 DPS/Real-World Solutions: Hydraulic Equipment
Dowco Drives Down the Cost of Transactions
Excerpts from an article previously published in Hydraulic Distribution.
Successful product distribution has always depended on quality of service to the customer. The bottom line has to be reliability, speed of delivery and acceptable total transaction cost.
Many distributors do achieve these targets, much to the satisfaction of their customers. But these days, it seems there is more to the business of distributing products than ever before. Now the talk is of forming partnerships so that closer ties can be forged between supplier and customer. Integration is the name of the game, whereby the complexities and associated costs of the supply chain are reduced for all concerned.
Strong in Computers
At Hydraulic Equipment Supermarkets, a company dedicated to applying distribution technology to the fluid power industry, computers have had a great deal to do with its success. Now the company has moved even further ahead. This is through the introduction of a new management software system, DPS Extend TM, run on an IBM iSeries server installed at Gloucester (England). The philosophy behind the investment is to reduce the associated costs involved in ordering and delivering products and ensuring that stock levels are optimized.
Stuart Diesel, General Manager, reports that the system opened up exciting additional ways and means of offering services to customers. "Essentially, we are streamlining supply chain management whereby the complexities of the supply chain are reduced for both the supplier and the distributor."
Customer Part Numbers
One advantage the system offers is that orders are now accepted from OEM customers using their own part numbers, enabling invoices to be sent out using their numbers. And all customers find it easier to order parts. For example, the maintenance engineer at a large utility may need a replacement filter right away. With the new management system technology, the engineer can go online himself. All he needs to do is enter the appropriate part number into his PC and dispatch an order electronically. Hydraulic Equipment Supermarkets will then supply him with the exact part he needs.
"Our sights are set on doing what is technically feasible and yet it has to make sense commercially. We will do those things the customer is comfortable with and adapt our system to suit. Partnerships are what it is all about. We have great flexibility in helping to reduce individual customer’s associated costs that add no value to the product."
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