Manufacturer's View in a Small World

Is this not a small world? I was looking at the November issue of Industrial Distribution magazine, flipping the pages, came to manufacturers view and there was Phil Samuels, a face and a name that I recognized. We worked together at Briggs-Weaver many years ago.

Phil was on the sales side and I was on the procurement side. Now there has always been the same discussion between sales and procurement on how much inventory to have. “How can you be out of this? We sell hundreds of them!” (Possibly because you sell hundreds of them is why we’re out of it.)

Phil’s headline reads “Distributors who keep their shelves well-stocked are most likely to gain sales.” I believe that to be a true statement. If you don’t have the product a distributor down the street will. If you are out of a product to many times you may possibly lose a customer.

Phil states it is evident that the absence of inventory is self-defeating when it comes to sales growth. Companies now days are trying to track lost business. How many dollars were lost because we could not fill the order? 

As long as demand varies, we as buyers will seldom reach that 100% service level. Would we want to know exactly what to buy as to what we would sell? Where would our challenge be? Our jobs would become boring. They might not even need us.

As they say, think about what you wish for.