North Star

By Staff -- Purchasing, 6/1/2000

Name: Brett A. Ebeling

Title: Purchasing agent

Company: North Star Ice Equipment Corp., Seattle, Wash., (www.northstarice.com). In business since 1950, North Star Ice Equipment provides a wide range of high-capacity industrial flake icemakers and ice-handling equipment. The firm just introduced a new liquid-ice system for cooling fish onboard fishing vessels or in shore-based fish processing plants. The system makes pumpable liquid ice, also known as slurry ice, which is a mixture of seawater or freshwater flake ice and water. It also designs and manufactures various ice-making, ice-handling, ice-storage and snowmaking equipment.

Reports to: David Rogers, production manager

Professional background: He has been working as a purchasing agent for a year. He started working at North Star in the electrical department then moved on to the production floor where he helped build icemakers and did research and development. He then moved into purchasing with a full manufacturing knowledge of North Star engineering and production systems as well as requirements for parts.

What and how much he buys: North Star Ice is a small company that sells its products globally. North Star Ice equipment requires the purchase of 6,000 parts, which is $3million/year, from various vendors. Sourcing partners include pressure vessel manufacturers, power transmission companies, steel distributors, machine shops, sheet metal fabricators, plastics distributors, pneumatic air handling equipment distributors, electrical supply distributors, motor manufacturers, fiberglass part manufacturers and fastener distributors.

Buying challenges: Trying to have vendors manufacture materials to specific specs is sometimes difficult to do. "I have found that good communication is the key to getting something made right. If a vendor understands what they are making and how it fits into the product, they will find better ways to manufacture the material," Ebeling says. Another challenge is on-time delivery, since some incoming parts-especially stainless steel-aren't always meeting the company's on-time goals. JIT issues are being addressed with the supply base so production schedules aren't jeopardized. Lately, this has required expanded communication. So visits to the suppliers have been expanded, as have supplier visits to North Star Ice to see how the part they are manufacturing fits into the system. "

How the purchasing function has changed: Lately, there's been more buying online, especially for MRO supplies and "standard" steel and other production materials from distribution. "It's far easier to source repetitive items, now that the suppliers, especially the distributors, are online," he says. He adds that "it's also easier to ship items because you can trace the products from the time they leave the dock to arrival without having to use the phone. In some instances, you can also see who signed for the item so that you know exactly where it went." Online buying has improved delivery times, made tracking easier, and has proved to be a daily tool to provide better efficiency in the purchasing function.

Meeting these changes: North Star Ice has adapted to these changes by creating its own Web site, networking all of its computers and getting a high-speed Internet connection. "We are putting all of our products on automatic computer-automated design (CAD) renderings so that we can e-mail drawings and jpeg photos of the products that we make," he says.