OPERANNG OPPORTUNITIES

WALLY LYNCH Paid Associates PO. Box 741623 Dallas. Tx.75243

ANAGING by exception has been around a long time. Here are a couple of interrelated examples that your company might face.

For months the company had been plagued with requests for delivery to be made on site within the hour or by 7 o'clock the next morning, or so it seemed. None of the customers seemed satisfied with 24 hour delivery.

The exceptions were tearing up the routine and clobbering budgeted costs. The salesmen insisted that the requested delivery was what was needed.

Investigation revealed that the company had been averaging 32 deliveries daily for a six month period. The lowest month averaged 30 deliveries per work day and the highest month was 36 deliveries daily. The "hot shots" identified were averaging three per day. The lowest month averaged two such exceptions per delivery day and the worst month was four per working day.

The exceptions were less than 90[ against the rule. In school that's pretty close to which most of us probably never got. In business, it's probably better than a lot of lumber yards ever achieve.

About 200/o of your customers will generate 80% of your business. What the analysis showed was that less than half of these preferred customers were asking for preferred treatment. More important, most of the special requests were for items that could be delivered in a pickup or a taxi cab.

Oddly enough, this brought to light the existence of a serious condition which management had not dealt with and was the real cause of costs skyrocketing. The company was contractor oriented and had only negligible consumer business. During the period of evaluation it was noted that the average billing (less sales tax) per delivery stop was $410. Nominally, there are nine complete material packages per house, thus a minimum of nine deliveries.

Take offs made by the company were averaging over $12,000 at billing price. Thus the company was making an average of over 29 deliveries to equal a house package. Obviously, it would be rare indeed to average nine stops per package, but subsequent action proved it possible to sustain a I 2 to l4 stop average.

It was a matter of dialoguing about what was good for both customer and company with those who could do something about conditions that did not exist and exceptions that did.

March and April at the usual locations. Second Growth will continue to be active with two dinner meetings before the June weekend.

One of the main functions of an association is to communicate with the members. This communication can be in person, on the phone, by bulletin and newsletter or by meetings. LASC is going to be doing a better job this year than last in all areas.

Through the medium of meetings, information will be conveyed to the members and their employees on subjects that are too lengthy for a newsletter. To make it worthwhile for the member, the meeting material must be relevant to the industry as well as timely. LASC has always tried to use this criteria.

As we come under the aegis of the Tax Reform Act, with business deductions for dinners at 800/0, instead of the full 10006, it's incumbent on the association to do the best possible planning and executing that has ever been done.

The new officers elected at the Palm Springs Management Conference, and listed elsewhere in this magazine, are now in place and committed to giving the best possible guidance to the association. Meetings will start within a month to plan the 1987 management conference. Getting a head start on the planning takes a lot of pressure off everyone.

Although the Raiders' football team with the slogan "Commitment To Excellence" didn't quite live up to expectations, the term can still be applied to the officers and staff of LASC. Their commitment is to give you, the members and potential members, an association and programming that's as close to "excellent" as can possibly be achieved.

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Keep your inventory and profit under control. We ship nationwide by RAIL, TRUCK or PIG VAN... mixed to your specifications.

Call Bob Steele (503) 752-9618

N.E. Elliott Circle, Corvallis, Or.97330