RS Product Director Marie Dawson shares expert insights into the facility maintenance market, addressing applications, evolving demands, popular products, the value proposition for RS PRO products and the benefits of partnering with RS to satisfy your facility maintenance needs.
It’s one thing to build a business that provides quality products and services, and it’s quite another to maintain it. Facility maintenance solutions are key to keeping equipment in optimal working order, employees safe and healthy and production on track. RS has a well established reputation for being a trusted supplier of the industrial automation solutions, electronic components and electromechanical products required to get industrial businesses up and running and has recently expanded its line card to include an extensive selection of the facility maintenance solutions required to protect those investments, maximize productivity and profits and keep personnel safe.
To learn more about facility maintenance solutions, we chatted with RS Product Director Marie Dawson, who has been instrumental in establishing and fostering relationships with the world’s leading facility maintenance solution suppliers.
Hi Marie, it’s a pleasure to speak with you. First, please tell me a little about yourself. What is your background? What originally brought you to RS, and how did you end up working in facility maintenance?
My career trajectory changed a lot in my life. At one point I wanted to be a lawyer, at another a teacher, but the turning point really came for me when I was one of four people selected for an internship at Bell Helicopter Textron. Obviously, that industry on the surface is a far cry from teaching, but while there I got to combine my interests by developing new training programs for their helicopter dealers. When my internship ended, they offered me a permanent position in contracts administration, and I quickly found out my future was going to be in product management. Today, I get to pursue those passions here at RS, which has been a wonderful opportunity from the start.
What I most love about my role in product management is I get to participate in the entire customer journey. I get to be a part of the selection and contract process. I get to work with the sales team to determine how to best launch and market new suppliers. And I even get to play a role in growing sales for our current suppliers. The facility maintenance sector is a great example of this. RS is actually fairly new in this space, but our entry into it grew out of learning about what our customers need to effectively maintain the products and equipment they buy from us. Everything RS does is done to maximize customer value, and the decision to expand our line card with an extensive selection of facility maintenance products is no different. Industrial automation equipment including motors, drives and power supplies, and even basic warehousing spaces and commercial businesses, require proper maintenance to ensure optimal functionality, so it made good sense for our sales team to play a role in that phase of the purchasing process as well. We strive to be a true partner for our customers, as opposed to just a distributor, and adding a robust facility maintenance portfolio to our line card allows us to provide customers with real value in terms of convenience and time savings, so we’re very proud of this portfolio.
Facility maintenance is a broad term. What exactly does it encompass?
A lot of people hear the term facility maintenance and think of disinfectants, window cleaners, hand soap, paper towels, etc. In fact, that’s what I originally thought as well. But while those types of products are definitely an element of the facility maintenance market, they don’t represent the entire market. For instance, many of our customers are in the industrial automation market. So, for them, facility maintenance refers to all of the products and processes necessary to keep their assembly lines in good working order and to protect their personnel. Every situation is different, but industrial automation customers could require facility maintenance solutions including lubricants, greases and oils to prevent equipment wear and tear, personal protective equipment (PPE) such as goggles, gloves, coveralls and earplugs to keep their employees safe, tools including hammers, mallets, wrenches and hand saws to keep equipment running smoothly and a variety of other things that might be necessary to keep a work area clean, operational and safe and a business efficient and productive.
The industrial automation market has experienced significant challenges over the last couple of years, and it was far from the only one. Have these struggles changed how businesses are viewing facility maintenance as a whole? Has the demand for facility maintenance changed in any way?
Absolutely. The big change that occurred in this space was the COVID-19 pandemic, obviously. Suddenly, there was a massive focus on sanitation and personal safety. In some instances, depending on where the business was located, there was even a regulatory component to it that could result in fines or lawsuits if the execution was mismanaged. To help businesses satisfy these new demands, we added a bunch of new products. For example, we now carry Fresh-Aire UV Light Systems, which are germicidal UV lights designed to sterilize microbial contaminants including mold, viruses and bacteria in HVAC systems and other products with critical airflow, such as ice machines and water dispensers. We all want pure air, of course, but focusing on it with that level of intentionality was just not on people’s radar a few years ago. The incentive for investment wasn’t there. Today, however, expectations have changed. The bar has risen, and we have strived to cater to these new needs through the products we offer.
In addition to seeing greater demand for facility maintenance products, we’ve also seen increased demand for more facility maintenance options. One interesting thing we’ve discovered is that people shop for work like they shop at home. So, if a person typically buys organic cleaning products at home, then that’s likely the direction they’ll go when buying on their organization’s behalf as well. Personal preference plays a huge factor in product selection and, as one of the nation’s largest distributors, RS can make sure that we have available solutions that suit every kind of customer. The facility maintenance sphere is steadily expanding, and we are committed to offering our customers a full suite of solutions to help keep their machines and their people operating at their best.
One might imagine that facility maintenance solutions are only applicable in industrial sectors, but demand actually stretches across the market spectrum. Where are some other less obvious market sectors that require facility maintenance solutions?
Just a quick walk through an industrial facility could result in dozens — even hundreds — of potential pain points where facility maintenance solutions might be beneficial. Think about even the small things, like how many people touch a conveyor belt, how many people touch a table used to pack orders and how many people touch a cabinet in the break room. Things like that are important in all businesses where there are workers on site — including many commercial businesses, which we serve as well — and even today it can be easy to let those considerations slide if there isn’t a plan in place.
