Supply Chain Team Carries Nordson Through Challenging Times
Jul
11,
2022
Nordson's supply chain team has faced increasingly complex challenges within the past few years in locating and transporting the materials we need to manufacture our products. Their expertise and tireless efforts have helped Nordson weather the storm.
"The same way people are looking to order household items and goods like furniture and are facing delays, we're running into the same issues with components for our products," explained Dan Vassel, Director of Supply Chain Management. "As they go to restaurants and there aren't many servers, the same thing is happening at production facilities. If you go to the grocery store and you're paying more for meat, that's similar to what we're facing in the market."
Transportation has also been an issue, as Manda Bennett, Manager of Global Trade Compliance, Freight and Logistics, explained. When ports shut down unexpectedly, flights are cancelled or cargo vessels are stuck in the harbor, her team approaches the challenges with a 'find another solution' mentality.
"One of the things that has really benefitted us as a team is that we have supply leaders at different divisions, and we hold monthly meetings to collaborate," said Bob McCory, Vice President of Supply Chain. "Every supply leader has different expertise based on their background and their business, so while we're in a division-led structure, we're still all in this together. We can still come together and support each other."
Their cross-division collaboration has kept our divisions running. Their efforts recently resulted in nick-of-time wins for our medical fluid components and Measurement and Control Solutions (NDC Technologies) teams.
"The biggest thing for this group is resin," said Justin Hall, General Manager of the Nordson Medical Fluid Components team. "The supply of resin in the market has been extremely difficult, so we work with the supply chain team, and they help us scour the earth to find additional channels for this resin."
Resin is used to produce medical devices, including products that support vaccine production, patient care, COVID patient care, diagnostics and testing. Without it, our teams can't supply those products to hospitals and health care organizations. While resin has been in low supply, the team has leveraged NBS Next to prioritize which top products receive it first.
"One of our key customers produces disposable blood pressure cuffs," Justin added. "Days before we ran out of the materials we needed, the supply chain team found an appropriate channel and prevented that from happening, so we never shut down."
In fact, the medical fluid components product line grew significantly last year and is set to continue growing this year, despite the challenges in resin supply.
Similarly, our NDC Technologies team received support finding a printed circuit board component. The team was within 24 hours of completing an order that would have cost $750, 000, when our supply chain team identified another supplier that could offer the same component for $350,000. Within days of Nordson’s acquisition of NDC Technologies, the supply chain team helped realize a savings of several hundred thousand dollars.
NDC Technologies also brings new expertise and contacts to strengthen our supply chain team, particularly in the areas of contract manufacturing and molding capabilities
Aside from sharing cross-functional expertise, our supply chain team has leveraged decades-long relationships with suppliers and the benefit of Nordson's scale to complete orders that other companies would struggle to place.
"We have providers we've been working with for more than 40 years," Manda said. "Rather than looking for short term relationships that yield short term gains, we keep a larger perspective because otherwise when things hit the fan, those partners might be gone. We work with partners that have proven themselves, and we look to make agreements that are mutually beneficial."
"If you look at our performance and you compare it to peers, our results speak for themselves," Dan said. "We've been able to withstand the storm. We know that we're not through it, but we're seeing a light at the end of the tunnel. Hopefully we come out stronger than we could have ever imagined."
"In aggregate, we managed to keep product flowing," Bob said. "My hat's off to the team that they managed to support record growth at a time when supply chains globally were disrupted."
"The same way people are looking to order household items and goods like furniture and are facing delays, we're running into the same issues with components for our products," explained Dan Vassel, Director of Supply Chain Management. "As they go to restaurants and there aren't many servers, the same thing is happening at production facilities. If you go to the grocery store and you're paying more for meat, that's similar to what we're facing in the market."
Transportation has also been an issue, as Manda Bennett, Manager of Global Trade Compliance, Freight and Logistics, explained. When ports shut down unexpectedly, flights are cancelled or cargo vessels are stuck in the harbor, her team approaches the challenges with a 'find another solution' mentality.
"One of the things that has really benefitted us as a team is that we have supply leaders at different divisions, and we hold monthly meetings to collaborate," said Bob McCory, Vice President of Supply Chain. "Every supply leader has different expertise based on their background and their business, so while we're in a division-led structure, we're still all in this together. We can still come together and support each other."
Their cross-division collaboration has kept our divisions running. Their efforts recently resulted in nick-of-time wins for our medical fluid components and Measurement and Control Solutions (NDC Technologies) teams.
"The biggest thing for this group is resin," said Justin Hall, General Manager of the Nordson Medical Fluid Components team. "The supply of resin in the market has been extremely difficult, so we work with the supply chain team, and they help us scour the earth to find additional channels for this resin."
Resin is used to produce medical devices, including products that support vaccine production, patient care, COVID patient care, diagnostics and testing. Without it, our teams can't supply those products to hospitals and health care organizations. While resin has been in low supply, the team has leveraged NBS Next to prioritize which top products receive it first.
"One of our key customers produces disposable blood pressure cuffs," Justin added. "Days before we ran out of the materials we needed, the supply chain team found an appropriate channel and prevented that from happening, so we never shut down."
In fact, the medical fluid components product line grew significantly last year and is set to continue growing this year, despite the challenges in resin supply.
Similarly, our NDC Technologies team received support finding a printed circuit board component. The team was within 24 hours of completing an order that would have cost $750, 000, when our supply chain team identified another supplier that could offer the same component for $350,000. Within days of Nordson’s acquisition of NDC Technologies, the supply chain team helped realize a savings of several hundred thousand dollars.
NDC Technologies also brings new expertise and contacts to strengthen our supply chain team, particularly in the areas of contract manufacturing and molding capabilities
Aside from sharing cross-functional expertise, our supply chain team has leveraged decades-long relationships with suppliers and the benefit of Nordson's scale to complete orders that other companies would struggle to place.
"We have providers we've been working with for more than 40 years," Manda said. "Rather than looking for short term relationships that yield short term gains, we keep a larger perspective because otherwise when things hit the fan, those partners might be gone. We work with partners that have proven themselves, and we look to make agreements that are mutually beneficial."
"If you look at our performance and you compare it to peers, our results speak for themselves," Dan said. "We've been able to withstand the storm. We know that we're not through it, but we're seeing a light at the end of the tunnel. Hopefully we come out stronger than we could have ever imagined."
"In aggregate, we managed to keep product flowing," Bob said. "My hat's off to the team that they managed to support record growth at a time when supply chains globally were disrupted."