That’s all well and dandy but apart from being the world’s biggest supermarket, Amazon doesn’t offer much else. It can’t advise you on the best product to buy; it can’t look at the bigger picture and offer applications expertise based on years of experience; and it can’t tailor a bespoke solution specific to your individual needs. MSC does all of the above.
I promise to only use the term ‘one stop shop’ once in this article but it does describe MSC to a tee. Conversely, in terms of its market perception, this diversity can be counter-productive, making it difficult for the business to establish its true brand identity or a ‘raison d’etre’. The more products and services you have it seems, the more difficult it is to define your sphere of expertise.
So let’s put the record straight. At grass roots level, first and foremost, MSC is an engineering company with metalcutting expertise inextricably woven into its DNA. But it’s also one of the biggest distributors around, an MRO (maintenance, repair and operations) specialist and a solutions provider.
It serves companies from the largest to the smallest. Engineering consultancy is the fastest growing part of the organisation, representing around 25% of the overall business. It has 14 dedicated, highly skilled engineers that work closely with customers out in the field.
But it also has 80,000 stocked products at its disposal and 120,000 available online including extended lines. In addition, MSC produces its ‘Big Book’ printed catalogue every 18 months as many customers still prefer this format. Offering choice is never a bad thing.
And it’s not just catalogue products: MSC has the capability to manufacture and supply made to order bespoke tooling through its in-house engineering team which makes effective use of 3D CAD software from Autodesk to design customised tooling. A number of tooling ranges – like Accupro – are MSCs own brands.
Not surprisingly, the company’s advanced tool vending solutions are popular with customers – as is workholding equipment and abrasives – but you’ll also find PPE and janitorial products on its clients’ shopping lists. All businesses need these things to function efficiently, so why not buy them from the same place you purchase your tooling and cutting fluids?
Purely from a distribution perspective, MSC’s real strengths are its product range diversity and independence. Time is money and for customers embarking on vendor rationalisation programmes you really can get everything from a single source. And because it’s an independent business and not allied to any particular products, MSC staff can advise on the best solutions for a particular application unbiasedly – irrespective of the manufacturer.
MSC itself was formed in 1941 by Sidney Jacobson who, via the humblest of beginnings, began selling tooling from the boot of his car in Manhattan. Today, it’s a $3 billion turnover global business. For those wondering what MSC is an acronym for, now you know: Manhattan Supply Company. Erik Gershwind, the current CEO is Sidney Jacobson’s grandson.
Headed up by managing director Dave Darby, MSC UK operates from its headquarters in Wednesbury and employs 260 people. Mr Darby cites the omnipresent skills shortage as a major driver towards explaining why MSC’s engineering capabilities are in greater demand than ever before.
“Every day we hear the same things in the marketplace: our customers can’t recruit enough skilled engineers and an aging workforce demographic means that skills are being lost when people retire.
“We’ve tapped into that need. In fact, I would argue that we’re the only high service level national distributor with an engineering pedigree that’s extensive enough to bridge that gap.
“A number of our customers operate in demanding sectors like F1 and aerospace and we work closely with them to introduce efficiencies and reduce costs across the entire business – whether its tool vending solutions, optimising machining operations, supplying ancillary products or a combination of all three.”
He continues: “On the engineering side, it would be true to say that all of our largest national accounts look to us to formulate and implement significant cost-down initiatives. Typically these businesses will have in excess of 20 CNC machines installed and there will be a significant degree of engineering consultancy from us as part of the package. Additionally, in nearly all cases, we will have also installed an inventory control vending system.”
“That’s what makes us different,” Mr Darby asserts. “Because we’re independent we’re not affiliated to any manufacturer or brand which means we can focus 100% on providing the right solution to the customer. In fact this often involves a combination of products from several manufacturers – and we have a vast range to choose from so we can always get the right result.
“MSC exists with one primary objective in mind – to help our customers get better at what they do.”
On the subject of skills, commendably, MSC is a principle sponsor of Next Gen Makers, a private sector initiative that creates a platform for West Midlands engineering and manufacturing firms to inspire more young people into the sector through organised activities at its partner schools and colleges.
The ultimate benefit however is distinctly two-way because local companies can invest in these young people and future-proof their own businesses at the same time.
On the engineering side, 25-40% is the typical tooling consumption reduction for customers using MSC’s vending solutions and an impressive £1 million is the reported total saving offered through the company’s engineering consultancy services. 1,600 customers are supported technically each month.
It’s easy for a company to sing the praises of its customer service achievements but another thing entirely to have them audited by an external body. Dave Darby prefers the third party, impartial approach: “We’re members of the Institute of Customer Services and are independently audited once a year,” he affirms.
“The assessment involves talking to our customers and employees against predetermined criteria to establish an overall score. We used to be in the Business to Business category but our scores were so high that they effectively became meaningless as we had no real benchmark to improve.
“Now we’re in the Retail category so are up against companies like M&S, John Lewis and Amazon. The audit itself assesses how easy it is to do business with us: how efficiently orders are processed; how helpful our staff are at resolving queries and overall customer satisfaction.
“No-one likes being passed from person to person and department to department and our Customer Contact Centre works very hard to solve all issues from a single source. We’re very proud of the fact that our scores are genuinely world-class – and that’s testament to the fantastic people that work here at MSC.”
“At MSC we believe that our key differentiators are our exceptional customer service and engineering capabilities but that said, what really makes us different is our people. Each and every person at MSC deeply cares about the customer and that comes across in every customer interaction across our organisation.
“At MSC we have a mantra ‘People deliver results, so focus on your people’. Our employees are at the heart of what we do which is why we are in the top 75 companies to work for in the Midlands.”
