Davis Controls Ltd. - Focusing On Quality And Technological Advancement

Two issues that were surely not on the agenda for C.R. Davis’ in 1933 were questions relating to ‘Business Software’ and ‘ISO Certification’.  Both of these topics have been front and center for us over the past few weeks.

 

We have been certified to ISO 9000 / 9001 since 1996 and to ISO 14001 since 2007.  To be honest, when we first undertook this project, we did it because everyone else was doing it and at the time it appeared that we would be conspicuous if we were not certified.  Now however, we continue to maintain and renew our certifications because it makes good business sense for us to do so.

        

 

Proponents publish a top 10 list of reasons to be certified and for the most part, we agree that ISO certification has delivered the following results;


1. Improved Operational efficiency to respond to customer requirements;
2. Increased chances of winning public and private sector contracts;
3. Improved customer satisfaction by improving company and product quality;
4. Increased customer care and attention;
5. Helped us document, understand and communicate our organization processes;
6. Helped to build a more professional culture;
7. Reduced re-work and improved consistency;
8. Kept management and employees focused on quality and continual improvement;
9. Reduced waste and reduced costs
10. Achieved international quality recognition.

On the other side of the coin, a common criticism of ISO 9000 / 9001 is the amount of money, time and paperwork required for registration.  Opponents claim that certification is only for documentation.  Advocates believe that if a company has documented its quality systems, then most of the paperwork has already been completed.  Some argue that ISO 9001 is effective as a guideline, but that promoting it as a standard "helps to mislead companies into thinking that certification means better quality, undermining the need for an organization to set its own quality standards."  The standard is especially prone to failure when a company is interested in certification before quality and that while "quality has a positive effect on ROI, market share, sales growth, better margins and competitive advantage," that "taking a quality approach is unrelated to ISO 9000 registration.”  In fact, ISO itself advises that ISO 9001 can be implemented without certification, simply for the quality benefits that can be achieved.

In the end, we have found that it is easier for us to use certification and the tests performed by an external auditor as a way of preventing us from giving ourselves an easy grade.  Is it possible to mark your own exam without internal influence and ego?  There is something to be said for independent evaluations and that is the route we have chosen to take.

The effectiveness of an ISO system being implemented depends on many factors, including;

1. Commitment of management to monitor, control and improve quality. Organizations that implement an ISO system without this commitment often cut corners to get a certificate on the wall and ignore problem areas uncovered in the audits.
2. How well the ISO system integrates into current business practices. Some organizations that implement ISO try to make their system fit into a cookie-cutter quality manual instead of creating a manual that documents existing practices and only adds new processes to meet the ISO standard when necessary.
3. How well the ISO system focuses on improving the customer experience. The broadest definition of quality is "Whatever the customer perceives good quality to be." An ISO system should take into account all areas of the customer experience and industry expectations and seek to improve them on a continual basis.
4. How well the auditor finds and communicates areas of improvement. Auditors that can clearly identify and communicate areas of improvement in language that management understands, facilitate action on improvement initiatives by the companies they audit.
5. Having a dedicated, methodical, articulate and professional Quality Assurance Rep on staff to manage and implement the standard and provide leadership for the Quality Committee is essential.

By the time my next blog is due, we will have completed a major Business Process System upgrade as a big part of our objective to achieve continuous improvement and I hope to have lots of good things to talk about.  If you do not see a new blog in three weeks time, you will know that it didn’t go well.

 

                                                                             www.daviscontrols.com

 

Davis Controls Ltd. - Putting Things In Perspective

As we look forward to 2013 and our milestone 80^th Anniversary supplying Canadian industry with the process controls, industrial instrumentation and factory automation solutions required to meet their needs in this increasingly competitive environment, we are challenged to consider the business, economic and social conditions that confront our Customers and our Markets now and into the future.

 

Doing this has made me wonder about what must have been going through Cecil Davis’ mind as he considered the business, economic and social conditions of 1933 as he was about to launch the new business venture that has successfully survived 80 years.

