Water treatment system manufacturers design, build and market equipment to improve the water we use for drinking, cooking, washing, and more. The water treatment industry is huge, with sales in the billions of dollars annually. Two managers—one, the director of purchasing; the other, director of information technology—coordinate a $14 million procurement budget for Aquion Water Treatment Products (AWTP), an Elk Grove Village, Ill.-based firm that makes water conditioning equipment and products in various plants.

AWTP is the parent of several strategic business units that make various types of water and air treatment products: Erie Water Treatment Controls makes rotary and diaphragm valves with time clock or advanced computer controls; ProSystems Select Series makes pre-engineered and custom designed residential systems; ProSystems Private Label offers wholly customized systems; ProSystems Commercial & Industrial products provides off-the-shelf or as custom designed systems, and ClearWater Tech, another division, designs and manufacturers ozone generation systems for commercial, residential and industrial water and air purification purposes. The firm's largest division, RainSoft, makes products that treat, purify and soften water for homes and businesses. These firms are ISO-certified and operate under a continuous quality improvement philosophy.

A purchasing and inventory control group that supports the manufacture of equipment is led by Steve Swiderski, director of purchasing. Matt Hancher is the IT director and supports the systems and technology for all of the firms. Swiderski's group makes the purchases—whether they are ion exchange resins, custom injection-molded components, switches, or other electronic components. Hancher's group uses Infor VISUAL Enterprise on-demand software as an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system and develops custom reports that track order points, deliveries and other key supplier metrics.

The two managers have been working to reorganize how purchasing collects and manages corporate business data. “The idea has always been to develop the best support systems for this growing business,” says Swiderski. It's an interesting team approach that coordinates five buyers, six information technology staffers and two production controllers to leverage better buying.

“While people know the businesses, know the seasonality of the various sales, marketing operations and know the special circumstances that affect how and when we buy, we need to transfer the human factor into system processes,” notes Swiderski.

“Humans still make the purchasing decisions, of course,” says Hancher, a six-year veteran at the firm, “but our newly automated information systems are allowing Steve's people to access the complete data needed about supplier performance to make the best future buying decisions.”

Swiderski explains the synergy between the two managers: “There are many standard product offerings among water treatment equipment firms and a lot of interchangeability between the equipment parts and water softening systems out there but ours are, in a variety of respects, superior and much more challenging to manage. Matt and I have many of the same goals and objectives. Up and down the supply chain, we want our people to manage supply and suppliers better, to catch problems early on and supervise intervention to make buying better,” he says.