MSC Industrial Supply Co., a premier distributor of Metalworking and Maintenance, Repair and Operations (MRO) products and services to industrial customers throughout North America, today announced that the United States Patent and Trademark Office has issued it a patent covering a technology system and business process to help its customers document various inventory and operational cost savings achieved through use of MSC's services.
The newly patented system and process involves a computer-based data warehouse that contains a cost-savings delivery mechanism. When a manufacturing customer utilizes one of MSC's ControlPoint inventory management solutions, such as vending, customer-managed inventory, or vendor-managed inventory, the system helps identify the actual savings achieved against specific cost-reduction metrics selected by the customer. In addition to savings associated with inventory management, MSC's system also calculates the impact of savings from the metalworking- and operations-related products and solutions delivered by MSC, including improvements in productivity, processes, procurement methods, pricing, and freight. The system then produces a customized report quantifying the realized cost savings.
"MSC's patented cost-savings documentation system supports our associates' ability to bring deep expertise and insights to customers to not only keep their manufacturing operations up and running, but to improve their productivity, profitability and performance," says Doug Jones, executive vice president and chief supply chain officer for MSC. "Our system is unique in that it provides our customers the ability to select the specific savings metrics that are most important to them in managing their operations and the automated system quantifies the actual savings achieved."