 

1933 was the worst year of the Great Depression, with unemployment peaking at 25.2%.   In fact, C.R Davis was a component of that statistic.  That year, the US banking system, which was under tremendous strain, was propped up by the US government (US Banking Act of 1933) in an attempt to stop the panic withdrawal of money from the banks.  The continuing drought in the Midwest was turning once fertile and productive farmland into a giant dust bowl, the average income was $1,550.00/yr and a new house cost $5,750.00

The cost of a gallon of gas was 10^¢, a loaf of bread 07^¢, a pound of hamburger meat 11^¢ and a brand new Plymouth 6-cylinder car would you cost $445.00 when the average wage for a labourer was $20.00/wk.

Technology advances that year included the invention of the electron microscope in Germany and the Drive-In Movie Theatre in the USA.

That same year, the chocolate chip cookie and the board game Monopoly were invented, a 5-year old Shirley Temple signed a contract with Fox and the original King Kong movie was shown.  Larry King, Yoko Ono, Jayne Mansfield and Willie Nelson were born.  It was also the first time that the Loch Ness monster (or something) was photographed.  The inoculation fight against diphtheria in the western world began that year and Alcatraz became a federal penitentiary.

On the world stage, Franklin D. Roosevelt succeeded Herbert Hoover as President of the United States, the Reichstag passed the Enabling Act, making Adolf Hitler the Chancellor of Germany, (that same year the Gestapo is established), Joseph Stalin was the leader of the Soviet Union and Benito Mussolini was the Prime Minister of Italy.

Under the circumstances, I would rather deal with the issues facing us in 2013 than those that challenged C.R. Davis in 1933.

 

 

                                                                   www.daviscontrols.com

 

Davis Controls Ltd. - Expand Your Borders

I am very fortunate that my role at Davis Controls Ltd provides me the opportunity to network regularly with some of brightest minds and best companies in our industry.  For me, the most important of these peer group opportunities comes from our participation in the Association for High Technology Distribution, the primary industry resource for increasing efficiency and opportunity.

 

As President of the AHTD (an association comprised of automation solution provider and manufacturer members who deliver technology-based products, services and solutions to the automation marketplace),  it was an honour and a pleasure for me to welcome members and their spouses to our Fall Meeting in historic Quebec City last week.  It was exciting for us to have our meeting at the picturesque Chateau Frontenac, the most photographed hotel in the world.  A record number of members and a record number of spouses from around the world attended this meeting.   Being in the heart of Old Quebec, we had the opportunity to explore this charming city, stroll the boardwalk, ride the funicular, taste poutine and enjoy the history and hospitality of the most European city in North America.

 

We were extremely pleased to open our fall program with General Rick Hillier (Ret’d).  During his illustrious career, General Hillier was appointed the Deputy Commanding General of III Corps, US Army in Fort Hood, Texas.  He went on to assume command of NATO’s Stabilization Force’s (SFOR) Multinational Division in Bosnia-Herzegovina and NATO- led International Security Assistance (ISAF) in Kabul, Afghanistan.   General Hillier was appointed as the Chief of Defence Staff in 2005, the highest rank in the Canadian armed forces and retired from the Canadian Forces in July 2008. General Hillier is an Officer in the Order of Canada and he spoke to our group on the subject of leadership.  His anecdotes from the field were spellbinding.

 

 

One of the workshop presenters on Thursday afternoon was Todd Youngblood, Managing Partner & CEO of the YPS Group.  Todd is a recognized authority on Sales Process Engineering and hosts a radio podcast dedicated to the methodical, relentless and continuous improvement of the sales process.  I had the pleasure of participating in one of Todd’s interviews and was given the opportunity to talk about Davis Controls Ltd and my role in the AHTD

Click on this link to hear the interview:

http://madeintheusa.dreamlandinteractive.com/neil-montgomery-of-davis-controls-ltd/

 

Our Friday’s keynote address featured Tom Koulopoulos, the author of nine books and founder of The Delphi Group, a 20 year old Boston based think tank.  Tom was named one of industry’s most influential consultants by Information Week magazine and his work has been praised by Tom Peters, who called his writing a “brilliant vision of where we must take our enterprises to survive and thrive”.  Tom’s presentation was both stimulating and entertaining.

