By Mark Phillips
CHICAGO — Hastings Manufacturing, of Hasting, Mich., and VIP Parts, Tires and Service of Lewiston, Maine, were recognized yesterday with R.L. Polk’s Fourth Annual Inventory Efficiency Awards in the manufacturing and retailer/distributor categories. The awards were presented during the Global Automotive Aftermarket Symposium in Chicago.
“All of the companies who submitted an application to this year’s awards have demonstrated an outstanding commitment to taking on this challenge in investing in projects aimed at increasing inventory efficiency,” said Mark Seng, vice president for Polk’s global aftermarket business.
Award submissions were reviewed by a committee of aftermarket industry leaders, Seng said. Committee members had no ties to an organization submitting or winning an award, he added.
To garner the award, Hastings:
Created a real-time, state of the art order fulfillment process
*Achieved a 106 percent increase in pull and ship efficiency
*40 percent reduction in shipping errors
*98 percent same-day order fulfillment
*100 percent on-time, 100 percent order fulfillment rate for five-day stocking orders
To garner their award, VIP:
*Implemented a special order-processing system, that achieved a 30 percent+ increase in special order availability
*Achieved a 50 to 90 percent reduction in special order cycle time
*Reduced returns to less than 10 percent
*Experienced cost reductions on special orders
