KnowHow 1-2011 - Pentair

DESIGN yOUR STANDARD
by doug FranZ doug.franz@pentair.com
Electrical and electronic equipment can break down
or become damaged from environmental conditions,
costing businesses. From auto plants to oil refineries,
water treatment facilities to data centers, Pentair’s
Technical Products’ Hoffman TM brand products
protect business’ vital equipment and employees.
Excelerate provides the right
enclosure at the right time.
The Hoffman product portfolio
encompasses more than 14,000 catalog
items. Since customers need a broad
range of products, we offer variations
in size—from smaller than a shoebox to
larger than a commercial refrigerator—
and many different materials, including
steel, stainless steel, plastic, fiberglass
and aluminum, and the accessories
required for customers to mount their
equipment inside.
Despite the large product
portfolio, many customers
still need changes to suit
their specific application.
Design engineers often
request a unique size to suit
the available space and a
special paint color to match
their machine or brand
identity, or they may want
prefabricated holes and
cutouts on the enclosure to
reduce their time and labor
costs.
The variety of
customer-requested
modifications and enclosure
options poses a challenge
for manufacturers to meet
customer needs in a timely
fashion. In such a highly
competitive market, lack
of speed can limit sales
growth. Customers expect
standard items to ship immediately from
inventory and customized items to ship in
two to three weeks, if not sooner. Combine
the customer’s need for speed with the
business’ need to manage inventories,
engineering resources, and production
schedules, and the challenges quickly
multiply.
To respond to this need, more than
300 employees from all organizational
functions participated in multiple process
improvement events (Kaizens) to establish
new internal processes that drive the
lead-time performance commitment to the
customer.
Effective April 25, the Hoffman brand
launched the exCelerate initiative
to improve lead-time performance and
meet our customers’ needs. This program
implements:
1. Stocked Standard items: Items available
from inventory or, in the event of a stock
outage, have a rapid replenishment plan
(product ships in three days).
2. non-Stocked Standards: Items ready to
be built but not carried in finished goods
inventory (product ships in 10 days).
3. Design–your-Standard: Standard items
that customers have modified within a
set of established guidelines allow them
to create their own unique standard
product, such as size, paint color, install
accessories, cutouts and holes in the
enclosure body or door (product ships in
15 days).
4. engineered Solutions: Items that
require modifications outside
the established guidelines of the
Design-your-Standard scope or are
based completely on the customer’s
unique design (lead-time based on the
specific customer requirements).
Excelerate’s new Design your Standard
option aligns with customer insights
and empowers our customer, the design
engineer, to select products that best meet
their design and delivery needs. To expand
on that offering even further, when a
customer creates a Design-your-Standard
solution, that product is eligible to become
a Non-Stocked Standard and will be
delivered 33 precent faster on subsequent
orders. Design Engineers now choose the
speed that they need: the right enclosure
delivered at the right time.
With Excelerate, you Design-your-Standard
and lead the way!
knowhow 2012 21