Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/447632
January/February 2015 35 Time is money. ACP ovens don't waste either. Changing the Way the World Cooks See us at NAFEM booth 2808 to learn more. www.acpsolutions.com 225 49 th Ave. Dr. SW | Cedar Rapids, IA 52404 800-233-2366, 319-368-8120 | Fax: 319-368-8198 Cook up to 15x faster than conventional ovens without vent hoods or water lines. ACP helps keep commercial kitchens e cient and pro table while maintaining superior food quality. Preferred by commercial kitchen operators for over 20 years, ACP manufactures quality high speed ovens for every foodservice need, from simple retherming to combination cooking. FEDA201501_ACPamana_hlfhzR1.indd 1 12/8/2014 9:15:57 AM decisions. We all have a finite amount of money to invest in the business. Given that reality, we should be doing every- thing in our power to maximize the return on that investment. If you speak to any branch manager, they never have enough space in the warehouse. Chances are, they just have too much of the wrong product on the shelves. Studying data will help that man- ager adjust the stocking levels to be better in tune with the current needs of their customers. They will be able to spot products on the decline and be able to make better decisions when allocat- ing space. The customers are telling you what they want you to stock. You just need the right instrument to hear them. Many distributors have very low line counts per order. The average is certain- ly lower than most salespeople think. For clarification, I am referring to the aver- age lines on a typical sales order. Low line counts run up transactional costs for both the distributor and the customer. Frankly, customer service is diminished when a distributor fails to provide all the product a customer needs in an application. A simple study of data and pattern recognition will help bring this challenge to light. Once recognized, the company can set goals for improvement. I happen to be working on margin improvement with several clients. This would not be possible without solid access to sales data. In fact, I will go out on a limb and suggest that there is a strong correlation between the success of any margin enhancement program and the access to solid reporting. I can do a lot of work by just reminding sales- people how valuable their services are, but it needs to be followed up with a program designed to raise prices on less sensitive items. While some folks claim to be dialed in to the sensitivity of their product mix, I have a hard time believ- ing that you can really know how high to set the bar on 5,000 active SKUs. I am an unabashed data junkie. I believe that the ability to extract trans- actional data and put it into a meaningful format is one of the best ways to drive net profit. Building reports is only the first step. Progress occurs when we analyze this information and take man- agement action. Now get up, go walk down the hall and knock on the door of your IT manager. Find out just how much your system could be telling you. Remember, I am always here to help. About the Author: Jason Bader is the managing part- ner of The Distribution Team, a firm that specializes in helping distributors become more profitable through strate- gic planning and operating efficiencies. The first 20 years of his career were spent working as a distribution execu- tive. Today, he is a regular speaker at industry events and spends much of his time coaching individual distribu- tion companies. For more information, call (503) 282-2333 or contact him by e-mail at Jason@Distributionteam.com. Also visit The Distribution Team's web- site at www.thedistributionteam.com.