Pella Honored Alexandria Industries With Premier Supplier Award
Pella Corporation honored Alexandria Industries with its Premier Supply Partner award. The award recognizes Alexandria Industries for its excellence in lean manufacturing, product cost and quality, on-time delivery and customer service.
Pella Corporation representatives conducted an in-depth onsite audit of Alexandria Industries’ processes and services, evaluating our overall risk management, order fulfillment, innovation, and quality. Overall, Alexandria Industries’ demonstrated exceptional performance and consistently met or exceeded our goals. The audit results surpassed Pella’s baseline scores, as we achieved a 96 percent for our overall business philosophy.
Pella has been a customer of Alexandria Industries for 10 years. Initially, our relationship started on a trial-basis, as we needed to determine if our organizations were a good fit for each other. It didn’t take long for our contact, Dave Vande Steeg, senior supply manager for Pella, to realize how well we worked together and how our values aligned perfectly. Our relationship has since evolved into the strong partnership that it is today.
We asked Vande Steeg if he would be willing to answer some questions about our work together and he graciously agreed.
Q: How long have you been a customer of Alexandria Industries?
A: 10 years
Q: How has your work with us evolved?
A: We started our relationship with Alexandria on a trial basis. We needed to see if we were a good fit for each other. Both companies were more interested in philosophy and culture than just selling/buying extrusions. Our relationship has evolved into a strong partnership.
Q: What is one thing about working with us that you didn’t expect?
A: We didn’t expect to find a company that is closely aligned to Pella in so many areas: values, philosophy, people focused culture, servant leadership, and customer service.
Q: What do you think about the level of knowledge we have about the issues and trends relevant to your organization/industry?
A: We don’t expect Alexandria to have knowledge about our business or our markets. But we do expect Alexandria to have knowledge and expertise in the billet and extrusion market. We heavily rely on the information that we gather from your team through strategic meetings and Customer Leadership Conferences.
Q: What are some of distinguishing characteristics you would use to describe our organization?
A: Honesty, strong culture, great people, robust processes, data based decisions, superior customer service, proactive communication, unyielding pursuit of perfection.
Q: What would you change about our services / the work we do for you?
A: We like to push our suppliers for continuous improvement. However, we feel that the Alexandria team is excellent in customer service and the work you do, so there’s not much more room for improvement, in my opinion.
Q: How are we different from other suppliers you work with?
A: The main differences are the quality of the people throughout the Alexandria Industries’ organization and your commitment to leadership development.
Q: What is one thing we have done for you/your company that you wouldn’t normally expect from a supplier?
A: You don’t say no. You offer a solution. It may be difficult and it may take time and effort, but your team accepts the challenge and overcomes. A perfect example is the issue that we were experiencing a couple of years ago with shadow lines on our door parts. Alexandria Industries brought in industry experts, scrutinized internal process controls, and modified die designs and bearing surfaces to find a solution.
Q: What are some of the soft-cost benefits – decreased number of rejects and scrap, increased production, improved on-time delivery percentages – you have received by working with us?
A: Alexandria Industries is a very dependable supplier in both on-time delivery and quality. Because of this service, Pella has been able to reduce on-hand inventory levels and safety stock that is typically in the system to buffer supplier inconsistencies.
Q: Talk about one experience working with us when we did not meet your expectations. Where there any positive takeaways we provided to address your concerns?
A: In late 2015, capacity was tight at Alexandria Industries. Occasionally, your team would contact Pella and indicate that you could not produce the volume that we needed for that week. Your team advised us that if we had another source, we should turn to those suppliers (your competitors) for relief. During our strategic planning session at year-end, your management committed to sharing capacity with your MidAmerica facility. This would allow you to reduce the customer base at your Alexandria facility to get back to 80% press capacity, so you could service Pella properly. You have upheld and executed on this commitment in 2016.
Q: Can you cite examples of when we have offered technical expertise that has helped improve your product, company or personal skill set?
A: We consider Alexandria the alloy expert and your team has successfully shifted our product through two different alloys with the goal of reducing the cost to Pella, mitigating billet supplier risk, and improving Alexandria productivity. This is the win-win attitude that Alexandria brings to the table.
Q: What is one thing you value most about our relationship?
A: Integrity: The Pella philosophy is “total integrity in everything we do,” and we feel that happens every day when working with the Alexandria team.
“It is refreshing to work with a company that maintains a continuous improvement mindset, remains humble in every interaction, and still believes there is always room for growth,” said Vande Steeg. “We could hardly wait to share the Premier Supply Partner award with our business partner, and the many individuals at Alexandria Industries who have contributed to our strong supplier/customer relationship.”