Delivering in days: AIT Canada’s CLS Build Center

Background

Applied Industrial Technologies (AIT) is one of North America’s largest industrial distributors, serving maintenance, repair and operations (MRO) and original equipment manufacturer (OEM) customers in a wide variety of industries.

AIT’s acquisition of HyPOWER Systems in 2000 established the company’s foothold in the Canadian market. Now with more than 40 facilities across the country, AIT Canada provides solutions and creates value for its customers through the distribution of fluid power components and a range of value-added technical services, including system design, manufacturing and repair. The company has long focused on full-service operations and customer service. So when Eaton’s CLS Build Center program was introduced, AIT Canada saw it as a means to address one of the challenges it had been facing.

Challenge

In the mobile equipment market, there’s a lot of competition in the load sense valve space. The quicker a company can provide an OEM with a prototype, the better opportunity there is of winning the business. However, with a highly configurable valve comes a large product mixture, which results in longer than ideal lead times.

Ken Pomerleau, tech services manager for Western Canada with AIT Canada, notes that quick delivery of prototypes isn’t just about the valve. “We wanted to improve our agility as a company overall, in terms of being responsive to customer needs,” he says. “We have a target timeline in which we'd like to supply a complete prototype system to a customer, and I look at the valve as the central product that ties everything together. I want it to open up more offerings for peripheral products, including motors, cylinders and pumps. We want to provide our support and expertise on the entire system, including electronics.”

Solution

To help its distributor partners meet customer needs for rapid delivery, Eaton launched the CLS Build Center program in 2017. The program allows participating distributors to purchase individual sections, inlets, end covers and kits (spools, actuator)—which they can then convert per application requirements—rather than finished valve assemblies. Compared to lead times of 6 weeks or more, CLS Build Centers can turn around a prototype within a matter of days.

Results

AIT Canada became a CLS Build Center in mid-2017. Joining the program has allowed the company to quickly address customer needs and win new business. The company’s strength has traditionally been in stationary industrial applications but becoming a CLS Build Center has opened new markets. “It’s really opened up the opportunity to do more on the mobile equipment side of the business,” Pomerleau states. “We've seen some immediate returns and a number of wins with OEMs where I don't think that we would've had an opportunity before.”

This business hasn’t just fallen into AIT Canada’s hands. The company’s technical services group has done an incredible job of getting to know the CLS valve inside and out and recommending it for applications beyond the focus segments. With the CLS 100 and CLS 180 valves in production, the company has been able to capitalize on and win business in applications such as mobile conveyors, where the valve is used for setup and operating functions. The company has also seen success in agriculture with silage bagging, seeding and spraying equipment, and has promising opportunities in utility vehicles.

In terms of speed to market, AIT Canada is setting the example for others to follow. Lou Speziale, fluid power product manager with AIT Canada, reports that the company can turn around a prototype within 72 hours. Pomerleau adds, “We do carry quite a bit of inventory, and that's what is allowing us to do it. I would like to see it quicker yet, but right now we're targeting three-day delivery. In approximately a week, we should be able to deliver a valve anywhere in Canada.”

Having the right inventory on hand allows the company to deliver not just a valve, but a complete integrated package to its customers in short order. Pomerleau states, “It should, and I think it will, open up opportunities for us to provide full and integrated systems.”

Asked about the success of its CLS Build Center program, Speziale states: “This program is very important to us. We've got a lot of good expectations for its success. We haven't totally realized the full extent of it—that'll probably take some years. We're not in it for the sprint; we're in it for the marathon.”