The brain game

Distributors turn to manufacturers and trade groups to grow one of their most bankable assets - their knowledge base -- Industrial Distribution, 5/1/2001

Other articles from this Fasteners Report: 
Application profile: Partners reduce costs

Manufacturers, trade groups provide more training

Profile of Hub Construction Specialties

Viewpoint: Qualify your prospects to stop wasting inside sales' time

Rep's perspective: Achieving a comfort level

News: Expect slow, steady growth

By Doug Harper, Contributing Editor

Distributors selling more to OEMs
NFDA training materials coming this fall
Tailor-made teaching

In his perceptive analysis of American society titled “Democracy in America” French diplomat Alexis De Tocqueville wrote in 1835 that Americans are dedicated to the proposition that “...knowledge must necessarily be advantageous and the consequences of ignorance fatal.”
Today, just as much as in the 19th century, Americans continue the zealous pursuit of knowledge that De Tocqueville found so admirable. But for industrial distributors, knowledge is more than just a luxury.

Increased competitive pressures and razor-thin profit margins have turned value-added product knowledge into a bankable asset that distributors are using to differentiate themselves from mass merchandisers.

To the layman — and even to some distributors — industrial fasteners don’t get much respect for their technical complexity. But the fastener industry has come a very long way in the number, variety and sophistication of its products since the Connecticut firm of Rugg & Barnes established itself as America’s first exclusive manufacturer of nuts and bolts in 1840.

Today the fastener industry represents worldwide annual sales estimated at $32 billion of which one-third is U.S. based. And of total annual fastener consumption in the U.S., about one-sixth, estimated to number more than 45 billion fasteners valued at $5 billion a year, are used in North American-built vehicles.

But mastering this highly complex field with its dozens of standards, thousands of products and hundreds of thousands of applications is a daunting task. Responding to this challenge, fastener trade organizations such as Specialty Tools & Fasteners Distributors Assn., the Industrial Fasteners Institute and the National Fastener Distributors Assn. together with manufacturers are devoting ever greater resources to fastener education.

Distributors selling more OEM

Robert J. Harris, managing director of the Cleveland-based IFI, says that the significant amount of engineering and technology that goes into the modern fastener has motivated most manufacturers to conduct some type of training with distributors and/or the end users for their products. But he notes that the biggest change in the business is the shift away from manufacturers selling direct to OEMs and instead the product being sold through industrial distribution.

“Because a lot of OEMs are trying to reduce their supply base, increasingly distributors now exist between us and the OEM.”    —Steven Vass, Lake Erie Screw

“Ten years ago most domestic manufacturers sold direct to OEMs almost exclusively. But today as much as half the product is going through distributors,” Harris says. As a result, manufacturers are finding it increasingly necessary to educate distributors on the finer points of fasteners and their applications.

He adds that “From time to time the IFI also conducts specialized seminars on certain types of fasteners although our instruction is geared more toward the designer and the engineer.”
One trade organization deeply involved in distributor education is the NFDA (www.nfda-fastener.org) based in Cleveland.

Dave Merrifield, NFDA’s executive vice president, reports that several years ago the organization made a firm commitment to provide technical training to distributors which comprise 60 percent of the organization’s total membership. The decision was predicated on the fact “...that many distributors’ salespeople didn’t have technical expertise particularly where critical applications were concerned,” says Merrifield.

As a result, NFDA began conducting a series of two-day technical seminars around the country which included participants viewing a series of training videotapes produced by the association together with a session on blueprint reading. The second day was devoted to a series of “breakout” sessions.

Several years ago the format of their seminar was revised and the breakout sessions were replaced by a mock trial involving a fictitious “Fastening Catastrophe.” Attendees served as judge, jury, prosecution and defense in a “courtroom” drama concerning a failed fastener. A critical part of the proceedings involved testimony by fastener experts who, during their “testimony” managed to impart substantial fastener information to the participants.

NFDA training materials coming this fall

But starting in October of this year NFDA’s evolving training efforts will feature a series of “train the trainer” sessions. Under this plan, representatives from distributorships will attend workshops where NFDA will tutor them in educational technique rather than emphasizing mastery of the training material itself. “We’re not going to actually teach them the material but rather how to teach their colleagues back at the distributorship,” Merrifield says.

He adds that attendees will receive a CD-ROM “...containing all the tools they need to teach those classes including a Power Point presentation, training videos, and entrance and exit examinations.” One manufacturer that has been active in distributor education, both on its own and through NFDA, is Lake Erie Screw Corp. Based in Cleveland, the company was founded in 1946.

Echoing what IFI’s Harris said, Steven Vass, Lake Erie’s Product Engineering Manager, notes that the new “zero” inventory philosophy that has been adopted by many of distribution’s customers is putting greater pressure on distributors to have fastener information at their fingertips. “Because a lot of OEMs are trying to reduce their supply base, increasingly distributors now exist between us and the OEM. As a result, OEMs expect distributors to provide fairly technical information,” Vass says.

Steven Vass, product engineering manager at Lake Erie Screw Corp., says the new “zero” inventory philosophy that has been adopted by many of distribution’s customers is putting greater pressure on distributors to have fastener information at their fingertips.

But he claims that organizations such as NFDA in cooperation with manufacturers are still carrying most of the burden for educating distributors. Vass notes that NFDA’s fasteners device videotapes are being used extensively by distributors to educate their employees.

“The tapes are designed for somebody like an entry-level inside sales person at a distributorship and the tapes go through the various fastening product types and definitions,” Vass says. But he points out that many fastening device distributors are also investing time and money to educate themselves about their product lines. “A growing number of distributors now have their own labs for the inspection and mechanical testing of their products. And many have also hired mechanical engineers who function as application engineers,” he notes.

Tailor-made teaching

Atlas Bolt & Screw Co., a fastening device manufacturer based in Ashland, Ohio, has been in business since 1896. The company’s marketing manager, Jim Gerhart, stresses that each distributor selling Atlas products has its own sales methodology that Atlas adapts itself to in its distributor training.

“We vary our presentation to provide whatever a particular distributor needs to service his accounts,” says Gerhart. Consequently Atlas offers a “menu” approach to distributor training that could include basic education about fasteners, fastener nomenclature, materials and fabrication techniques and mechanical properties.

“It could be something as basic as giving a distributor a selection guide. Or you could have a distributor who will tell you that he knows fastener basics but that he has a complex or unusual application that he’s trying to solve,” Gerhart emphasizes. He adds that when requested Atlas representatives are available to accompany the distributor’s salesperson for a “one-on-one” consultation with the distributor’s customer.

But while fastener distributors are beginning to acquire training aids and teaching expertise, many are still convinced that fastener education should largely be the realm of trade associations and manufacturers.

William H. King, quality manager with Porteous Fastener Co., a 15-branch Master fastener distributor based in Los Angeles, says that when it comes to training, distributors frequently defer to the expertise of fastener trade associations. But in addition Porteous also conducts informal in-house training for its employees on an ad hoc “as needed” basis.