when they want it, they want to pay for it how they want to, and if they have questions about applications or specifications they want answers quickly.
Distributors facing the need to expand product lines to fulfill wishes of the end-user customer have to choose suppliers that can help them meet the needs of their customers. If you want to move toward EDI to help streamline the acquisition process, your manufacturer/supplier should be willing to follow suit. If bar coding is important to your end user customer for inventory control purposes, your supplier should have that capability. With expansion of product lines comes dilution of technical expertise at the distributor level. Your supplier should help make technical information easy, as well as readily and transparently available to your end-user customer.
The interesting thing about an attractive total product is that it is not dependent on the size of the manufacturer. More powerful personal computers and software have expanded the horizon of all businesses regardless of size. Companies with sales under $5 million often conduct international business and provide current technical information through content in their Web pages on the Internet. PC-based EDI programs, or even EDI value-added network services enable electronic transaction processing for companies of all sizes. Technology has democratized business to the point that in many sectors of industrial product supply, a small manufacturer can supply an attractive total product that helps you meet the needs of the end user at a fraction of the cost of major manufacturers.
Distributors should expect to find even small manufacturers who can back their products with creative and sophisticated business systems. A good total product offering is more a function of the spirit of the management team backing the product than the size of the company the product came from. Distributors should look for suppliers who are willing to work with them as business systems and relationships evolve in the years ahead.
With all its rapid changes and challenges, there has never been a more exciting time to be in business. Sure, things seem more complex, but the basic principles that started the abrasive converter industry still rule today: Give the market what it needs. Identifying, defining and then providing the total product needed by end users is the challenge of today's industrial marketplace.
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