Fastenal Case Essay Example for Free

Fastenal Case Essay The comprehensive document is an overview of Fastenal Canada LTD and how it relates to sales management. The document first provides an introduction to the problem and company background of Fastenal, which includes a description of various views of Fastenal. It further goes into detail about the recommendations that relates to the two main parties involved, which are the customers and the company itself. The document also includes an in-depth implementation plan, which is broken down into short, medium, and long-term tasks to accomplish. Through out the document there is a mention of the vendor managed inventory model (VMI). By using VMI, we were able to use a different approach to avoid risks associated with the â€Å"bricks and mortar† approach. Fastenal should choose to implement the following business plan because a well thought out analysis went into determining the problem and coming up with a solution for the future growth of the company. All decisions were made with the company in mind and focusing on the strong relationship between the costumer and Fastenal. Introduction Fastenal Canada LTD is a subsidiary of Fastenal Company, which was founded in 1967. Fastenal Canada LTD operates as a wholesaler and retailer of industrial and construction supplies in Canada. They have over 200 stores across Canada, 66 of which are in the western region. Fastenal’s growth strategy has always relied heavily on new store opening because the high demand for its products and services across Canada (Fastenal, 2012). It tends to be risky as well as costly when opening stores using the â€Å"bricks and mortar† approach. The introduction of the vendor managed inventory model (VMI) has been advantageous. Fastenal receives an electronic data via email, informing them of its distributor sales and inventory stock level. This system makes it fast and efficient for the customers and sales associates. Fastenal interprets the electronic data and there is an automatic responsibility of maintaining the inventory level for the customer. Fastenal is looking for a different expansion model approach to be used as a growth driver in Western Canada. Our new proposed strategy gives Fastenal the ability not only maintains its desired identity but it gives them the ability to increase the market share and tap into a fresh new market. Our goal is to assess the situation in hand and work in the given environment to keep the strong customer relationships since it is an important component in the company. Problem Definition How can Fastenal use its new vendor managed inventory model to increase its market share? End market sales during the months of 2012 grew 19.8% from the manufacturing customers while the residential construction customers grew 17.9% (Fastenal, 2012). The advantage to VMI is that it releases the customer of having to worry about the level of their inventories. Fastenal interpret the electronic data and automatic take control of the responsibility of maintaining the inventory level for the customer. How can Fastenal reduce financial risk? Every scenario where there is a change in the way things are done or achieved there is always risks to failure or loss. In many cases where there is loss or failure, there is often a way that it could have been avoided or done differently to avoid the negative outcome. Fastenal needs to avoid these situations by planning ahead and finding ways to avoid the risks that may pose problems or loss in the near future. â€Å"Bricks and Mortar† approach induces many financial risks so another approach is necessary to prevent them. Situation Analysis Customers and the sales force are the stakeholders who are most affected. Strong customer relationships are the essence of Fastenal’s success and form an important component of their competitive advantage. The problem arises due the to lack of education the customer has about ordering online which deceases the efficiency PartStore has to offer. Ordering online reduces rushing the parts to the counter or waiting on the phone. Customers are also able to check parts availability and prices, as well as place an order. However when PartStore was introduced there was some confusion with it. Creating a frustrating relationship between the customer and sales person. Recommendations Consignment Inventory Consignment inventory usually involves the supplier, placing inventory at a customer’s location without getting rid of its ownership of the inventory. Since the owner retains the ownership of its products the customer does not pay until it is sold or used. However, before we examine how Fastenal can benefit from our proposed consignment program it is important to first examine some potential market of interest. The City of Edmonton According Edmonton’s 2012 budget report, almost all municipalities across Canada face a significant infrastructure deficit. Neighborhood renewal occurred periodically with funding from other orders of government, yet it failed to address the full life-cycle requirements