September 9 2008
Volume 38, Issue 17 - 09/10/2008
38
17
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Many leaders understand the importance of matching strategy with operations, but few companies have systems in place to actually do so, according to Robert Kaplan and David Norton, creators of the widely used Balanced Scorecard performance measurement tool and leading advocates for customer profitability analysis. Kaplan recently spoke with MDM Editor Lindsay Young about the challenges inherent with effective strategy implementation in a wholesale distribution company.
In their latest book, The Execution Premium: Linking Strategy to Operations for Competitive Advantage, Kaplan and Norton present a formal systems approach to implement strategy at every level of an organization. The authors’six steps, as shown in the graphic on page 4 of this issue, …
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The twice-yearly MDM Survey on the Economy was conducted during the last two weeks of August. A similar survey was conducted in February. Here’s what MDM found overall, as well as a breakdown in distributor and manufacturer responses.
Concern over the state of the U.S. economy has grown among MDM readers over the past six months even as more believe conditions may soon stabilize.
Concern over the current state of the economy grew most among manufacturers who responded to the survey, with 25.4 percent saying they were very concerned”and 59.7 percent answering “concerned.”In February, those numbers were 25 percent and 50 percent, respectively.
Distributors showed slightly less concern, with 24.1 percent being “very concerned”and 56.2 percent …
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As a pivot point in the flow of products from the point of manufacturing to end use, distributors have several key roles -scout, gatekeeper, product and solution provider, marketer, arbiter. Every successful distributor combines these roles into a unique set of skills that creates value for customers as well as suppliers. Distributors create the most efficient market system into highly fragmented industries and local economies by effectively managing these market relationships both upstream and down. It’s a fairly simple equation that is complex to execute well.
Not that most distributors have time to sit around and ponder their place in the universe. But that’s just it. The interview that leads this issue touches on a key differentiator that separates a relatively few …
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Motion Industries, the industrial parts group of Genuine Parts Company, Atlanta, GA, has acquired Drago Supply Company, a regional industrial supplies distributor headquartered in Port Arthur, TX. Drago Supply has eight locations in Texas, Arkansas and Louisiana. More
DXP Enterprises, Inc., Houston, TX, has acquired Massachusetts-based PFI, LLC, for $65 million. PFI distributes fasteners, rivets and hose clamps. The company has locations in Georgia, North Carolina, Illinois, Ohio, Texas, California, Massachusetts and Florida. More
Interline Brands, Inc., Jacksonville, FL, …
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Labor productivity -defined as output per hour -increased in the wholesale sector in 2007 by 2.1 percent from 2006 to 2007, according to a new report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Unit labor costs increased as well.
Between 1987 and 2007, labor productivity in wholesale trade increased at a 3.3 percent average annual rate.
2006-2007
Output per hour grew in 12 of 19 detailed wholesale trade industries in 2007. (See table below.) Commercial equipment wholesalers experienced the largest productivity gain, 13.7 percent.
Sectors seeing decreases were motor vehicles and parts, lumber and construction supplies, metals and minerals, druggists’goods and miscellaneous durable and nondurable goods.
Unit labor costs fell in seven …
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This is the pdf of this issue of Modern Distribution Management. Apply the full $24.95 pay-per-view cost toward an annual subscription (within 30 days of purchase), which includes two issues a month plus access to more than six years of online archives and market data. Call 1-888-742-5060 or email info@mdm.com to …
- Premium
Many leaders understand the importance of matching strategy with operations, but few companies have systems in place to actually do so, according to Robert Kaplan and David Norton, creators of the widely used Balanced Scorecard performance measurement tool and leading advocates for customer profitability analysis. Kaplan recently spoke with MDM Editor Lindsay Young about the challenges inherent with effective strategy implementation in a wholesale distribution company.
In their latest book, The Execution Premium: Linking Strategy to Operations for Competitive Advantage, Kaplan and Norton present a formal systems approach to implement strategy at every level of an organization. The authors’six steps, as shown in the graphic on page 4 of this issue, …
- Premium
The twice-yearly MDM Survey on the Economy was conducted during the last two weeks of August. A similar survey was conducted in February. Here’s what MDM found overall, as well as a breakdown in distributor and manufacturer responses.
Concern over the state of the U.S. economy has grown among MDM readers over the past six months even as more believe conditions may soon stabilize.
Concern over the current state of the economy grew most among manufacturers who responded to the survey, with 25.4 percent saying they were very concerned”and 59.7 percent answering “concerned.”In February, those numbers were 25 percent and 50 percent, respectively.
Distributors showed slightly less concern, with 24.1 percent being “very concerned”and 56.2 percent …
- Premium
As a pivot point in the flow of products from the point of manufacturing to end use, distributors have several key roles -scout, gatekeeper, product and solution provider, marketer, arbiter. Every successful distributor combines these roles into a unique set of skills that creates value for customers as well as suppliers. Distributors create the most efficient market system into highly fragmented industries and local economies by effectively managing these market relationships both upstream and down. It’s a fairly simple equation that is complex to execute well.
Not that most distributors have time to sit around and ponder their place in the universe. But that’s just it. The interview that leads this issue touches on a key differentiator that separates a relatively few …
- Premium
Motion Industries, the industrial parts group of Genuine Parts Company, Atlanta, GA, has acquired Drago Supply Company, a regional industrial supplies distributor headquartered in Port Arthur, TX. Drago Supply has eight locations in Texas, Arkansas and Louisiana. More
DXP Enterprises, Inc., Houston, TX, has acquired Massachusetts-based PFI, LLC, for $65 million. PFI distributes fasteners, rivets and hose clamps. The company has locations in Georgia, North Carolina, Illinois, Ohio, Texas, California, Massachusetts and Florida. More
Interline Brands, Inc., Jacksonville, FL, …
- Premium
Labor productivity -defined as output per hour -increased in the wholesale sector in 2007 by 2.1 percent from 2006 to 2007, according to a new report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Unit labor costs increased as well.
Between 1987 and 2007, labor productivity in wholesale trade increased at a 3.3 percent average annual rate.
2006-2007
Output per hour grew in 12 of 19 detailed wholesale trade industries in 2007. (See table below.) Commercial equipment wholesalers experienced the largest productivity gain, 13.7 percent.
Sectors seeing decreases were motor vehicles and parts, lumber and construction supplies, metals and minerals, druggists’goods and miscellaneous durable and nondurable goods.
Unit labor costs fell in seven …
- Premium
This is the pdf of this issue of Modern Distribution Management. Apply the full $24.95 pay-per-view cost toward an annual subscription (within 30 days of purchase), which includes two issues a month plus access to more than six years of online archives and market data. Call 1-888-742-5060 or email info@mdm.com to …