 

We all appreciate a good musical performance, a concert or even a symphony orchestra, but I’ll bet that most of us have never had the experience that we enjoyed Friday evening.  The Painchaud Family of Quebec City are internationally renowned for their musical talent and entertaining performances.  Classical multi-instrumental musicians and Grammy nominees in their own right, this family of four brothers and a sister are phenomenally talented and hysterically entertaining performers.   This special evening will not be forgotten by anyone who was there to witness their entertaining performance.

We concluded our stay in Quebec City on Saturday morning with a talk by Barry Lane, Vice President of Mendel Tours.  Barry provided us with a fascinating history of Quebec, a World Heritage City. 

 

As wonderful as Quebec City is, it’s the people and the program, not the place that make our meetings so special….Thank you to all of our members and spouses for the wonderful memories from my five day stay in QC.  Some are even saying that it was our best meeting ever.

 

Only six months until our next AHTD meeting in Palm Springs, California.

 

                                                                          www.daviscontrols.com

Davis Controls Ltd. - Where We Work And Play

Saying that we are a high tech company is one thing.  Having the right people and products to prove it on a daily basis is another.  Having the advanced business software to facilitate instant and accurate execution is yet another and we have talked about them all in this blog series.  But almost as important as who we are and what we do and how we do it, is how we look.  It’s one thing to say that we are high tech, but we also have to look high tech and we go to great pains to project a clean, efficient and professional image to our customers, suppliers and employees.

In Montreal we have recently moved our office one floor down from where we have been for the last 21 years.  We elected to stay in St Laurent for a number of reasons, including the concentration of high tech companies in the area, close proximity to the airport, good highway access and the fact that we liked the facilities.

 

Our new office is larger, quieter and more functional than the space we had before and our Montreal staff are delighted with the new location.  Two new features of Suite 302 include a dedicated reception area, where guests have an opportunity to sit and relax, as well as a proper training room, where we can meet with customers and suppliers to discuss new products and/or applications.  We have used the move as an occasion to reclaim and reorganize our Montreal stockroom and this area once again reflects a cross section of the day to day inventory requirements of the district.  If you are ever in the area, we encourage you to drop in to take a look and say Hi.

 

 At our head office in Oakville, we continue to be more than satisfied with the location and facilities that we built in 1989.  The office has proven to be everything that we had hoped it would be when we first designed and furnished it, 23 years ago.  Over this period, the shrubs and trees and garden beds that looked so scrawny and small when they were first planted are all now full and lush, creating a picturesque sight for anyone coming to visit.  I regularly sit out on the patio after work just to relax and read the paper and enjoy the beautiful surroundings.  But I am not the only one making good use of this setting.

Each year, beginning in May and continuing once a month until at least October, the Oakville BBQ committee organizes a lunchtime feast out on the patio.  While Larry is at the grill cooking hamburgers, sausages and chicken breasts to perfection, Joan, Leanne, Debera and Kim are tossing salads, preparing condiments and pouring drinks at the same time that Roy is setting up the sound system and sun umbrellas, getting ready for the Bar-B-Que buffet.

 

We like to have the entire office participate in these events and encourage all of our field sales reps to plan calls in the area on these days so that they can drop in at lunch time to enjoy the good food and music with their friends and colleagues. 

 

 

 

In early June of this year, we combined an after work, steak dinner BBQ with a sales training seminar that we were hosting at the same time.  Participating in this event were all of our sales reps, including our friends from Montreal, Vancouver, Sarnia, Hamilton and Cambridge and our lunch room / patio facility is just perfect for this kind of social gathering.

