At the end of August, I attended Swagelok’s Global Distributor meeting and recently our Rochester office hosted Swagelok CEO and Chairman Thomas Lozick and other members of the Executive Team. Not surprisingly, on both occasions the status and health of Swagelok’s supply chain was a popular topic of conversation.

While we’ve all encountered challenges, Swagelok’s active approach to supply chain management enables us to achieve best-in-class service levels.

I'd like to share a few specific areas where that active approach has resulted in supply chain strengths for Swagelok:

1.    Inventory & Capital Investments – Swagelok has invested in risk mitigation inventory, specifically in raw materials and products where supply chains have become strained externally.

Thanks to these investments Swagelok has multiple millions of pounds of stainless steel and specialty metals on hand. Take a virtual tour of Swagelok’s Raw Materials facility to see the impressive amount of inventory and better understand the inventory management process.

2.    Advanced Planning – Swagelok utilizes business processes through SAP for demand planning, supply network planning, production planning and scheduling and transport management.

3.    Levers – Supply chain levers have been put in place to ensure scarce resources are working on the right priorities.

4.    Organizational Alignment – Swagelok’s organizational alignment has produced stronger collaboration and improved communications across departments, better positioning them to provide Sales and Service Centers with more substantive updates on lead times and availability.

Our ultimate goal is product availability. We are eager to WORK WITH CUSTOMERS to alleviate long range supply chain challenges. With time on our side, we can work with Swagelok to assure your planned needs are included in future production schedules.

For example, you may want to consider placing Blanket purchase orders for products you will be ordering at regular intervals. Blanket POs allow us to plan our inventory positions and prioritize dedicated product.

If you prefer or need product on-site and available 24/7, our Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI) service fulfills that need. Our dedicated Services Specialists manage and continuously replenish inventory at your site to ensure you always have products on hand.

Thanks to Swagelok’s unique business model and inventory management tools, we have visibility to the inventories of Sales and Service Centers throughout the Swagelok network and can source products directly from them. This year alone we have made over 700 purchases from other Sales and Service Centers to better meet customers’ need dates.

Contact one of our three offices or talk to your local sales associate about the ways we can help you manage your inventory.

As always, a Differentiated Customer Experience is our goal. I encourage you to let me know how we are doing in pursuit of that goal.

Thank you for your business.....

Pete Jobling

President – Swagelok Western NY

[email protected]

Pete mentioned the benefit our Services Specialists provide by managing VMIs that enable customers to maintain their own inventory and thereby, mitigate supply chain issues. The value of our Services Team goes far beyond product delivery – they act as customer partners.

Our Services Specialists are experienced in aiding the management of a customer’s inventory. They prepare part usage reports to analyze inventory requirements and work with customers to establish minimum and maximum product levels. Additionally, they have the flexibility to customize inventories to meet a customer's specific or changing needs.

Dedicated Services Specialists are staffed in each of our three offices to ensure customers are supported across our territory. This support is just one of the many additional values customers receive from Swagelok WNY.

From engineering assistance to thousands of online-accessible CAD drawings to tool and equipment rental, we offer much more than "just" industry leading products and assemblies.

To help customers better understand the full value of partnering with Swagelok WNY, we offer Executive Value Reports. Through these reports we illustrate how your company is deriving additional value, that you and/or your management team may not be aware of, from its relationship with Swagelok WNY. We will also identify additional Swagelok WNY services, applicable to your specific business, you can take advantage of to gain further benefits.

Contact your local sales associate to learn more about the Executive Value Report.

Jeff Namy

Vice President, Sales & Marketing

[email protected]

There’s great excitement around Hydrogen’s potential as a sustainable form of clean energy, especially as part of the future goal of an energy system with net zero emissions.

The International Energy Agency, in its report, Net Zero by 2050: A Roadmap for the Global Energy Sector, foresees hydrogen use growing sixfold from today’s levels to meet 10% of total energy consumption by 2050.

This growth forecast is based in large part to hydrogen’s numerous applications:

• Hydrogen as a vehicle fuel can be used for the transport of goods and people
• It can serve to store energy from nuclear and renewable sources and distribute it across sectors
• Hydrogen and fuel cell technologies have great potential to provide low-carbon heat and reliable power for communities and critical facilities
• Hydrogen is also a growing fuel and feedstock for industrial and agricultural processes

Swagelok is committed to supporting the clean energy industry with certified products specifically designed to:

• Improve safety
• Enable performance
• Minimize downtime
• Maximize reliability

Visit our new Clean Energy industry page to learn how we are supporting these customers with products, services and solutions.