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Fewer vendors in manufacturers' plans (sidebar)

Internet ordering proves as easy as H-E-B

Not too long ago, ordering packaging materials via fax was the ne plus ultra of packaging procurement. Today, it’s the Internet.

Just ask H.E. Butt, a San Antonio, TX-based grocer/food retailer that uses an online business- to-business site called www.inc2inc.com to facilitate packaging materials orders. INC2inc (Dallas, TX) and H.E.B. developed the site together. Established in March, it lets food and beverage manufacturers conduct transactions with packaging suppliers, brokers and ingredients vendors.

While Internet ordering speeds H.E.B.’s procurement process, determining if Internet ordering consolidates the number of vendors is uncertain. On one hand, the more vendors that sign up to use the INC2inc site, the more options packagers like H.E.B. have from which to select materials. H.E.B.’s manager of manufacturing procurement, Linda Espino, is actively trying to persuade more vendors to jump aboard. On the other hand, she says the company tries to limit vendors to two for a particular material, based on its ability to run on H.E.B. equipment.

“Sourcing [of packaging materials] is faster on the Internet than by traditional methods,” comments Espino. “By ordering over the Internet, the supplier receives an e-mail and can respond immediately, and that company can deliver materials to us in the timeframe we requested.”

While that’s also possible with a more traditional order placed by phone call or fax, there’s an important difference.

“People work at their computers nowadays,” says Espino. “They don’t check the fax that often. When we fax an order sheet to the supplier, it could reside at the supplier’s fax machine for several hours. And we require the vendors to fax us a response to let us know they’ve received our fax. In the time it takes to complete those steps, we could miss a shipment and not receive something we might have needed today.”

Procurement advantages

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