of preventative maintenance, rehabilitation, and reconstruction. Over time, the condition of roads, sidewalks and sewers deteriorated, resulting in more frequent collapsed sewers, increased sidewalk hazards, and dramatically increased maintenance like pothole repairs. The Office of Infrastructure and Funding Strategy highlighted the need for ongoing funding for neighborhood infrastructure to overcome an anticipated $2.2 billion funding gap in neighborhood roads and related infrastructure. This situation provides a tremendous opportunity for Fastenal to penetrate and serve this market. Market potential The total number of potential infrastructure that needs to be fixed in any given time is the market. The market potential for Fastenal products in units would be equal to the number of potential infrastructure that require repairing, assuming that each infrastructure repair would use Fastenal product. Fastenal can benefit for inventory consignment within the city of Edmonton, however administration is important to understand how the current business model can be used to Fastenal’s advantage in delivering the services. FAST 5000 is a vending machine that provides workers with immediate access to materials and equipment’s. The FAST 5000 machine is installed at customer sites and Fastenal keeps them filled with needed products ranging from safety equipment’s, cutting tools supplies to office supplies. Fastenal handles everything from the delivery of the machines to the installation and restocking of the machine whenever the inventory level becomes low. Through the flexible web reporting system Fastenal customers are able to view and manage the machine’s inventory usage. Cory Jansen, Fastenal’s Vice President of Internal Operation have claims that having the FAST 5000 have reduced production consumption in many cases by more than 30 percent (City of Edmonton, 2012). In the midst of 2.2 billion dollar worth of infrastructure repairs that the city of Edmonton needs, someone will have to supplies this market with their required materials and tools to complete the repair work. Fastenal should approach the city of Edmonton with a proposal outlining how the FAST 5000 can be beneficial to the construction site and within the city offices. The city of Edmonton as a corporation serves a population of more than 750,000 residents; the corporation is segmented into seven different departments each department is responsible for providing a particular service to Edmonton residents. We suggest that Fastenal concentrate on the four main departments within the corporation that is more likely to benefit from the FAST 5000 or the FAST 3000 services, which are the: Office of the City Manager, Sustainable Development, Transportation Services and Infrastructure Services. Office of the City Manager will benefit from the FAST 5000 if Fastenal stocks them with office supplies, such as pens, pencils, papers, etc. Since each development must akin to a strict budget the FAST 5000 can provide the solutions to maintaining those budget, by reducing product consumption, having on-hand inventory, and administration costs, while providing new insight into usage and spending habit that can be used toward next years City budget. Fastenal can implement the same strategy within other municipalities across Canada. Implementation Fastenal needs to place a unit in each site under the City of Edmonton. We believe it to be reasonable to set one to three year goal to place a FAST 5000 machine in each site over the next three years. First step is to write up a proposal to bring to the Simon Farbrother, who must approve it. He is the city manager and makes the major decisions in these cases. This process can take up to three months to be able to present the proposal. This also creates awareness of the product to the potential client. The proposal must go through other levels of approval and be voted on by the city council, therefore this may take another three months. Once the plan is approved the production and distribution can be put into motion. The city of Edmonton has many different branches and sites in the Edmonton area. The marketing department in Fastenal will start to put together the proposal and presentation. The marketing department will create a miniature FAST 5000 as part of a press kit along with a formal written proposal. The press kit will also open up and contain testimonials from previous clients Fastenal has worked with. It will also have a brief description of the key factors and attributes of the FAST 5000 and what sets it apart from prior units. Once the plan is approved, Fastenal will be required to submit the bet to the city manager. Since Fastenal is the sole provider of the vendor managed inventory systems (FAST 5000, FAST 3000). This implies that there is only one supplier that can fulfill the requirement and that any attempt to obtain bids would only result in one supplies being able to bid on the contract which is Fastenal. The bid will contain the benefits and costs of going through with the deal and the estimated