Learn how RS leveraged its vast product portfolio and newly expanded service solutions to help a leading industrial equipment manufacturer gain reliable access to trusted products, shorten lead times, improve assembly activities, and enhance labor resource utilization.
The discrete manufacturing industry produces distinct items, such as automobiles, electronics, and machinery — individual units that can be easily counted — by assembling and fabricating products from various components, and it relies on an array of advanced technologies and complex supply chains. In recent years, this industry has experienced a significant transformation driven by Industry 4.0 trends, including digitalization and automation technologies. These and other IIoT technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics, are revolutionizing discrete manufacturing product lines, enabling real-time monitoring and predictive maintenance, and enhancing product customization.
However, despite these technological advances, the discrete manufacturing industry still faces a range of headwinds, including supply chain headaches, skilled labor shortages, and component sourcing concerns. RS recently worked with a leading industrial equipment manufacturer, to help alleviate these common challenges. Here’s how we did it:
Our Customer
In this instance, our customer was a leading American manufacturer of industrial equipment, including land management tools and vehicle-mounted water tanks.
Our Customer’s Primary Challenges
- Supply Chain and Labor: This customer was seeking to outsource the assembly of cables and control boxes due to labor shortages, space constraints, and unprecedented growth. They needed a trusted partner who could not only supply products but also provide assured connections for their subassembly requirements while minimizing the need for multiple new vendors.
- Component Sourcing: Due to limited technical resources and time constraints, this customer had been creating designs reactively, relying on readily available parts from leading e-commerce retailers, but this approach raised concerns about counterfeit products. They also believed many of their designs could be simplified but lacked the time and manpower to adjust effectively.
RS Solutions
The RS team earned the customer’s trust and became their preferred partner by leveraging our newly expanded selection of design and build services, providing a single source solution for products and services.
- Design Services: RS engineers helped simplify and streamline their overcomplicated designs. We also assisted them with sourcing reliable, readily available products from franchised suppliers to mitigate counterfeit component concerns and strengthen their supply chain.
- Build Services: To help improve their assembly processes, we built a control box that is an enhanced feature in their solutions portfolio, which significantly relieved the burden on their in-house laborers and reduced their time to market. We also collaborated with our network of trusted, assured, and connected partners to identify cable assembly solutions that consolidated their vendor list and reduced installation and maintenance time and costs.
A Win for the Customer
Our new partnership allowed us to leverage our vast product portfolio and flex the newly expanded RS Design and Build service offering to provide our customer with additional technical expertise support, access to trusted products, and reliable engineering drawings and documentation. Our solution also improved their assembly and inventory systems by mitigating delays, de-risking their supply, and shortening their previously long lead times. The customer was able to consolidate their vendor base and avoid single points of failure.
As a result, the customer was able to redeploy labor resources elsewhere to better keep up with growing demand.
A Win for RS
In addition to improving our customer’s operational efficiency, our new partnership illustrated the mutual benefits of collaboration. The proactive engagement of our local sales team supported significant business opportunities accompanied by additional product pull-through and created an opportunity for future growth as well.
“This customer exemplifies both the current market challenges and the invaluable role that service and solutions play in long-term growth,” said Melissa Bychinski, Director of Business Development Service Solutions at RS. “They grasp the concept of total cost of ownership and recognize the benefits that outsourcing can bring in terms of productivity. They also prioritize the bigger picture and are willing to invest in additional services that can help them provide higher quality products and faster delivery and establish themselves as a trusted partner for their end customers.”
Overcome Your Pain Points With RS, a Trusted and Proven Industrial Solutions Provider
RS is a global product and service solutions provider committed to enabling industrial customers to operate efficiently and sustainably. Our extensive range of industrial products supports customers throughout the design, build, and maintenance stages of the industrial lifecycle, and we further enhance their experience with our tailored service model, technically led, digitally enabled approach, and exceptional team of experts.
We’re also well experienced in helping organizations navigate the complexities of industrial market challenges, ranging from downtime and skilled labor shortages to inefficiencies, and have earned a reputation as a collaborative, flexible, and forward-thinking partner you can count on to help you overcome the industrial and engineering challenges of today and tomorrow and gain a competitive edge while saving you time and money.
Want to learn more about what we can do for you? Contact your local RS representative at 1.866.433.5722, or reach out to our technical product support team.
