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Most distribution CEOs won't admit this publicly: they're running $50 million businesses on Excel spreadsheets and gut instinct. And it's costing them a fortune. I've spent 30 years in distribution. I've watched executives spend entire weekends manually updating pricing. I've seen procurement teams burn 1,500 hours annually just creating purchase orders. I've witnessed businesses bleed…
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A CEO recently told me his company is sitting on $5 million in excess inventory while customers face stock-outs on critical items. After 30 years in distribution, I've watched this pattern repeat hundreds of times. The inventory problems that seemed manageable are becoming critical vulnerabilities for 2026. Supply chain volatility isn't going away. Distributors who…
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Orders triple overnight. Your warehouse scrambles. Customers call asking why their prices changed since last week. For mid-market distributors, the period when order volumes spike 3-5x normal levels can define your entire year's profitability. But too often, these critical weeks become a chaotic scramble of manual workarounds, pricing mistakes, and operational bottlenecks that erode margins…
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The marketplace is abuzz with concerns about price volatility and the rapid pace of changes. For distributors, staying ahead of the curve is paramount. Imagine you're running a $125 million distribution business with pricing loaded in your ERP system, competing against another business with 40 years of market experience. How do you gain the upper…
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As engineers and manufacturers in the industrial distribution sector, the question often arises: “What role does Demand Planning play in our success?” While we can delve into technical metrics and analytics, a simple story captures the essence of its importance. The Camping Story Two lifelong friends are camping in the woods when a bear appears…
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Orders triple overnight. Your warehouse scrambles. Customers call asking why their prices changed since last week. High-volume periods expose what's already broken. You make it through—but at what cost? What Breaks Under Pressure One $45M distributor processed 1,200+ pricing decisions manually during a single high-volume week. That's not a strategy—that's survival mode. The margin leakage…
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Managing large bills of materials (BOM) can be overwhelming for distributors, especially when dealing with hundreds of line items across multiple categories. Relying on manual input and spreadsheets is outdated, error-prone, and inefficient. To remain competitive, distributors need to embrace technology-driven solutions like system pricing and advanced analytics to streamline operations, improve accuracy, and make…
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It's that time of year again—peak season. Whether it's the tariffs rush or a quarterly sales boom, this is the moment that can make or break your business. Are you ready to shine, or will the pressure reveal the cracks in your foundation? My conversations with over 100 distributors this year confirm this challenge. They…
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Managing large bills of materials (BOM) is a critical task for distributors, especially when handling hundreds of line items. Historically, this process was manual, involving extensive use of spreadsheets and manual input from various sources. In today's fast-paced market, such manual processes are not only time-consuming but also prone to errors and inconsistencies. The Importance…
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Connecting the strategic framework from "Beyond Price Hikes" (PHCPros, July 2025) with tactical wholesale cost strategy implementation from our June 2025 workshop. Three months ago, I wrote "Beyond Price Hikes," outlining four ways to manage rising costs in wholesale distribution. Many leaders then asked: "How do we actually do this?" They all described the same…
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