Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
Welcome to the Clear Impact Podcast brought to you by Mitre Brands University. Thanks for joining us today. My name is Sheri Conner and I am your host.
Is it. No, you can't talk about it.
[00:00:22] Speaker B: Yeah, probably not.
[00:00:23] Speaker A: Okay, all good.
[00:00:25] Speaker B: But just an example of how that cross industry knowledge from our supply base does generate real improvement.
[00:00:33] Speaker A: So, good morning. We are here on the Claire Impact podcast and today we have in studio Mario Ferrucci. Welcome.
[00:00:41] Speaker B: Hi, how are you?
[00:00:42] Speaker A: I'm good. Thanks for being here today. And so, Mario, this is your first time on the podcast. Thank you for joining us. Tell us a little bit about you, like your background, your tenure, your roles and responsibilities here.
[00:00:53] Speaker B: Sure. I have a background in international trade, primarily with China, and I've been with the team for about six years now. Currently I'm the commodity manager for new product development as part of the strategic procurement team with Mitre Brands.
[00:01:12] Speaker A: Nice. So part of the supply chain. That's exciting. We're actually going to be talking about that today. Obviously that's why we brought you in. But we're going to really focus about the supplier partnerships and how that helps drive innovation across the supply chain. And I've been hearing some, like, little murmurs here and there about some collaboration and shared problem solving.
That is kind of a different spin than what has been traditionally happening. And this is a way that we create value for our customers and for the business.
And so without getting into specifics that you don't want to share out, can you talk about the process of turning a shared challenge into. Into a differentiated solution when it comes to supply chain?
[00:01:59] Speaker B: Absolutely. At the end of the day, we're fighting the same battles in the same space as our competitors, whether that's labor cost, product damage, you name it. And the difference between us and the competition is how we go about attacking those problems. And there's lots of different levers that we can pull. Supplier innovation and collaboration really is just adding another lever to your toolkit. It gives you another angle of attack to approach these problems and a way to solve these that maybe your competition doesn't have.
[00:02:36] Speaker A: Oh, interesting. Yeah, I like that. And so how do we balance that? So obviously, you know, it is a bit of a competition. Right. We want to win all of the orders and we want to do that quickly. Right. We want to be the first one to market with different kinds of kinds of products or product features.
How do we balance that need to go to market quickly with the need to be confidential, especially when it comes to intellectual property protection, when we're developing something Together with a supplier, there's two
[00:03:08] Speaker B: ways that we handle that. First of all, getting the ground rules out of the way quickly, making sure that everyone knows what's on the table and what's off the table, so to speak, in a discussion. And the second way to approach that, really, Mitre Brands has built a core trusted supplier base. And we do believe in profitable partnerships and mutually supported growth. We want to make it so that our suppliers don't have motivation to take these ideas anywhere else because they're so eager to support us and be with us and grow together with us as a partner.
[00:03:44] Speaker A: That's a smart way to go. I like that.
So can you share any examples of how a close collaboration with a supplier helped improve performance or efficiency or even a customer experience without revealing any proprietary details?
[00:04:02] Speaker B: One great example of that would be the proprietary lock that Milgard has in place and has had in place for, I think about 14 years now.
That lock was designed by Milgard and then iterated and approved upon by the hardware supplier.
And one interesting iteration actually went the other way. Right. So we had a new version of the lock that was going to come out, and after running it through both our own sales team and some sample customer base, we determined that we were actually going to go back to the previous version of the lock.
[00:04:36] Speaker A: Are you talking about the Smart Touch lock?
[00:04:37] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:04:38] Speaker A: Okay. So the smart touch lock was in a lot of their Tuscan series, I believe. Right. The V400.
And then they rolled it out into the new C700 line. And so that's a proprietary lock for Milgard?
[00:04:51] Speaker B: It is, yes. It's a proprietary lock for Milgard. Only Milgard has it.
And after customer and supplier feedback, we ended up not taking cost out of the lock because customers perceive the loud metal pinging noise when the window shuts as a large increase to quality. So essentially we were gonna make the lock thinner and we were going to pull out material and switch it to plastic to save on cost. And it was determined that we would sell fewer windows specifically because that loud ping when you shut the window was no longer present.
And so that ping was viewed as a quality differentiator.
[00:05:32] