There are many ways that selecting the right Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI) partner can simplify your business and help you to start saving time, money, and improve your bottom line.

Let’s break down what VMI is all about.

Is inventory the backbone of success for your business?  Do you have trouble forecasting demand and maintaining correct inventory levels yourself?  Do you have difficulty dealing with too many suppliers?

Managing large amounts of inventory and a multitude of suppliers requires daily monitoring, meticulous coordination, and careful planning, which may be difficult to do on your own. The ramifications of any missteps can be felt beyond the purchasing department, across your entire organization, from manufacturing to operations to payables and more. If you’re having difficulty with any aspect of inventory management, it’s VERY likely you can benefit from a Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI) program.

So, what exactly is Consigned Vendor Inventory Management? Let’s break it down into two parts – Consigned Inventory and Vendor Managed Inventory.

Consigned Inventory is inventory that is still owned by the supplier, but the customer has on hand. When the customer uses or sells the inventory, the supplier THEN gets paid. There are a few reasons why this works, but a big one is that the customer frees up capital that would otherwise be needed to purchase the inventory in advance. This creates a form of financial security and freedom for the customer.

Vendor Managed Inventory, or VMI, is an inventory replenishment strategy in which the supplier monitors and may even physically replenish the customer's stock. When you form a VMI relationship with a provider, they handle the stress of inventory so that you can focus on other aspects of your business.

By letting the right provider manage your inventory, you can invest time in building relationships, increasing sales, and tackling other things that help your business reach long-term success.

Austin Hardware & Supply, Inc. has reached an agreement with Tuma to be their United States distributor of heavy and extra heavy duty drawer slides. 

While Austin Hardware has supplied heavy duty drawer slides for many years, Tuma’s slides add to that offering, giving Austin the broadest offering of drawer slides to industrial and wheeled vehicle markets including the fire, rescue, and emergency vehicle industry as well as the utility and service body markets.

Many manufacturers, whether they’re in a wheeled vehicle or other industrial market, have in common the need to find the right latch for their doors or compartments. But how do you know which type is best for your application, and what are the critical factors that go into the decision?  

Austin Hardware & Supply, Inc. has received Patent No. US 10,004,331 B2 from the United States Patent and Trademark Office for the company’s Front Drawer Release (FDR).

The FDR was invented by engineers Mark Jeffries and Rusty Smith in 2009, and a patent request was filed in 2011. It was designed as part of a complete system to easily latch and unlatch the drawers in heavy duty industrial drawer systems used in vehicular applications.

Launching a product is not as simple as creating it and releasing it into the world. Without a solid plan, bringing a product to market can prove impossible. In fact, Harvard research shows that there are over 30,000 new products launched every year, but over 80% of them fail. It’s safe to say that getting a product to market is far from guaranteed.

Innovation is integral to success today. New or re-branded products and services are meant to fill consumer demand or capitalize on an opportunity in the marketplace. When bringing new ideas or products into reality, businesses must consider the New Product Development process. This process was developed on the back of comprehensive research on products that failed and succeeded.

How to Develop a New Product

The process listed here is recognized as the best practice for bringing concepts to the market. Also known as the Stage-Gate innovation process, has eight crucial steps for successful product development. Keep reading below to learn more about these steps and how to utilize them for your business.