Helping customers see these improvement opportunities is where RS comes in. Our team engages with and listens to customers to get a feel for their day-to-day and tailor their product recommendations to satisfy customers’ specific needs. For example, one recent customer needed a product they could use to deep clean their dumpster. The product had to be organic, and it had to smell good. Given these criteria, we were able to recommend a disinfectant from the Dymon Liquid Alive Series.
What are some of the most prominent facility maintenance solutions offered by RS?
Today we offer more than 38,000 facility maintenance products from over 190 trusted suppliers including Kimberly-Clark Professional, Klüber Lubrication, SpillTech, Fresh-Aire UV, 3M, Guardian Equipment, TechSpray, Brady, DYKEM, ITW Chemtronics, MG Chemicals, Norton Abrasives, Lift Safety, LPS, Protective Industrial Products, SCRUBS, Spray Nine, Makita, Klein Tools, Wera Tools and Wiha Tools. Our vast array of suppliers allows us to offer the widest variety of the highest quality products available for maintaining industrial and commercial facilities. Some of our most popular facility maintenance solutions are:
- Lubricants, greases and oils that protect equipment from corrosion and wear and prolong its lifespan.
- Cleaning products and janitorial supplies, including disinfectants and sanitizers that eliminate bacteria and viruses, industrial strength cleaners, degreasers and absorbents for equipment and spills, paper products and dispensers, such as paper towels, tissues and disinfectant wipes, and a growing selection of organic options. Envirocleanse disinfecting and sanitizing solutions, for example, offer 100% natural, EPA-certified cleaning options for those interested in organic alternatives.
- PPE ranging from face masks, face shields, respirators, ear protection, eye protection, gloves, hard hats, safety shoes, lifting belts and safety harnesses to safety signage, first aid kits, eye wash stations and emergency showers
- An extensive array of hand and power tools.
- And specialized facility security equipment including safety switches, door control systems and programmable keypads.
We also offer some more specialized facility maintenance tools that are designed with efficiency in mind. For example, I think DYKEM’s Cross Check Torque Seal tamper-proof indicator pastes are really neat. Let’s say you work at an amusement park as a maintenance person and your job is to check a series of bolts daily. Cross Check allows you to mark the bolts as you check them and will provide clear visual indication if something goes wrong, like if a bolt vibrates loose. Over days, weeks and months, the at-a-glance confirmation that this inexpensive and easy-to-use product provides can result in huge time savings.
Does the RS PRO brand offer any facility maintenance products?
Yes! Our RS PRO private label brand has a robust selection of facility maintenance solutions. In fact, facilities maintenance was one of our first product focuses when we started developing the RS PRO brand, which is designed to deliver peak performance at an exceptional value. Today, we offer over 7,500 products in this category alone, ranging from cleaning supplies, PPE and facility security solutions to tools and test and measurement equipment. All of these products are rigorously tested and backed by the RS PRO Seal of Approval, which is only awarded after a rigorous quality control process based on stringent international standards, and most RS PRO products come with a three-year standard warranty.
Why should customers come to RS for facility maintenance solutions?
We are lucky enough to be in a position to really understand what customers might need in both the short term and the long term. Having a knowledgeable partner right from the beginning — for instance, a trusted sales representative who can show you exactly what you’ll need to avoid downstream costs — can go a long way toward maximizing your time and your money.
RS also helps customers consolidate their needs into just a few transactions so they don’t find themselves in a position that could require them to re-enter the market after downtime has already occurred. We know that our industrial and commercial customers are going to need facilities maintenance products, so we do our best to make sourcing these solutions both convenient and cost effective by maintaining a robust stock and using our knowledge of customers’ business practices to recommend exactly what they’ll need when they’ll need it.
I think it’s also important to highlight just how much customer feedback affects our offerings and service strategies. When we get feedback from a customer on a product — and especially regarding our RS PRO products — we take that very seriously. For example, we periodically send out customer surveys, and if our team sees even one concern or problem and the customer allows us to contact them, we will respond in less than 24 hours to make it right. At RS, every customer has a voice, and that voice defines everything we do and offer.
Thank you so much for your time, Marie. Do you have any final thoughts or advice to share?
I’d just like to say that while our portfolio of facility maintenance products is already extensive, we’re still fairly new in this space. So, we’re still actively promoting the fact that we offer a wide range of facility maintenance products as we continue to expand our selections to satisfy evolving demands. We want to be a partner you can trust to keep your business running smoothly on every level and to provide you with a convenient, one-stop-shop experience that helps save you time and money. That’s our goal. So, give us a shot and let us show you how committed we are to satisfying your businesses needs and making your life easier.
Additional Information
RS offers more than 3.5 million products from over 650 trusted suppliers, including many of the world’s most well-respected facility maintenance suppliers, and is committed to transforming customer feedback into faster, more informative and more intuitive website features designed to improve the convenience, simplicity and speed of doing business anytime, anywhere and on any device. RS also offers a comprehensive suite of services and tools including a highly experienced technical support team, kitting, bagging and labeling services and a BOM tool, as well as an online registration page featuring helpful information and how-to guides including a Quick Start Guide, a guide to Advanced Features and an FAQ.
For more information about RS’s extensive portfolio of facility maintenance products, please visit the links embedded throughout this article and click through to two other recent Expert Advice articles on the subject, “The Latest in Cleaning and Sanitation Technology” and “Outfitting the Facility Manager’s Toolbox.” For assistance identifying and deploying facility maintenance solutions optimized for your unique business, please contact your local RS representative at 1.866.433.5722 or reach out to the technical support team.
