Archive for the ‘Fastener Industry’ Category

• Weekend Weirdness – Make a Fastener Chess Set

  Date: 2010.09.04 | Category: Fastener Industry | Response: 0

  This was included in one of the old screwcrew.com posts that have been lost to the world.  Now humankind has another chance to see and even make this fastener chess set.  Click to go to the Flickr photostream for jsuits which, along with an interesting lung painting, includes details showing the construction of each piece.

  

• Weekend Weirdness – Screw and Nut Earrings

  Date: 2010.09.04 | Category: Fastener Industry | Response: 0

  Nothing to say here, really.  My ears are without piercing so I have not tried these myself.

  

• This is the kind of thing I have been talking about

  Date: 2010.09.03 | Category: Fastener Industry | Response: 0

  Ok, all you fastener distributors who aren’t sure what the web can do for your company – Jay is from a fastener family, got a real job in tech for a while, and is back in the fastener biz (they always come back).  He has developed one of many possibilities for marketing fasteners.  What are the others possibilities?    My point is that we don’t know all of  them yet, and if you’re waiting for me to tell you, you won’t win.  The best ways of using technology to make fastener distribution better (more efficient, more profitable, more fun…) are yet to be discovered.  Someone will discover them.  Will it be you?

  Our options

  • keep doing things as we are doing them and hang on to whatever profit is left
  • imitate the innovative companies while they race to the top
  • hire somebody like Jay (or give latitude to someone creative who already works for you) to inject some vision and expertise into the biz

  Only those in the race can win.  I guess spectators can buy a race T-shirt too, but it doesn’t mean much.

  photo by p-duke

• The Newest Future of Fastener Distribution

  Date: 2010.09.01 | Category: Fastener Industry | Response: 0

  When I was listening to an episode of Fully Threaded Radio, something said in a discussion about the old days struck me.  As recently as 50 years ago, most fasteners were sold by general industrial supply houses, not by specialist fastener distributors.  This caught my attention because I had never thought about how relatively short a time fastener distributors have been on the scene.  The good news is that if there are so many fastener distributors now, there must be a market for their services.  Our challenge in the coming years is to zero in on the services that fastener distributors provide that cannot be duplicated by the generalist industrial supplier and/or the internet, and focus more intently on those services.  I’ve mentioned before that if you think your job as a fastener distribution salesperson is to make sure your customer has all of the latest manufacturer catalogs, you will find that the internet will make you (has made you) unimportant.  But which roles do fastener distributors have that can not be filled by technology?  The irreplaceable roles exist, but we have to do a better job of identifying them and focusing on them to maintain our relevance.

  The human touch side of fastener distribution is powerful, but as we employ technology to help do our work (and we definitely should employ it often and with creativity) we are left with the human side as the only part of our business that can’t be easily duplicated by the mega supply house.  Think of yourself as an MD of fasteners, and decide how to fine tune your bedside manner so that you can be a better doctor than a computer can.

• Screw Wall Hooks

  Date: 2010.08.31 | Category: Fastener Industry | Response: 0

  These wall hooks come in the form of flat head screws. It is unclear whether they can be bought in the U.S., so if you can get a set of them you might have a super cool U.S. exclusive.
  

• Weekend Weirdness – Nut and Bolt Magic Trick

  Date: 2010.08.29 | Category: Fastener Fun | Response: 0

  If you don’t mind getting a little corny with your customers or co-workers, this magic trick is a pretty good deal.

• Fully Threaded Radio is on the Air for Episode 10!

  Date: 2010.08.28 | Category: Fastener Fun, Fastener Industry | Response: 1

  The new episode of Fully Threaded Radio includes screwy banter, as well as interviews with NFDA vice president, Matt Ulrich, Fastener Technology International editor, Mike McNulty, and Ohio State University associate professor, Dr. Tony Luscher, all talking fastener stuff!

  Go listen to it here, or right click and download the mp3 from here, and/or subscribe to the podcast on itunes.

  

• Fastener Distribution and Technology Can Be Better Friends

  Date: 2010.08.27 | Category: Fastener Industry | Response: 2

  [Another re-post of a 2008 article.  I am even more adamant now that we need to stop thinking of technology as something that the industry needs to adapt to, and instead adapt technology to our needs and possibly use it to transform how we do what we do.  If we don't, some other we will.]

  THURSDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2008

  I am waiting in the dentist’s office.

  
  I am waiting in the dentist’s office. My daughter is going to get a filling. She is distracting herself with a magazine, and I just discovered that I can post to my blog from my phone. How cool!

  It made me start thinking about how much has changed since the 80′s when the company I worked at bought it’s first fax machine. We still had a cardex file where we manually tracked inventory, and orders were typed up on 3 part carbon copy forms.

  Now I sit here with a tiny mobile phone, having just checked email, answered voicemail, and looked up sales figures on the internet. I’m not going to go on about how much time has passed, or how old these changes make me feel, because it hasn’t really been that long and I am not old.
  But thinking about the fastener business, I wonder what these changes have meant for distributors and what they will mean in the future.

  If somebody had walked in the front door at Diaco Inc in 1985 and told us that they could give us a small, battery powered electronic device that we could use to check our suppliers’ inventory, place an order online, and have the product drop shipped immediately directly to our customer, we would have been stunned. First we would have asked what “online” means. Then we would have all looked at each other and shouted, “We’re going to be rich!”

  How is it that because the technical advances didn’t happen over night, we don’t seem to have taken full advantage of them? The distribution business hasn’t changed nearly as much as have the tools we use to operate. Maybe we just need some time to catch up. One thing is for sure. Distributors are still a key part of the equation. While manufacturers have used technology to tune up their production operations, it looks like it is up to us distributors to harness technology to transform the distribution end. End users rarely want to deal directly with manufacturers, and vice versa. Distributors know the lingo, habits, and quirks of both end users and manufacturers. We are no longer here just to break kegs into packages and keep them on the shelf hoping to sell them. We are the translators that allow the fastener business to run efficiently. Let’s use the strength that comes from that importance, and make changes that benefit everyone.

