Laminated Products Discovers the Benefits of Integrated Procurement

As the manufacturing environment becomes more competitive, companies are looking for an edge. Laminated Products, Inc. is no different. For this manufacturer of laminated countertops and other fixtures, machine uptime is a critical factor in the company's performance. This places pressure on the plant's maintenance department to have the right parts available when needed.

The maintenance staff of Laminated Products is responsible for the proper working order of 180,000 square feet of equipment and facilities. This includes minor plumbing, ventilation systems, electrical work, and, most importantly, equipment maintenance.

Looking for ways to streamline their purchasing process, they chose Datastream 7i Buy, the leading online system for maintenance, repair, operations and integrated procurement. To keep the facility at peak performance, Laminated Products has an inventory of $80,000 worth of spare parts. Before using Datastream 7i Buy, there was no system in place for monitoring parts inventory levels.

"Tracking inventory used to be a big problem," says Dominick Aulozzi, maintenance supervisor for Laminated Products. "When I first came here, there was no system at all. Parts were kept at the machine and it was a 'shot in the dark' if you had the part or not. We needed an integrated system to purchase and track our inventory, or we would risk running out of a crucial part and delaying production."

A Better Way to Work
Datastream 7i Buy provides 24 hour-a-day access to the most current catalogs available from the nation's leading spare parts suppliers, tying together equipment maintenance, inventory and purchasing - completing the maintenance, repair and operations supply chain.

With the installation of Datastream 7i Buy, Laminated Products also achieved a unified purchasing system. Budgeting is now easier and more accurate. Datastream 7i Buy also provides a faster method for purchasing.

"I am pleased with the time-savings Datastream 7i Buy affords us," comments Aulozzi. "We often need to do batch purchase orders, as many as 10-12 per batch. Faxing these can take a lot of time. To purchase electronically through Datastream 7i Buy takes only a matter of seconds."

Lower prices and a solid list of suppliers were also reasons Laminated Products chose Datastream 7i Buy. Aulozzi is pleased with the suppliers available through Datastream 7i Buy and their willingness to sell at competitive rates and to search for parts they don't regularly carry.

"The suppliers through Datastream 7i Buy are very flexible," Aulozzi says. "They are willing to work with me to get the right part when I need it. We started using suppliers we had used only sparingly in the past because of their ability to take orders electronically through Datastream 7i Buy."

Datastream 7i Buy was developed in part with Microsoft's architecture. The Microsoft-centric approach provides a stable platform for Laminated Products' purchasing system. "The involvement with Microsoft was a selling point for me," Aulozzi says. "I am very comfortable using their software. Coupled with the comprehensive features of Datastream 7i Buy, our choice was simple."

As an early adopter of e-commerce technology, Aulozzi looks forward to the time when Laminated Products will be able to conduct more business on-line. "As Datastream 7i Buy grows and adds more suppliers, we will have more choices. We will continue to automate our maintenance and purchasing cycles even more in the near future."