President's Blog

With an effective supply chain scorecard, the cost of doing business is lowered and it’s easier to bring more value to your customers. NAED’s Supply Chain Scorecard is undergoing an evolutionary process, and the goal is to make it easier to use and more relevant to your business. 

NAED’s Manufacturers’ Council recently re-examined the scorecard that manufacturers use to evaluate distributors. Their recommendations were presented during the Manufacturers’ Forum at the 2011 NAED Leadership Summit in San Diego. Check out the updated Scorecard Manufacturers Use to Evaluate Distributors, Recommended Best Practices, and Recommended Industry Vocabulary. This video also explains the updates.

We want to hear what you think should be done to improve the scorecard. Please send your feedback to NAED Member Services by July 25. All comments received by that time will be reviewed by the task force for incorporation into the final documents.

Schneider Electric recently recognized four of their employees for the work they have done on the scorecard. The “2010 People Who Make a Difference” award was given to: Teresa Barnhill, channel program and process manager; Lisa Barger, customer service manager; Dave Konerman, premier program manager; andMelinda Walega, former director of channel operations. Schneider’s citation said that these individuals, “expanded the areas measured by the NAED Scorecard to include electronic ordering, EDI usage, and online usage.” Further, the work “helped 1,746 Schneider Electric distributors improve performance in these key areas.”        

Congrats to Schneider’s award winners and thanks to the NAED Manufacturers’ Council for all of their efforts on this project. For our distributor members, please let us know if you would like to be on a task force that will re-examine the scorecard that distributors use to evaluate manufacturers this fall.

As we continue to receive your questions for “Ask NAED,” the latest inquiry posed by one of our members is what is NAED doing to reinforce the value that electrical distributors provide. This question arose from some distributors discussing the role of electrical distributors in terms of the alternate energy market and how some of those manufacturers are supplying materials directly to the end user.

Reinforcing the role of the electrical distributor is extremely important, and that’s why NAED has been working on that issue for a while. Take a look at the research we have done through the Channel Advantage Partnership (CAP), such as Selling Energy Management Solutions and Green Goes Mainstream. We’ve also been able to provide numerous resources like the Selling Green 101 course series through the tED GreenRoom. NAED’s Energy Audit Solution powered by ecoInsight is another great example of the steps we are taking to promote our channel.

Over the last few years we have invited the solar, wind and new manufacturers to our National Electrical Leadership Summit to educate them on the ins and outs of distribution. The value of the Summit is the networking opportunities and people who haven’t attended before can have a harder time because they don’t understand the system. When distributors are at the Summit, they should look for those “First Time Attendee” badges, introduce themselves and set aside some time to talk with the new manufacturers. It is crucial for those manufacturers to understand how distribution works, just as it’s key for us to understand how manufacturers work so we can keep developing a successful relationship.

If you hear of a new manufacturer that is interested in attending the Summit, have them contact Frank Dantona, NAED’s manufacturer liaison. Do you have a question for NAED? Leave it on the comment section below, e-mail us or tweet it for a future “Ask NAED” segment.