4th Annual ID Daytermed a success

By Staff -- Industrial Distribution, 5/1/1998

Chicago, Ill --If you are an industrial supplier, the fourth annual Industrial Distribution Day at Chicago's McCormick Place was the place to be last month. Held in conjunction with National Manufacturing Week, it was a time to once again highlight the role distribution plays in the industrial channel.

As in past years, the Industrial Distribution Assn. and the American Supply and Machinery Manufacturers' Assn., together with the Power Transmission Distributors Assn. and the Fluid Power Distributors Assn., hosted the day's keynote luncheon featuring Mike Bailey, supply base manager for $12.8 billion Deere & Co.

Bailey presented a look at supply chain management from the customer's perspective. He encouraged the audience of suppliers and manufacturers to stop and think about their business and its direction. "Do you have a business plan?" he asked. "What are your strategic and marketing plans? We ask this because we want to make sure you'll be around to do business with us in the future."

"Where ASMMA and I.D.A. come together with us is in support of our people. You are the providers to us as we provide to our assembly line," Bailey added. "We want to work with you on eliminating the redundancy in the supply chain. There is a bunch of duplication -- sales and marketing, technical support, training, inventory, testing and expediting -- Do all three of us need to have and pay for all of these all the time?"

Deere, known for it's aggressive supply-base reductions, wants to do business with a "significant few vs. the insignificant many," he said.

I.D. Day's afternoon session on electronic commerce was co-sponsored by Industrial Distribution magazine and featured technology expert Steve Epner of BSW Consulting. Epner told attendees that electronic commerce is not the cure-all if you have not already formed solid partnerships in the supply channel.

"You need to have a quality relationship with your suppliers to trust that the shipment is going to be correct; with electronic commerce, these transactions will be conducted electronically, without human intervention," Epner said. "Further, there is no way you can succeed in tomorrow's economy if you're not willing to embrace technology."

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