Distributor-Manufacturer Business Management Team Surveys
The following summarizes responses from the surveys of design engineers and distributors, conducted by the NFPA with the help of Penton Media, Inc.
Number of responses:
Design Engineer Survey -- 75 to 83 respondents for each individual question.
Sent to readers of Hydraulics & Pneumatics, Machine Design and Motion System Design.
Distributor Survey -- 83 to 92 respondents for each individual question.
Sent to readers of Motion System Distributor.
Design Engineer Survey
1) Role in product specification and purchasing
most important part of role.
Hydraulic (56) 1. Develop design solutions 39%
2. Determine needs and requirements 27%
3. Approve design solution/specification 14%
4. Specify component/system 13%
5. All others 7%
Pneumatic (42)
1. Develop design solutions 38%
2. Determine needs and requirements 21%
3. Specify component/system 19%
4. Approve design solution/specification 14%
5. All others 10%
Hydraulic and Pneumatic (46) 1. Develop design solutions 30%
2. Determine needs and requirements 22%
3. Approve design solution/specification 22%
4. Specify component/system 15%
5. All others 11%
Specifying Components or Systems
| | Very Important | Important or Very Important |
| Product quality | 68% | 93% |
| Engineering service/support before sale | 37 | 84 |
| After the sale service | 44 | 73 |
| Pricing | 38 | 73 |
| Local distributor support/availability | 32 | 67 |
| Delivery/electronic order | 23 | 48 |
| Multiple components from one manufacturer | 15 | 51 |
Pricing and Terms
| | Very Important | Important or Very Important |
| Warranties | 20% | 57% |
| Low price | 16 | 53 |
| All components from one manufacturer | 17 | 44 |
| Price freeze/rollbacks | 14 | 33 |
| Extended payment terms | 12 | 33 |
| Freight/logistics | 6 | 32 |
| Global pricing | 8 | 23 |
| Rebates | 10 | 16 |
Company Purchasing Decisions
| | Very Important | Important or Very Important |
| Tech competence of supplier | 64% | 92 |
| Past relationships/loyalty | 24 | 84 |
| Role of local distributor | 22 | 58 |
| Low price | 21 | 52 |
| Manufacturer selling direct | 19 | 39 |
| Value added distributor selling | 15 | 56 |
| Catalog sales | 15 | 42 |
| Integrated supply | 13 | 32 |
| Need for suppliers of value added services | 10 | 51 |
| Role of national distributors | 8 | 36 |
| Internet purchasing | 8 | 24 |
| Manufacturer consolidation | 1 | 26 |
| Live Internet auctions | 3 | 3 |
Areas of largest change for the future state
As you can see, with several exceptions, the expected change was not dramatic, even for those questions with the largest changes noted.
| Specifying Components or Systems | Current | 3 Years from Now |
| | Very important | Important or very important | Very important | Important or very important |
| Engineering service/support before the sale | 46% | 84% | 43% | 71% |
| Delivery service/electronic ordering | 23 | 49 | 19 | 57 |
| Pricing | 39 | 73 | 38 | 67 |
| Multiple components from one manufacturer | 15 | 50 | 16 | 45 |
| Pricing and Terms | Current | 3 Years from Now |
| | Very important | Important or very important | Very important | Important or very important |
| Warranties | 19% | 58% | 22% | 65% |
| Global pricing agreements | 7 | 22 | 13 | 29 |
| National pricing agreements | 10 | 22 | 12 | 29 |
| Lowest price wins business | 16 | 52 | 17 | 47 |
| Company Purchasing Decision | Current | 3 Years from Now |
| | Very important | Important or very important | Very important | Important or very important |
| Internet purchasing | 8% | 24% | 15% | 47% |
| Manufacturer direct selling | 20 | 39 | 20 | 46 |
| Value-added distributor selling | 15 | 56 | 20 | 58 |
Distributor Survey
| Buying Decision (OEM) | Buying Decision (MRO) |
| | Very important | Important or very important | | Very important | Important or very important |
| Product quality | 63% | 90% | Product quality | 63% | 92% |
