Budnick Converting ^®

It’s not the standard tape orders that arrive as scheduled that threaten your lines– it’s the emergency orders that “must be here or else we’re dead” that put your lines at risk.  Most adhesive tape distributors can turn around a standard order but what you want to know is, “Do they have what it takes to deliver an order when I have a major problem or unplanned need?”  Ask your current distributor/converter the following questions and see if they’re up to snuff or a shut-down waiting to happen.

Standard Tape DistributionQuestions

1. What Is Your Year-To-Date On-Time Delivery Rate?  Many distributors can boast of exceptional on-time deliveries at some point in their existence – but make sure it wasn’t one- two- or three- years ago.  You’ll want to make sure their systems, procedures, and staff can meet your needs today – not yesterday.  This year, for example, Budnick Converting has documented a 99.7% on-time delivery rate.

2. What Type Of Order Processing System Do You Run?  A good order processing system should document customer desires and specifications and ensure item-by-item follow through for each purchase order.  Ask to see one of your process order sheets.  Does it include YOUR order notes and YOUR packaging instructions?  Without this, your parts might need to be returned…costing you time and money.  Our customer service representatives can tap into our operation’s production schedules.  They’re able to verify our capability to meet delivery dates, ensure follow through on customer instructions, and monitor quality results– all in real time.

3. How Does Your Inventory Tracking System Work?  Make sure your supplier never takes your adhesive tape order BEFORE they check current inventory levels.  Otherwise, you may believe your tape is on its way only to find out days later that it’s not in stock.  Obviously, this costs you valuable time where you could have placed your order through another resource.  At Budnick, we have a clear picture of our inventory levels and stock status is always confirmed by production team leaders before they are accepted.

4. Do You Carry On-Floor Inventory Levels For The Adhesive Products We Buy?  In extreme situations the ability to deliver overnight is undeniably crucial.  But that level of response is virtually impossible if your adhesive tape supplier does not stock sufficient quantities of your tape products.  To be fully protected look for a supplier that offers inventory agreements.  As a master converter, Budnick inventories log and jumbo rolls of 136 different adhesive tape products at all times.  And when you need it fast, we’re able to expedite your order and convert this inventory into every conceivable size imaginable.  This critical capability alone has kept our customers’ lines from shutting down and why Budnick is such a trusted partner.

5. What Alternative Products Can You Supply In Extreme Emergencies?  One of the highest levels of tape distributor capabilities is providing an equivalent, substitute product in an emergency.  Most distributors, however, are limited to only one or two tape manufacturers and therefore only have a few hundred tape products in their arsenal.  This limited selection pool makes it very difficult, if not impossible, to substitute equivalent products.  Budnick prides itself on the fact that we are one of only a few adhesive tape distributors and converters in the North America authorized to source and re-sell more than 10,000 different tape products through 22 different tape manufacturers.  Because of this extensive product access, Budnick is able to meet customer emergency needs and keep their production lines running without interruption.

6. Can You Push My Order Through With The Tape Manufacturer? If your distributor isn’t carrying a buffer inventory and they cannot quickly substitute an equivalent product -- they will depend upon the manufacturer to provide your tape products.   But unknown to most end users, many tape manufacturers hold their converters and distributors at a 2-6 week delivery lead time. Obviously, in emergency situations, this doesn’t work.  However, the larger the annual volume of tape purchased by your distributor the more power they have in speeding up your delivery through the manufacturer.  Find out if your distributor has a preferred ranking with the tape manufacturers.  And, ask how much product volume do they purchase on your specific materials and sizes?  Compare that to the total amount sold within the industry.  That tells you how much“pull power” your distributor will have with the manufacturer and how well they’ll deliver for you.  Budnick, for example, is a preferred distributor and a specialty converting partner with the biggest tape manufacturers in the world.  We order more tape every month than many distributors order all year.

7. What Is Your Success Rate In Expedited Orders? The answer to this question really is the meat of the story.  How often is your supplier called upon to“perform under pressure”?  And when they are, how well do they do?  Budnick consistently receives customer satisfaction survey results that are among the highest in the industry.  This has a lot to do with our ability to expedite those emergency orders!

Adhesive Tape Converting Questions

8. Do You Have Redundant Machinery, Cross-Tooling, Cross-Trained Operators and Documented Disaster Recovery Plans?  If your tape is being converted these questions are critical.  You don’t want equipment problems at the converting facility to delay your delivery.  Find out what type of equipment is used to convert your adhesive tapes and then find out how many pieces of that equipment your converter owns.  Ask to see pictures of the equipment and documentation that it’s still on their floor and still in working condition.  Cross-tooling and cross-training is just as important.  If multiple operators are trained to run your job, then that person not only has a back-up, but a second or third shift can be added to make sure your parts are delivered on time.  And finally, make sure formal, documented disaster recovery plans exist and are being implemented.  Budnick cross-trains its machine operators, teams with competitors to assure machine redundancy, and focuses on continuously improving its disaster recovery plans – all in the name of getting you your material ON TIME!

9. What Is The Turn Over Rate And Average Years Of Experience Of Line Staff?  When converting adhesive tapes high turnover rates and low experience levels on converting lines are more likely to produce errors, delayed production schedules, and missed shipments.  Find out the staff turn-over rate on your equipment over the past three months.  Ask how many years of experience your operators have, on average, and try to find out the error rate on that line.  These statistics are valuable information to insure your tapes arrive as ordered and on-time.  Budnick’s plant turn-over rate is very low.  Our line operators have an industry leading average of 6.3 years of converting experience.

10. How Many Locations Do You Have?  How Many And How Large Are Your Converting Shifts? What Are Your Current Capacity Levels?  These questions will help you know if your converter is capable of handling your order – big or small – particularly in emergency situations.  The more converting locations the better your converter can prevent downtime should a disaster occur.  Multiple shifts also indicate an ability to meet capacity demands – granted your converter is not already running at full capacity.  A converter capable of successfully handing emergency orders has an “overflow shift” running at no more than 85% of capacity.  Any higher and they won’t be able to run routine maintenance on those machines.  If this happens, the machines can get out of tolerance or break down. Budnick is one of only a few tape converters that have multiple converting facilities – one is located in Columbia, IL and the other in Florida.  And, unlike other converters, we try not to go higher that 75% capacity on our machines to allow for maintenance and upgrades aimed at producing the finest custom parts possible.