 

On June 16, we used our expansive back lawn to host a multi-employee yard sale.  The day turned out to be hot and sunny and we had a steady stream of bargain hunters arriving all morning, hoping to find and deal for that one rare or unusual item that they just couldn’t live without.  We were all set up in time for the early birds who began arriving at 7:00am and by noon, we were all ‘haggled’ out with nothing left to do but pack up and count our booty.  None of us got rich, but it was good fun and we all achieved our main objective, that being to purge the basement, garage or storage closet of years of accumulated treasures.

                                                        

                                                                              www.daviscontrols.com

Davis Controls Ltd. - What's Going On At DCL

In the spring of 1981, Davis Controls was appointed Canadian distributor for the Richard Klinger program of Magnetic Level Gauges manufactured in Sidcup, Kent in England as well as for their line of steam valves and conventional sight level gauges for steam and process applications, manufactured in Gumpoldskirchen, Austria.

By 1989, sales and the relationship between Davis and Klinger had developed to the point where it made good sense for us to enter into a Manufacturing license agreement, authorizing Davis Controls to manufacture Magnetic Level Gauges for the Canadian and US markets.  Under this agreement, the proprietary gauge components were sourced from Klinger in Europe while the pressure bearing fittings and material could be sourced in North America, where we could more easily locate and control the pipe, flanges and other pressure boundary parts needed to satisfy our local ANSI,  ASME  and CRN specifications.

This was our first and so far only foray into outright Manufacturing, and once again, I am pleased to say that this too has been a successful venture for us.  At another level, short of full blown manufacturing, Davis Controls has always been involved in ‘marginal manufacturing’, panel building, kitting and assembly and this activity continues to represent a large component of our value proposition.

We are often asked if we have any interest in being involved with a manufacturer under a Representative relationship or ‘Rep’ agreement.  This role differs from that of a Distributor in that it is the function and responsibility of a Distributor to purchase (take ownership), import, stock and resell product.  Sales Representatives on the other hand are intermediaries that act on behalf of the Manufacturer but do not take title to the products and instead are responsible to solicit orders from customers for which they then collect a commission and/or fee from the manufacturer (exporter).   The role of the ‘Rep’ gets a bit complicated when you have the conversation with the customer about who will pay the import duties (not a big deal any more, but it used to be), freight from the manufacturer and brokerage fees that are imposed when the shipment crosses the border and then about what currency the manufacturer expects to be paid in and who will assume the exchange risk.  We, as a Distributor, take care of all of these import transaction issues and provide the product FOB Oakville.  We have elected not to get involved in ‘Rep’ relationships so that we are free to provide the human and technical resources necessary to understand and promote the product effectively.

Field Service and Commissioning are two other activities that Davis Controls is profitably involved in.  We have trained and experienced technicians in our Service department who, in addition to the bench repairs they perform on products that we sell, are regularly engaged in field service and calibration, maintenance contracts, set up and commissioning.  You may recall from my first two blogs that when Mr. Davis started the company in 1933, he single-handedly managed both the Distribution and Service activities of Davis Controls from the seat of his bike, and we faithfully continue in that tradition.

Social Media:  You have probably noticed that our website  www.daviscontrols.com  has been enhanced with the following social media links and while we have quite a bit of activity already on each site, we still have a lot to learn about how to leverage these web-based and mobile based technologies to turn communication into an interactive dialogue with our customer accounts and contacts.

The fact that you are reading this blog is confirmation that at least this element of our ‘social’ initiative to communicate newsy items about Davis Controls is working.

Finally, the last two activities that I will mention only briefly are Joint Ventures and System Integration, both of which have been tried, but with less than spectacular results.   In both cases these experiments, which seemed like good ideas at the time, were terminated for reasons too complex to review here.  For now, it is enough to say that they have been considered, tried and set aside, at least for now.

