Still sourcing your motors from the supplier down the street? If the system isn’t broken, why fix it? Well, that old adage doesn’t live up to modern standards. Even if the old model is working for you, optimizing your supply chain helps improve the performance of your business, effectively helping your lower costs and increase customer satisfaction.
Your supply chain is a critical component of your business, and it receives a large piece of the pie when it comes to your operating costs. Increasing customer expectations and the requirement for shorter lead times are a major push in the need for supply chain optimization. The following optimizations may seem small, but they’ll bring you and your business significant value.
HIGH-QUALITY PRODUCTS
Help keep your customer’s HVAC systems performing at their best and in turn build your reputation by only sourcing your motor replacements from suppliers with high-quality inventory. Select a source whose inventory is from the best brands in North America.
WHO SUPPLIES YOUR SUPPLIERS?
Your suppliers have suppliers too. You are likely the end of the supply chain, offering the product directly to your customer. As such, there are quite a few links in the chain before you. Do you know how reliable the other links in the chain are? A delay on their end is a delay for your customers. And a price increase on their end means your customers must spend more, or you do.
Suppliers also must forecast demand to try to have the right products in stock at the right time. If they overspend on inventory, that cost trickles down to the end-user. You can find online retailers that use a drop-ship model, allowing them to order directly from the manufacturer and ship from their warehouses. They never overspend on inventory and you’re never waiting for your motor to ship to the supplier and then to you, it ships straight to you.
SUPPLIER RELATIONSHIPS
Finding the right supplier to build a partnership with is essential to the long-term success and profitability of your business. Find a supplier that assigns a personalized account manager who will take your calls/emails and process your orders. Ordering a replacement motor could be just as easy as taking a couple of pictures on-site and sending them off to your account manager.
They get to know your business so they can get ready for the busy season with you, ensuring they have the correct stock in place.
VOLUME PRICING
When you purchase all your electric motors from a single source, you’re more likely to receive volume pricing. Suppliers often provide price discounts to customers who order over a certain dollar value per year, helping you increase your margins.
TALK TO THE EXPERTS
Find a supplier that offers you more than an order filler. Some retailers have motor experts on staff who will help you find the right motor for the job, even for those complicated projects.
INVENTORY MANAGEMENT
Optimizing your supply chain includes optimizing your inventory. By keeping the most popular products on hand you are prepared for most jobs, saving time ordering and driving to your supplier in the meantime. You can utilize your supply partner for those one-off projects that require less popular motors. Keeps less inventory on your truck and free up funds that would have otherwise sat as a motor on a shelf.
You can also consider selecting a brand to stay loyal to. Instead of having the same motor in multiple brands in your inventory, have only one or two of one single brand to free up space for other motors you’d like to stock.
UTILIZE TECHNOLOGY
The electric motor supply chain is slowly adopting more and more technology to make ordering your motors and designing systems easier. In a few simple steps, you can order directly from your phone while still on the job site. You can easily input a few ratings from a motor to cross-reference an OEM motor for direct replacements. And you can chat with the experts while you’re working on a project that has you stumped.
Check out this podcast discussing operation of a few motors used in the HVAC industry
SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
The social responsibility of companies is becoming a popular topic for consumers. People are trying to spend their money locally, helping to keep their money in the local economy to stimulate growth and social programs. Look into your suppliers to see what they do for their communities. Conducting business ethically and socially-minded isn’t about increasing profits, it’s about reputation building and building a larger client base.
A large part of successful motor replacement is a successful relay or contactor replacement along side it, check out this short contactor replacement tip.
SUMMARY
Operating your business at peak performance includes taking a deep look at your supply chain. Optimizing your supply chain means you’re sourcing your electric motors faster and at a lower cost, helping to keep your customers satisfied and increasing your revenue.
