Close the Gap on Your Competition

In our last issue, we looked at the highlights of the state-of-the-industry survey that we conducted over the summer. The majority of this issue consists of an analysis that will provide more information about how this industry does business.

Some 312 readers took the time to complete the survey, and we are confident that it represents a good cross section of the industry.

The raw data is available to anyone through the "Community" link on our Internet site, (www.weldingdesign.com) The breakdown we present in this issue compares similar segments and operations of the industry to each other, slicing and dicing data used to benchmark a variety of operations to draw out the statistics that are most relevant to each industry segment.

You can use this analysis data to measure your operations against others in the industry. We think our survey is unique. It has a greater amount of operations information and human resource information than other industry surveys have provided, and we have a wider base of respondents. We also gathered information different from the information provided by GAWDA's Profit Report, which is, primarily, a financial report and a useful tool in its own right.

The information in our report can be used to determine best practices and competitiveness, to set goals which will improve those practices, and to measure them again to see how well the planned improvements worked.

Many of the distribution operations in this survey—especially those that are part of a large national organization—reported they have changed the way that they operate over the past three to 10 years. It's easy to guess that we will see many more companies changing the way they operate in the coming years.

One of the startling facts that emerged from this survey is that a mere 17 percent of the respondents say they have an active presence on the Internet. Perhaps for now the Internet seems to be a less than compelling tool in a business that is so very much oriented toward people, both as shop-sized groups and as individuals. However, it's a sure bet that the Internet is going to be a factor in the future, and shops that find ways to use it effectively today will be around 10 years from now.

So, here is our analysis of the data on this industry. We offer it as a tool to help owners and managers in gases and welding equipment distributor businesses to run their operations more effectively and more competitively.