 

 

 

                                                                www.daviscontrols.com

 

Davis Controls Ltd. - Embracing Non-Core Technologies & Markets

We have described ourselves as a ‘Distributor of Process Controls and Industrial Instrumentation’, and this ‘Distribution’ model has always been at the center of how we go to market.  That’s not to say that we have always been single minded in our sales and marketing philosophy. Through the years, we have considered other business models in an effort to expand our core competencies, broaden our base and increase our footprint.  For reasons that made perfect sense to us at the time, we have tried to push the envelope by exploring new initiatives, including;

Embracing non-core technologies and markets:    We have always been conscious of the fact that each time we solve an industrial application problem with one of our high tech solutions, one consequence of solving the problem, unless it is an OEM solution, is that the application is no longer a sales opportunity.  We then have to find a new problem to solve for the next sale.  In the late 80’s we made the conscious decision to identify and add a premium line of industrial consumable products to our mix, where the product, in the course of doing its job, is consumed and needs to be replaced.  A solution that the better it works, the more new ones are required.  Such is the case, for example, with industrial lubricants and compressed air/gas filters.

At the same time that we were looking for an Industrial consumable to sell to our customer base, Lubrication Engineers Inc. in Fort Worth, Texas was looking for an Industrial Distribution partner to take responsibility for the sales and marketing activities of their technologically advanced lubricants in Canada.  LE is confident that “No other brand of petroleum lubricating oil whatsoever, regardless of price, will be found superior in condition to Lubrication Engineers products at the end of any given period of use”.

Given these and other synergies, we launched the partnership in 1990, but it wasn’t long before we realized that our Automation and Process specialists were not the right people to ask to sell high performance lubricants and that this task was better suited to Mechanical Engineers, who have a professional interest in moving parts and who understand friction, and Chemical Engineers, who can relate to molecular structure and chemical bonds and how these are affected by application conditions, such as temperature, moisture and others.

In 1993, Lubrication Engineers of Canada Ltd. was created as a separate corporate entity, with its own dedicated sales team of engineers and tribologists and is now a successful enterprise selling millions of dollars of the world's finest lubricants in Canada.  Lubrication Engineers combine the best paraffinic and synthetic base oils with proprietary additive technology to offer the highest possible level of performance. Designed to exceed the specifications and capabilities of ordinary commercial grade products, Lubrication Engineers problem-solving lubricants will increase user profitability by providing:

·         Longer equipment life: less capital expenditures

·         Extended service intervals: reduced lubricant consumption

·         Improved reliability: less unscheduled downtime

·         Reduced energy consumption: less friction losses

·         Environmental advantages: facilitate ISO 14000 implementation

Lubrication Engineers of Canada shares physical office and warehouse space with Davis Controls Ltd. as well as Accounting, Marketing and Warehousing services and IT & telephony infrastructure and support.

The second important exclusive Distribution appointment Davis Controls received for an Industrial Consumable product, at least for Eastern Canada, was from Parker Hannifin, for their Balston branded industrial filtration products.  Parker offers a wide range of Balston products for industrial applications including:  Compressed Air Filters, Sample Filters, Vacuum Pump Inlet and Exhaust Filters, High Efficiency Liquid Filters, Filters for Hospital Applications, Natural Gas Filters, 0.01 Membrane Filters, Steam and Sterile Air Filters for Food Industry, Nitrogen Gas Generation Systems and Compressed Air Dryers.

The addition of Balston filters to our product offering has not only opened many new doors for us (i.e. hospital steam applications – for sterile surgical packs), it has provided one more solution for us to present to existing customers (i.e. 99.99% sterile air for the Food Industry).

In hindsight, the decision to add high tech, industrial consumables to our product mix has proven to be a winning strategy.  In my next blog release, I will tell you about some of our other strategic ideas for growth, not all of which have turned out to be the unqualified success that Lubrication Engineers and Balston have been.




                                                                           www.daviscontrols.com