Success Stories

Activant Trading Partner Connect Helps Specialty Abrasives Distributor Improve Customer Service and Decrease Stock Levels

A few years ago, one of Massasoit Tool Company's biggest customers, a submarine contractor, needed highly specialized silicone carbide abrasive discs. Joe Bagley, operations manager at the company, approved a purchase order for the discs - even though they weren't normal, everyday stock items. "You certainly wouldn't use these things at home to sand your door," he laughs. "If you did, you'd be on the other side of it before you knew it."

Unfortunately, due to a change in processes, the contractor bought only a few discs - and dozens more were left to collect dust on Massasoit Tool's shelves.

Fortunately, Massasoit Tool is a member of Activant Trading Partner Connect, and Bagley posted the dead stock for sale on the Internet trading network. Another distributor halfway across the country needed the discs, and Bagley turned his obsolete inventory back into cash. "Those discs were worth absolutely nothing sitting on our shelves," Bagley contends. "So we sold them through Trading Partner Connect and spent the money on inventory we're making profits on."

A Taxing Situation

It's important for any distributor to keep stock levels low - but it's especially crucial for the Rhode Island-based Massasoit Tool. Like many U.S. states, Rhode Island levies an inventory tax - which means that a distributor must pay duties on any stock in his warehouse - even if the stock isn't moving.

Bagley testifies that Trading Partner Connect - coupled with his Activant solution - has enabled him to reduce the amount of safety stock he keeps in his warehouse, resulting in a 12 percent drop in inventory levels over two years. "You don't have to keep quite so much stock on hand because you can usually get whatever you need pretty quickly from one of your trading partners," Bagley says.

That scenario repeats itself over and over again, Bagley explains. For example, one customer recently needed 10 hard-to-find sanding belts in a hurry. The item's manufacturer had a 200-item minimum and a three-week wait.

"We went onto Trading Partner Connect and found a distributor who had those belts in stock and got them to our guy in a few days," Bagley says. In addition to meeting the customer's timing demands, Massasoit Tool saved close to $1,000 since it didn't have to meet the manufacturer's minimum requirements. "And there's no chance that 190 belts will ever go dead, since they're not sitting in our warehouse," Bagley adds.

The Decision to Streamline

Massasoit Tool specializes in abrasives, and initially joined Trading Partner Connect to streamline processes with 3M, its major manufacturer/supplier and another member of Trading Partner Connect. Though Bagley expected great things from the Internet trading network, a 40 percent drop in the amount of time his staff spends on purchasing astounded him. "Trading Partner Connect takes the time out of working with our manufacturers," Bagley says. "You used to type a purchase order, print it, go to a fax machine, fax it, wait for a confirmation - the process took forever. Now it's seamless."

Begley offers advice to other distributors considering membership in Trading Partner Connect: "Look at your inventory, and look at the stock that you haven't been able to move for whatever reason," he says. "That's stock you can move through Trading Partner Connect. Even if you can get $1 for stuff that you haven't sold in two or three years, that's $1 in your pocket. Otherwise, you might as well back up the dump truck and throw it away."

For more information on Activant's enterprise software solutions, please fill out our Web Contact Form.

Back to Top