completion date of placing the units in different sites throughout Edmonton. Once the city has awarded them the contract they will immediately move forward, and Fastenal will provide the services as stated in the proposal. Fastenal will place the minimum required machines in each site as outlined by the contract. Time Line Immediately| Delivering units| Week 1| Submitting a bid| Week 2| Proposal| 3 months| Meeting with Simon Farbrother | 3 months| Vote by city council| 6 months| Full Approval| TBA| Expansion into further sites and markets| Budget Since we do not have any costs that are being associated with this project our cost is zero, therefore the budget is not present. Risk and mitigation Risk| Mitigation| Underperformance of sales force | * Bring on a skilled team * Have the team mentor new people * Make teamwork part of the culture * Hire skillful and enthusiastic employees | Sales loss on FAST machines| * Proper training * Information to customer about store * Finding good location| Unrealistic customer and schedule expectations| * Make the customer feel comfortable and at ease * Set schedule goals around frequent deliveries | Conclusion The problems we wanted to address were â€Å"How can Fastenal use its new vendor managed inventory model to increase its market share?† and â€Å"How can Fastenal reduce financial risk?†   Our new proposed strategy gives Fastenal the ability to not only maintains its desired identity but it gives them the ability to increase its market share and tap into a fresh new market. Strong customer relationships are the essence of Fastenal’s success and have formed an important part of their competitive advantage. Our business purposed plan intended to keep the strong customer relationships. Through our implementation approach we have demonstrated how Fastenal can transform it’s current solution into a continued transparent business model. Fastenal’s opportunities will be awarded by the skill and creativity they have to meet the customer demands. Reference City of Edmonton. (2012). Budget. Retrieved April 2012, from http://www.edmonton.ca/city_government/budget_taxes/budget-2012.aspx Fastenal. (2012). Fastenal . Retrieved April 2012, from http://www.fastenal.com Mackenzie, H. (. (2008). Sales Managment in Canada (1st Edition ed.). (D. Thompson, Ed.) Toronto, Ontario, Canada: Person Prentice Hall.

Animal Disturbances in Eastern Deciduous Forests Essay -- Ecology, Eco

The study of ecology is currently primarily focused upon anthropogenic effects on ecosystems as well as feeding relationships; however, non-feeding interactions are also an important factor in understanding the balance of the ecosystem and identifying issues. These interactions are generally termed disturbances. What constitutes a disturbance? White and Pickett defined it as â€Å"any relatively discrete event in time that disrupts ecosystem, community, or population structure and changes resources, substrate availability, or the physical environment† (White 1985). Some definitions of disturbances such as Grime's require the destruction of biomass, however, this tends to rule out many events that cause changes in the makeup of ecosystems yet are not feeding interactions (Buckley 1992). All animals interact with their environment beyond simply feeding as even walking can affect the makeup of the environment by crushing grasses or insects. Still, not all animals have the same degree of effect on the environment - certain animals are considered to be â€Å"ecosystem engineers.† These ecosystem engineers include crocodiles and beavers, animals that substantially change the environment around them to adapt it to their needs. Clive G. Jones defined ecosystem engineers as â€Å"organisms that directly or indirectly modulate the availability of resources to other species, by causing physical state changes in biotic or abiotic materials. In doing so, they modify, maintain, and create habitats†(Jones 1994). Of course, not all organisms that have non-trophic effects on their environment are ecosystem engineers. It is simply that the effects of the ecosystem engineer tend to be the best studied as they have the largest, most deliberate effect. H... ...ing monoculture comes a plethora of plant viruses that were previously reduced by diversity. As Castello states: â€Å"As forests become monocultures of one or several species, and as they suffer from mismanagement...they become more vulnerable to the impacts of biotic and abiotic stresses†(Castello 1989). Problematically, little is known about plant viruses and thus little is known about how to manage forests to prevent viruses or reduce their impact. There is some disagreement on whether a lack of disturbances truly leads to monoculture as certain ecologists including Hubbell believe that recruitment failures outweigh any possible effect of disturbances (Hubbell 1999). However, as studies have shown, disturbances can drastically increase recruitment failures. Nearly all researchers did agree that anthropogenic disturbances universally reduce diversity in ecosystems.

