Components for Industry is all about Partnership

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Kevin Christie, CEO of Components for Industry (CFI) Sums up their philosophy in one word: He says, “Partnership-It’s as simple as that.” He explains, “We are dedicated to finding better ways to serve our customers – our partners. It’s our job as component management specialists to analyze your parts, usage, and prices in order to find improved methods of procurement and flow of materials.”

Vendor Base of One
CFI has a “Vendor Base of One” concept which aids in achieving this goal. Through their expansive resources and market knowledge, they are dedicated to providing their customers with the most preferred methods of component acquisition and logistics. After all, that’s their job as their customers’ partner.

Proprietary Technologies and Engineering
In order to fulfill their commitment as part of their partnership, they go the extra mile in every area. Not only are they an extremely reliable supplier, they also develop problem solving technologies and methodologies that make them invaluable to their customers. A few stand out capabilities include the following:

QUALIFORMING
Qualiforming® is a process utilizing Cold Form Isolation Technology developed by Kevin Christie, CEO of CFI for the requirements of specific customers within the automotive industry.

It was developed with the express goal of attaining screw machine-like quality and consistency without the cost and delays associated with that process. It was specifically designed for those OEMs that require strict quality adherence, tight tolerance, high volume production, and cost containment.

C-COAT™ SYSTEM
As a result of a request from a customer, CFI researched improved coatings for fasteners being welded.

Strategic meetings with CFI engineers, chemical engineers and metallurgist resulted in the development and implementation of the CFI C-Coat™ system. C- Coat™ provides parts that are corrosion resistant, oil free, and have an additive that has proven to increase weld strength by, in some instances, over 4 times that of competitive coatings.

In addition, C-Coat™ acts as a paint primer, is water soluble, and is completely environmentally friendly. For complete application control, CFI applies C-Coat™ at its facility in Mundelein, IL. to:

• Weld Nuts
• Weld Screws
• Steel
• Plates
• Others

Secondary Services
CFI provides its customers with a wide variety of secondary services in order to service you completely. Some of those include:

• Sorting (Optical, Roll, Electronic, Hand)
• Bar Coding
• Poly Bagging / Blister Packaging
• Part Cleaning & Metal Finishing
• Heat Treating
• Locking Elements
• Drill & Tapping
• Shaving
• Milling

Long Experience
Components for Industry was incorporated in 1991 by Kevin Christie and Annie Squire-Patrick to fill, what they felt, was a market niche. Their dedication to service spreads throughout their employees with their customers having 24/7 access to CFI staff. In addition, their focus on engineering assistance and proactive cost reductions to their customers has them standing out from their peers. They continue to grow through word of mouth and current customer product line expansions.

The BUSINESS EDGE
How do they remain unique and competitive? As Kevin Christie states, “It’s a matter of keeping up with innovation and efficiencies.” He goes on to explain, “That’s where The BUSINESS EDGE comes into our planning process. With growth and success, come new challenges”. Annie added, “As CFI grew, and we needed to upgrade our systems to something thorough and user friendly. We found this in The BUSINESS EDGE system. It was a big move for us.” She went on to say, “Our biggest concern was not only the training and implementation time, but the changes and differences a new system would bring. How much disruption to our growing business were we to expect? How best do we manage that? “

Nothing But Praise
Kevin interjected by praising the process and the Computer Insights team. “You can’t believe the service we received. From start to finish, Computer Insights was there for us every step of the way. Even after implementation, the support we receive daily, even to this day, is what we have come to expect from our own staff. There are many computer programs out there, but without the right support, how good are they?”

Conversion Was Fast And Easy
CFI implemented The BUSINESS EDGE 2.0 at the end of 2012 and has never looked back. Annie explained, “The system is unbelievably user friendly. The user reports are fantastic and where there were things we wanted to modify to work better with our internal systems, Computer Insights reacted instantly. Our switch over was the smoothest change we have had in over 20 years in business and our company is running with greater efficiency and effectiveness than ever. This is enabling us to experience unprecedented growth and serviceability with our ever growing customer base. We made the right move with The BUSINESS EDGE and highly recommend it. It was another business learning experience yet this one was a pleasurable one. Our thanks to Computer Insights for making our company more efficient!”

This article appeared in Distributor’s Link Magazine, Fall 2013

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