  More to come.

  It turns out my daughter didn’t need a filling after all. Very happy, we will go home now.
  Photo by TheDamnMushroom

• Taking Risks – Have You Screwed Up Lately?

  Date: 2010.08.26 | Category: Fastener Industry | Response: 0

  [Another re-post (I'm on a roll) of something I wrote back in 2008.  I like to think I've taken some chances since then, but this is a good reminder for me to keep at it.]

  Have you screwed up lately?

  

  A friend of mine is writing (right this minute I think) about the concept and strategy of “test often and fail”. This made me think of this little story.

  My 13-year-old daughter was very nervous before her first practice as a beginner on a water polo team. I wanted to help her calm down, especially since inside I was probably more worried about it than she was. All I could think was that at some point she would surely make a stupid mistake and feel (and maybe look) like an idiot. But then I realized that the first stupid mistake would feel the worst and, like getting a shot, would feel nowhere near as bad as either of us were anticipating. So I had what I think was a creative parenting brainstorm and told my her that being a beginner she would surely make a mistake that would make her feel really really stupid - for only a moment. I strongly urged her to make that first really stupid mistake as soon as she could and then get on with practice. This calmed her down for two reasons. First, being a teenager she is not allowed to believe that I know what I am talking about, so when I say that she will feel stupid, I am probably way off base. But I think it also sunk in for her that the first stupid mistake will come, feel bad, and go. She saw that first mistake for what it really was, a brief, uncomfortable and necessary interruption on her way to having a lot of fun and becoming a much better water polo player.

  After each of her first few practices I would get a report from her about what went on and then I would ask, “But have you made your first stupid mistake?” I jokingly acted disappointed at her reply because it actually took a few practices before she had a chance to make a really stupid mistake, and by the time it came she had long since stopped worrying about it. I think she was glad to finally make that first stupid mistake because it really wasn’t so bad, she survived it, and it was easily outweighed by plenty of good moves that she never knew she had in her.

  Besides being super proud of her, I realized that I need to practice what I was preaching. Even – or especially – in business, if you never make that first stupid mistake that means you are not taking enough chances and you will not gain. That glorious stupid mistake means that you are pushing hard enough to actually gain ground. It not only gives you an opportunity to learn from the mistake itself, but it is a clear sign that you are heading somewhere.

  We all have memories of stupid mistakes from early in our careers. We can laugh about (most of) them now, and they help us realize how far we have come. I clearly remember starting in the fastener business as a packager and making a stupid mistake because I could not tell the difference between a fine thread and a coarse thread nut. I remember it because now I know it was such a simple thing, but it was the starting point of learning more about fasteners than I ever thought I would know. I was willing to dive into that job, knowing almost nothing about the product. I took chances and made plenty of mistakes along the way as a necessary part of learning and progress.

  Now I am a big shot fastener specialist and very comfortable in my role. But that is the trouble. For the last few years I haven’t been looking for the next big mistake, instead I have been skillfully avoiding it. Twenty years from now I would love to look back on today with the same sense of accomplishment that I now have looking back to 1988. So as I ponder my to do list for the day or week or month, I look eagerly for the area where I am most likely to make a stupid mistake because I know that is where I am most likely to be making worthwhile progress. Even working on this blog is very new and very public, so I expect that I will make a stupid mistake and be embarrassed at some point (if I already have, don’t tell me, I’ll get there soon enough). But I am doing my best to transform that weird feeling in my gut from fear into excitement since I trust that it all leads to something good.

  (Oh did I mention that my daughter became a starting varsity player as a freshman and has a bunch of new friends on the team? All because of my brilliant advice, of course.)
  Photo by estherase

  [By quietly hoping that the changes in technology and economy won't hurt fastener distribution too much, are we being safe or more risky?  Wouldn't it be better to risk a few failures while trying some bold new things for the industry?]

• You Might be a Fastener Freak…

  Date: 2010.08.25 | Category: Fastener Industry | Response: 0

  [In the interest of having some (sort of) new content, and yet not having time to write something now, I am re-posting another thing I wrote in 2008.  Enjoy and comment!]

  You Might Be a Fastener Freak if…

  
  My name is Andy Pels. I have been in the fastener distribution business since 1985. I might be like many of you. I didn’t dream as a child of being in the fastener business, but here I am. And now it looks like I’m sticking around.
  Yes – I am a fastener freak.

  You might be a fastener freak if:

  • while you wait in an elevator, just by looking at the heads you identify the diameter, material and style of every fastener in the elevator, and you even think you know the lengths.
  • When you shop for an appliance you turn it upside down and/or look in the back of it to see what fasteners are used.
  • When you are in a stadium seat and look down at the ground, you don’t care so much about the beer and soft drink residue, you just think to yourself, “Wow, four anchor bolts on this seat times 50,000. Nice.”
  • It bugs you when you have to go to the hardware store to get a fastener, but while you’re there you get mistaken for an employee and help 3 or 4 other people find what they’re looking for.
  • You always have some kind of fastener sample on your desk – and in your pocket – and a cupholder in your car – and on your dresser…
  • It makes you twitch when somebody calls a bolt a nut, or vice versa.
  • You don’t like that there is not a universally agreed upon explanation of the difference between a bolt and a screw (even though everybody in the industry thinks they know it).
  • You don’t care that normal people around you think this is all weird.

  Fastener Freaks – please add your own in the comments section. Subscribe to this blog and let’s keep the conversation going!