The details make the difference

By Staff -- Industrial Distribution, 6/1/2000

Many companies view inventory management as a tedious task, but it's a goldmine for Endries International, Inc., and the Brillion, Wis.-based company is using its success as a springboard to other customer-focused services.

With the help of its vendor managed inventory systems, the 30-year-old company grew 150 percent from 1996 to 1999, from approximately $32 to $80 million in sales. Vice president Steve Endries says projected sales for 2000 are $100 million. Endries has 70 locations in North America and Europe and more than 90 percent of the company's revenues stem from the inventory systems, he explains.

"One of our core competencies is the ability to manage materials to floor stocking locations," Endries says of the program, which has been in place since 1985. "The software we have developed and maintained affords us the ability to do that. In our service, our customers find the key to the castle-the thing they've been missing. They don't want to mess with a lot of the commodities we manage."

Endries sets up bar-coded stocking bins filled with class C components-fasteners, fittings and electrical commodities-at the manufacturing facilities of about 400 customers in North America and Europe. Either a full-time Endries employee works at the customer site to distribute the material or a representative provides service on a pre-determined schedule.

"For many of our customers, the first time they touch the parts is when they are using them in the assembly operation," Endries says.

Dielectric Communications, a Raymond, Me.-based manufacturer of broadcast and pressurization products, is a prime example. Douglas Whittle, Dielectric's vice president of operations, says an Endries representative visits the company's sites each week and places product orders. When the boxes arrive on the loading dock, Dielectric sets them aside until the Endries employee unpacks and shelves the items.

As Whittle puts it, "Do you want somebody sitting at your company managing screws worth two cents?"

Strong sales haven't slowed the rate of innovation at Endries. During the last couple of years, the company has stepped up its engineering support service. Eight Endries personnel develop programs to streamline customers' assembly operations. If the customer is using four similar parts, for example, the engineers might consolidate these into two.

"One of the things we have constructed is an actual lab," Endries says. "We bring customers' products in to do a value-added analysis of a customer's process. We do a teardown of the product look to see if we can bring alternative ideas to the manufacturing process."

Endries also wants to hear from its customers about its performance. For about 18 months, the company has asked customers to fill out a report card. The information provides a benchmark position from which Endries can design improvement plans and educate customers on the value of the services Endries provides.

"We wanted to develop a way to bring the customers back into a good understanding of what we were doing and the scope of the project we were working on with their company," Endries says.