YOUR OTHER WAREHOUSE REFOCUSES ON B2B
When The Home Depot bought Your Other Warehouse in 2001, it absorbed the plumbing master distributor into its (now-sold) HD Supply unit. Distributor business slowed, according to this feature by Supply House Times, but it still grew as a feeder to Home Depot's big-box and Expo stores. It also increased its sales over the Internet. Still, customer service fell off, the article says, and other master distributors stepped in to fill the void.

YOW is now re-energizing its master distribution business and reconnecting with its plumbing distributor customers. More...

DEFINE YOUR VALUE PROPOSITION AT EACH CUSTOMER
Define your value proposition in your customer relationships, a consultant at a recent International Foodservice Distributors Association told attendees. Analyze geography, customer types and products to ensure they fit with the company's core competencies – defined as those that provide a competitive advantage, whether through buying or selling better, providing better service, or accomplishing this with fewer resources than your competitors. More...

THE CHANGING FACE OF AUTOMOTIVE PRODUCTION
The key difference between the auto companies gaining share in the U.S. versus those losing it is flexibility. That’s the consensus of a recent panel that looked at the transitions in the U.S. automotive industry over the past two decades and the landscape now shaping up. This good summary touches on how the new domestics have newer plants that allow build-to-order, meeting market demands faster and allowing easier production line modifications to meet changing preferences. The Detroit Three are trying to match the flexibility of the new domestics by revising agreements with unions and recapture market share. More...

APPLY CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT TOOLS IN ALL AREAS
The same focus on reducing non-value-added waste that many distributors are applying to their customer and supplier transactions needs to be applied to all departments in the office. The author argues that there seems to be a cultural resistance in many organizations to putting performance metrics in place for traditional overhead functions, but you can't improve what you don't measure, so having metrics in place is a required first step. He asks some great questions: Do you know the average time it takes to recruit and hire a new employee? Or how long it takes your accounting group to approve credit for a new customer, what your average time to market is for new products, how much of your sales revenue is from products that are less than X number of years old, or how long it takes for a purchase requisition to become a purchase order (and how many approvals are required)? More...

COMMENTARY: BALANCE CHINA-U.S. TRADE RELATIONSHIP CAREFULLY
In 2006, the United States exported $55 billion in goods to China. Exports to China grew by 32% from 2005 to 2006, making it the fastest growing major market for U.S. products. This commentary by the head of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce argues that even though imports from China are massive and cause our trade to be unbalanced, we still sell China a lot of stuff that fills the order books of our companies and sustains many American jobs. Our task is to keep this large and growing customer, while working to bring balance to our trade and insisting upon a level playing field in China for our companies. More...

CHEMICAL BUYERS MEASURE DISTRIBUTOR PERFORMANCE
Ninety-two percent of buyers responding to a recent Purchasing survey find chemical-distributor performance to be good or excellent. What's more, 73% plan to buy more from their distributors in the next three years as their own businesses expand. And, they'll be buying from distributors who perform well for them and meet their specific requirements.

"We use two large distributors for our chemical needs," says one chemical buyer responding to the survey. "One has clearly excelled by consistently providing services. From managing product availability issues during critical shortages, to proactively keeping us informed of supply and pricing dynamics within the marketplace, this distributor has truly become a partner in our business. As a result, as our company has expanded so has their share of our chemical business." More...