Philosophy of life: wisdom and meaning of life Essay

Good afternoon Dear Audience, today I am here to speak about something we are all going through. But first of all, let me start with some questions. I am sure that we all tried to find the answers to them at least once in a lifetime. Do you know what is Time? Or What is Space? Maybe you know what is Conscience? Or what is a Dream? Is there Heaven? or Hell? How can we live without knowing whether we are the ones to choose our own paths? And are we sure that we really Live? So many questions remain unanswered. And all these issues and many many others are in a constant connection with our Lives. Life is something we are all here going through and this is exactly the thing I would like to talk about today. There are a lot of technical definitions for the word Life, but can we really fit the whole meaning of this word in a sentence from the dictionaries, most of which claim that Life is the aspect of existence that processes, acts, reacts, evaluates, and evolves through reproduction and metabolism. But what is life really about, if anything? Basically, scientists, today are contemplating about 2 possible theories. That life is either a meaningless accident arising from the laws of physics operating in a meaningless universe, or it is a ‘step’ in a so-called planned ‘experiment’. I say ‘step’, for this, cannot be the end. The current state of life is yet too unstable and undeveloped for it to be the end. And I say ‘experiment’ since the evolutionary nature of life suggests that its future is unknown. If therefore the universe itself has a purpose, it seems most likely to be to explore what the outcome of the evolutionary experiment would be. And here comes the question of what kind of the outcome will we eventually acquire. In our contemporary world, we all get to listen to scientific debates on how, when and where life will come to an end. However, questions remain which may never be resolved. In this vacuum, philosophers and religious thinkers have attempted to give meaning to life by suggesting goals: Plato suggested the acquisition of knowledge, Aristotle to practice virtue, and the Stoics, mental fortitude and self-control. Today’s philosophers echo the existentialist view that life is full of absurdity, although they also tell us that we must put meaning into life by making our own values in an indifferent world. But if life is just a journey from womb to tomb, will such ‘meaning’ be sufficient to allow the traveler at journey’s end to feel that it was worthwhile? The worthwhile journey, the Beginning, and the End, Birth and Death, talking about Life I can not skip on talking about Time. All animals except humans live in a continual present, with no sense of the temporal distinctions of past, present, and future. Our consciousness of time is, therefore, one of the most important distinguishing features of humankind. It comes as no surprise, then, that from time immemorial, philosophers, teachers, and theologians have speculated on the true nature of time. Does time have a substance and, if so, what is it made of? How do we know that time really exists? Does time have a beginning and an end? There is a general agreement among philosophers that time is continuous and that it has an intrinsic direction or order. There is also a more or less general agreement that it is objective, rather than subjective or dependent on its being consciously experienced, and also that so many different physical processes bear consistent time relations to each other . However, even given that, many differing opinions and approaches to what time actually is have been put forward over the centuries. Presently, most websites and books on the subject begin with a candid admission that time is a curious and slippery concept which continues to defy definitive explanation despite hundreds, even thousands, of years of trying. We are told that time is â€Å"enigmatic† and â€Å"ineffable†, but that does not help us much in our search for the true nature of time. Nearly two and a half thousand years ago, Aristotle contended that â€Å"time is the most unknown of all unknown things†, and arguably not much has changed since then. Despite the fact that we don’t know exactly what time is, we still try to develop and move forward. Throughout my entire speech, I’ve been constantly repeating one word. â€Å"WE†. Just 2 letters. Do you know what they mean, since I don’t? We call ourselves Human beings. And, actually, being a human today does not necessarily mean being humane, being able to read or write, being able to work and provide yourself with everything that is needed. Generally speaking, the main features that distinguish us from animals are our abilities to think unconventionally, speak multiple languages, develop all-around spheres, from literature to sciences, from arts to business, and ,of course, we are different, since we believe in more than what we see and we hope for more than what we possess. Lately, I’ve been thinking about our Lives a lot, and I couldn’t resist the desire to share my thoughts with you, which, of course, are backed up by the scientific facts and evidence. While thinking about it, I’ve listened to myself carefully and eventually noticed that inexplicable voice speaking from within. Most of the time we don’t pay enough heed towards this part of our being., however, it should not be taken for granted. Some call it inner voice, others