Case Study, Silicone Arrestor Cover:
A large manufacturer in the power transmission industry was interested in developing
a polymer arrestor housing to enter this rapidly growing market. To date all of
their housings had been made from ceramic. Their efforts were targeted at finding
a source for EPDM insulator products. We strongly suggested they try silicone because
it is inorganic and naturally hydrophobic. At that time most of the polymer arrestor
housings in the world were EPDM. Silicone, a more expensive material which was not
yet used for arrestor housings in North America, was beginning to enter the market
in Europe for power transmission applications. There were advantages to using silicone.
Extensive testing gave evidence that Silicone performed better in extreme outdoor
applications. Once they evaluated the data, the customer committed to developing
arrestors with silicone housings despite the higher price. This power transmission
manufacturer had a jump on all of their domestic competitors when they introduced
the product. My vendor enjoyed many years of multimillion dollar sales to this company
and earned the reputation of being one of the pioneers in manufacturing silicone
products for outdoor power transmission applications.
Case Study, Growth of a Business:
I started selling for a small, CNC machine shop with four employees and less than
$200,000 in sales. This company had talented people despite its small size. I had
relationships at two local aerospace component manufacturers; they agreed to give
them a try. It was hard at first, there were paperwork issues related to selling
to the defense/aerospace industry. My company and I had a lot to learn. But we worked
through it. We started small with small jobs. I worked very closely with the customers
and my vendor to form a strong platform of communication. We were fortunate to have
customers who were willing to partner with and educate this vendor. Purchasing,
Management and Engineering were all involved. The growth followed. Within five years
this vendor enjoyed sales in excess of 2.5 million and grew to more than 20 employees.
The customers enjoyed a strong dependable vendor who was trained to do business
“their way”.
Case Study, Find Your Advantage and Do What It Takes:
A large screw machine customer was bought out by its competitor, a Canadian firm.
The new company said to us “you will not likely keep this business because you are
too far away for daily deliveries and your American dollar gives you a disadvantage
over our Canadian supplier.” At the time the American dollar was running about 25
cents over the Canadian Dollar. We had one advantage; my principal was running Aluminum
grade 6262 for these fluid fittings while our competitor ran Aluminum grade 6161.
Both grades are similar in cost, but 6262 machines much easier than 6161 resulting
in lower cost parts. We were able to overcome our cost disadvantage. The issue of
our distance was still out there. My principal said “do what it takes to get this
business.” He was prepared to quote it in Canadian Dollars, if necessary. I found
a logistics company in Canada which would take care of shipments to their warehouse
and daily deliveries to their customer. This was very useful to both principal and
vendor because the principal could manufacture product in volumes which were economical
manufacturing volumes while the customer could release the parts daily. We gave
the customer an additional benefit by invoicing each part once a month instead of
every day; one invoice vs. twenty. As a result, the distance issue was overcome.
My principal was able to double their business with this new Canadian customer.