Today's manufacturer
IEN / AUGUST '16
35
www.ien.com
T
he expression
"it takes a vil-
lage" doesn't just
apply to child-rearing
anymore. These days,
it takes a network of in-
fluencers to keep many
businesses humming
along – and manufactur-
ing is no different.
Likewise, the role of
the average vendor of
industrial products has
changed in response,
with everyone from
broad line MRO distrib-
utors to high tech gad-
get producers offering a
bag of tricks designed to
ease the in-house bur-
dens of their customers.
According to Jim Wil-
liams, Vice President,
Purchasing and Sup-
plier Relations, Prod-
uct Management and
Engineering for MRO
mega-distributor Mo-
tion Industries, many
manufacturers are rely-
ing on their suppliers to
come in and do more of
what they used to do in-
house. "There is certain-
ly a service that custom-
ers continue to demand
in a technical support
role," says Williams.
Oftentimes it's ma-
chine design work or up-
grades "that used to be
done within the plant by
the plant engineers and
they're now looking to
outsource a lot of that,"
he explains."We provide
a lot of expertise to help
them."
The Role of
Educator
"Through our relation-
ships with our suppliers,
we have obligations to
many of our customers
for cost savings and,
rather than focusing
strictly on unit price cost
savings, we're look-
ing for the bigger costs
savings like productivity
improvement, longer life,
energy efficiency and
things of that nature,"
explains Williams. In this
case, what Motion In-
dustries offers is a basic
paid audit for a custom-
er, to identify the kind of
high dollar payback that
more than justifies the
cost of the service. From
their perspective as a
By Anna Wells
Modern Plant Operations
Service and Scope
Adds Insight to