prefer to call it conscience. This is the reason, employed in questions of right and wrong. It is that within a man which approves or condemns his actions. The inner voice is a principle without which a man falls easily into temp ­tation, and every temptation succumbed to means degradation of his best instincts. He feels that he is no longer the same, but something weaker, something polluted, and the secret uneasiness and self-reproach which pursue him are the biting of conscience. Even though this voice should evoke all the notions of what is right and what is wrong there are some whose ideas of justice and injustice are so perverted that even the most wicked actions bring no remorse and at times even win their approval. Principles are not born in a man but are the result of training and association. It should be the endeavor of all of us, so that when temptation comes we will not fall, but resist it, and with every victory strengthen our character until we grow into noble, firm and self-reliant people. So, wherever you go and whatever you do your inner voice is always there, whispering the right answer. From time everlasting, we’ve always been trying to find the answers to as many questions as possible. We come up with the possible explanations, however, there is no-one out there to say that we are moving in a right direction. Who knows, maybe we are just fooling ourselves, and while, relying on our own science, we try to explain the inexplicable, we are increasingly driving ourselves into the jungles, from which, one day, we will not be able to find a way out. Just look at all the global conspiracy theories, most of which seem not only inconceivable but totally delirious. Let me name couple of them in order for you to have a comprehensive picture of what I am actually talking about. The water fluoridation theory, for instance, claims that the water we drink actually contains fluorite, which allegedly brainwashes the entire population of the Earth and makes us susceptible to inculcation. Or the other theory which states that the Moon does not exist, since it’s a hologram put there by someone unknown. And finally, the theory which assures us that lizard people, also known as ‘reptilians’ run the world. What the believers actually propose is that the top echelon of our government is actually controlled by shape-shifting reptilian aliens, who have been lording power over humans to turn them into mindless slaves for their own purposes. I can not deny the fact that hundreds of conspiracy theories look like the ravings of a madman, however, how can we be so sure that all of these bizarre guesses come from nowhere? How can we be so sure about something yet unknown? We have to set priorities for ourselves. This is all about our Lives, not anyone else’s. In today’s ruthless world you either live in lies and ignorance, or you leave your carefree life behind and go search for the Truth. Life is just a wink of an eye if one thinks of eternity. It’s fast and it’s short but it’s worth every single second since it can not be bought, it can not be changed nor can it be returned, ever. And in order to make your Life a worthwhile journey, be sure to rejoice in every single day as if it is the last one you have. Thank You for Your attention!

Genteel People and Honest Hearts in Jane Austens Emma...

Emma: Genteel People and Honest Hearts In Emma, Jane Austen gives us ‘only the surface of the lives of genteel people’? Though not necessarily a commonly used term today, the meaning of ‘genteel people’ is easily assumed. Good birth and breeding are not necessarily the only ‘qualities’ of genteel people: simple generosity, courtesy and elegance can also apply, as well as marriage into the class. The majority of the characters in Emma to some extent expand this definition to provide exceptions to the rule or abuses of the title. In this way the characters provide an interesting answer to the question of whether or not Austen actually deals with genteel people. Mrs and Miss Bates are genteel people and of†¦show more content†¦If she had been able to procure the necessary husband, there is no doubt that her gentility would have become permanent. As it was, she married for love and the ‘intimacy between her and Emma must sink,’ that is, she has lost her albeit precarious hold on gentility. Jane Fairfax is, at her introduction to the reader, in ready danger of slipping from the class that she deserves through both breeding and character. Jane’s orphaned status and increasing years mean that if she does not find a suitable husband in the near future, a governor’s position will soon be beckoning. Fortunately for her, the engagement to Frank Churchill has secured Jane’s position, as he has genteel breeding and was brought up in the Churchill household – a very prestigious claim. Jane’s position is almost the reverse of Mrs Weston nà ©e Taylor. The life of a governess was seemingly inescapable, save for the connection to Mr. Weston. Mr. Woodhouse’s cries for ‘poor Miss Taylor’ illustrate his social blindness when he cannot recognise the constant desire to further oneself. The notion of ‘manners maketh man’ can also be used to judge the gentility of the persons involved. That of Mr Knightley is proven at the ball when, despite his reservations about Harriet and dancing, he chooses to ‘rescue’ her from the humiliation of Mr Elton’s snub illustrating his good manners and gentleman’s heart. The appalling manners of