| Pricing | 56 | 85 | Local distributor support/availability of product/component | 51 | 87 |
| Engineering service/support before sale | 47 | 82 | After the sale service | 49 | 80 |
| After the sale service | 38 | 67 | Pricing | 39 | 69 |
| Multiple components from one manufacturer | 23 | 64 | Engineering service/support before sale | 40 | 60 |
| Local distributor support/availability of product/component | 33 | 62 | Multiple components from one manufacturer | 22 | 56 |
| Delivery service/electronic ordering | 17 | 41 | Delivery service/electronic ordering | 20 | 47 |
| Pricing and Terms | Purchasing from Supplier |
| | Very important | Important or very important | | Very important | Important or very important |
| Low price | 20% | 63% | Technical competency of supplier | 48% | 87% |
| Warranty | 21 | 56 | Past relationships/loyalty | 34 | 84 |
| Freight/logistic cost | 13 | 47 | Value-added distributor selling | 29 | 75 |
| National pricing | 14 | 41 | Role of local distributor | 29 | 73 |
| All components from one manufacturer | 13 | 41 | Need for suppliers of value-added service | 27 | 82 |
| Extended payment terms | 12 | 36 | Vendor provides design solution | 23 | 71 |
| Price freeze/rollbacks | 9 | 44 | Low price | 16 | 58 |
| Rebates | 9 | 33 | Role of national distributors | 17 | 46 |
| Global pricing | 7 | 24 | Manufacturer direct selling | 13 | 30 |
| | | | Consolidation of manufacturers | 10 | 29 |
| | | | Integrated supply | 6 | 31 |
| | | | Catalog sales | 6 | 31 |
| | | | Consolidation of distributors | 6 | 30 |
| | | | Internet purchasing | 2 | 22 |
Areas of largest change for the future state
| Buying Decision | Current | 3 Years from Now |
| | Very important | Important or very important | Very important | Important or very important |
| Delivery service/electronic ordering (OEM) | 17% | 41% | 27% | 79% |
| Multiple components from single manufacturer (OEM) | 23 | 64 | 37 | 68 |
| Product quality (OEM) | 63 | 90 | 75 | 95 |
| Engineering service/support before the sale (OEM) | 47 | 82 | 54 | 89 |
| | | | | |
| Delivery service/electronic ordering (OEM) | 20 | 47 | 38 | 80 |
| Multiple components from single manufacturer (OEM) | 22 | 56 | 37 | 67 |
| Engineering service/support before the sale (OEM) | 40 | 60 | 44 | 70 |
| Pricing and Terms | Current | 3 Years from Now |
| | Very important | Important or very important | Very important | Important or very important |
| Freight/logistics | 13% | 47% | 24% | 64% |
| National pricing | 14 | 40 | 25 | 47 |
| Global pricing | 7 | 24 | 12 | 33 |
| All components from one manufacturer | 13 | 41 | 20 | 58 |
| Purchasing from Supplier | Current | 3 Years from Now |
| | Very important | Important or very important | Very important | Important or very important |
| Need for suppliers of value-added services | 27% | 82% | 43% | 89% |
| Internet purchasing | 2 | 22 | 21 | 62 |
| Value-added distributor selling | 29 | 75 | 44 | 85 |
| Vendor already provides design solutions | 23 | 71 | 33 | 81 |
| Technical competency of supplier | 48 | 87 | 67 | 98 |
Competing Technologies
Design Engineer and Distributor Surveys -- How important is each of the following to your product line(s) today, and how important will they be in 3 years?
| | Design Engineers | Distributors |
| | Current | 3 Years from Now | Current | 3 Years from Now |
| | Very important | Important or very important | Very important | Important or very important | Very important | Important or very important | Very important | Important or very important |
| Hydraulic | 16% | 55% | 22% | 55% | 20% | 58% | 32% | 67% |
| Pneumatic | 21 | 54 | 22 | 54 | 20 | 64 | 30 | 71 |
| Electrohydraulic | 13 | 49 | 31 | 62 | 17 | 52 | 24 | 73 |
| Electropneumatic | 11 | 36 | 18 | 50 | 16 | 44 | 24 | 69 |
| Electrical | 36 | 68 | 48 | 74 | 27 | 74 | 41 | 86 |
| Electromechanical | 28 | 52 | 36 | 70 | 20 | 62 | 35 | 77 |
