Like many distributors, streamlining operations and increasing productivity is front-of-mind for David Parks, executive vice president at fluid power distributor Hydradyne. “Particularly when segments are growing a little bit slower, it’s a good time for us to be looking at our operations and trying to do more with less resources,” he said in this month’s episode of 7 Minutes With.

Parks says Hydradyne, based in the Dallas-Fort Worth area in Texas, is doing some of the more traditional things that distributors often do to streamline operations, such as managing inventory more closely. But the company has also begun a process of providing better visual metrics for their employees, to encourage them to improve their own productivity and the productivity of their departments.

The metrics show operational standards like on-time deliveries in a visual format. The company holds operational meetings around the metrics, which measure a variety of factors that gauge productivity. “Our goal is to get every single person in the company understanding what’s driving their position and what key factors measure their productivity, and get everybody working on increasing productivity,” Parks says.

Learn more about how Hydradyne is streamlining operations and hear more on what the distributor is focusing on this year in this month’s episode of 7 Minutes With.