The Anatomy of a Successful Customer Relationship
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Previous issues of Catalyst examined in detail the components of Lincoln Industries’ Integrated Finishing Services™ (IFS) philosophy, but, while IFSTM is a unique and very thorough approach, it is only half of the equation. Ultimately, success depends upon how well Lincoln Industries and its customers work together to develop innovative solutions to challenging problems. Providing exceptional service every day ensures the problems stay solved. Over time, this performance combined with positive working relationships has allowed Lincoln Industries to earn the position of trusted partner to some of the best companies in America.
Collaboration, early supplier involvement, concurrent engineering, supply chain visibility and optimization are all essential for businesses to compete and win today. However, without the underlying trust between the people working together, such organizational initiatives typically fall short of their potential. Conversely, with a strong, trusting relationship such initiatives are only the tip of the iceberg of what is possible.
Trust is the two-way street that allows customers and suppliers to accomplish great things together, but it is hard won and easily lost. At Lincoln Industries, it all boils down to selecting the right people and a focus on creating clear value for customers. According to Matt Nyberg, Vice President of Business Development at Lincoln Industries, “We work very hard to achieve a position where our customers would say we are the best at what we do, we are focused on their best interests and they enjoy working with us. These are the fundamentals to earning a position of trust as a supplier.”
“The nature of our business requires that we typically get involved with the product development teams of our customers very early – sometimes years before the product is actually launched,” says Yadi Kamelian, Lincoln Industries Vice President of Integrated Finishing Services™. “In some cases, we even have our people on-site with our customers’ development teams either permanently or for extended periods. When this is working well, an outsider would have difficulty identifying which people work for which company.”
Product development does not end when a concept is reduced to engineering drawings and specifications. In fact, this is just the end of an early phase of a successful product launch. Successfully getting a new product requires close integration among many functions of both suppliers and customers. Lincoln Industries continues to work closely with the customer to help ensure success at every step of the process. According to Jacob Greenberg, Manager of Project Engineering at WMS Gaming, “It is critical that our suppliers be very closely integrated with not only our project teams, but also the manufacturing, quality and supply management organizations as we bring forward new products. Lincoln Industries really embraced this idea and their people became key members of our team beginning with design and carrying forward through launch.”
Collaboration doesn’t end with a successful product launch. Lincoln Industries and their customers have a long history of working together to streamline work and ensure the highest levels of quality and service. In one unique instance, a major customer is co-located with Lincoln Industries to streamline the supply chain and some of this customer’s people actually work side-by-side on a production line with Lincoln Industries people. “As we evaluated the workflow, it became clear that we had redundant operations. The unique, but obvious answer was to have our customer’s people doing final inspection and packaging. However, without a solid relationship, it wouldn’t have been possible,” said Louis Balogh, Director of Operations at Lincoln Industries.
So, it turns out that simply being good at what you do is not good enough to build a successful customer relationship. It also requires building and maintaining trust by creating an enjoyable inter-personal relationship and being focused relentlessly on the customer’s best interests. With such a relationship, customers and suppliers can accomplish great things for both companies. Without trust, even the most elaborate collaboration initiatives will fall far short of their potential.