Time To Get Healthy

A new year inevitably brings those pesky resolutions… the ones that create long lines at the treadmill at the gym for the first few weeks of January, and create produce shortages at the local market as folks far and wide vow to “get healthy.”

While these resolutions are a great way to kick things off, I also like to think of the New Year as a good reminder to try to do our best all year round—not just when the ball drops and the calendar flips. We’re kicking off the new year by highlighting healthy organizations with our premier launch of The Big 50 Watch List (page 20). The Big 50 Watch List was an idea born of our team as we discussed how, in our market, some of the smaller and more niche-specific companies were being rewarded for their efforts. Besides our Big 50 List, which praises the results of the largest companies in our industry, we didn’t really have a way to show these folks that their hard work wasn’t going unnoticed.

In speaking with one of this year’s Watch List companies, Conney Safety, it was evident that sometimes attention to detail—and a little sweat—can create some big results. For Conney, it’s a dedicated Lean program that has produced a supply chain which functions at an EPM (errors per million) rate that is well below industry standard. In fact, says the company, it’s “almost so low as to be completely negligible.”

Wow. Sounds like someone got a head start.

So as you flip through the pages of The Big 50 List, perhaps it’s a good time to look at the accomplishments of these distributors, and think about just how healthy you are. Perhaps each of our companies could use the business equivalent of an annual physical, and you might find these eight inspirational enough to get yours scheduled.

Also, in honor of these yearly improvements, we’d like to welcome Industrial Distribution’s 2012 Editorial Advisory Board. These folks agreed to help us keep our editorial as dialed in as possible, by weighing in on our content and contributing their two cents. Think of it as our own attempt at self-improvement. Our new board includes:

Frank J. Fasano Jr., VP of Operations, F&F Industrial Equipment Corp.
Meeta Kratz, Director of Business Issues, Grainger
Steve Bliss, Director of Product Management & Supply, Reid Supply Co.
Bill Wade, Wade & Partners, Consultants to the Aftermarket

Armed with this team of experts, along with our loyal readers, we look forward to a healthy 2012, and wish the same for you.

Anna Wells
[email protected]