October 25, 2013

In a recent conversation with MDM, Mike Rowlett, CEO of Womack Machine Supply, said: “If we treated young folks new to the business today the same way that I was treated 35 years ago, we wouldn’t be able to keep any of them.” How distribution companies integrate new talent today can have a big impact on success tomorrow.

Subscribers should log-in below to read this article.

Not a subscriber? Subscribe below or learn more. Subscribers also have access to the following related articles:

Protecting Your Knowledge Base
The Case for a Radical Sales Overhaul
Commentary: Re-evaluate the Human Capital in Your Company

To access this page, you must purchase MDM Premium Subscription, MDM Premium Subscription – Monthly or MDM Premium Subscription – Annually.

Commentary: How Good is Your Knowledge Transfer? Read More »

The Difference Between ‘Stock’ & ‘Stuff’

Strategy, Subscriber Only / Lindsay Konzak

Many distributors struggle to effectively separate what should be stocked from what shouldn’t, according to Jon Schreibfeder, president of Effective Inventory Management Inc. But by ranking inventory by activity levels, cost of goods sold and profitability, distributors can determine when and whether to stock products.

This article, an exclusive summary of the recent MDM Webcast, Effectively Analyzing Your Inventory Investment. Access the webcast at www.mdm.com/inventory-investment, includes:

How to differentiate between “stock” and “stuff”
Evaluation of the right levels of the different types of stock
How to rank your products for effective management

Subscribers should log-in below to read this article.

Not a subscriber? Subscribe below or learn more. Subscribers also have access to the following related articles:

Inventory: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
Make Your Data Work to Grow Profitability
Case Study: Minimizing Surplus Inventory

To access this page, you must purchase MDM Premium Subscription, MDM Premium Subscription – Monthly or MDM Premium Subscription – Annually.

The Difference Between ‘Stock’ & ‘Stuff’ Read More »

MDM Interview: Minimizing Risk in Your Business

Strategy, Subscriber Only, Top Distributor Sectors / Angela Poulson

Distributors face many kinds of risk, including product liability claims, economic uncertainty, employee injuries, natural disasters and supply chain disruptions. By identifying potential scenarios, and ranking and planning for each of them, risk can be reduced and managed, Vernon Grose, author of Managing Risk: Systematic Loss Prevention for Executives and founder of Omega Systems Group Inc., tells Staff Writer Angela Poulson. Grose is a former member of the National Transportation Safety Board and a risk management aviation expert who has applied lessons from that work to help businesses and organizations.

This article includes:

Advice on how distributors should approach risk in their businesses
Details on the SMART (Systems Methodology Applied to Risk Termination) technique for managing risk
The importance of ranking risk
Common elements of risk that are often overlooked

Subscribers should log-in below to read this article.

Not a subscriber? Subscribe below or learn more. Subscribers also have access to the following related articles:

Data Security Risks Grow
Disaster Plans: ‘No Single Point of Failure’
MDM Interview: Why Analytics is About People, Not IT

To access this page, you must purchase MDM Premium Subscription, MDM Premium Subscription – Monthly or MDM Premium Subscription – Annually.

MDM Interview: Minimizing Risk in Your Business Read More »

MDM-Baird Distribution Survey: Slow but Steady Growth in Third Quarter

Economic Trends, Quarterly MDM-Baird Distribution Survey, Research & Analytics, Subscriber Only / MDM Staff

Robert W. Baird & Co., in partnership with Modern Distribution Management, conducted a survey of more than 500 distributors and manufacturers to gauge business trends and the outlook for the distribution industry in diverse sectors. This article is a summary of third-quarter results and distributor and manufacturer expectations for 2013.

This article includes: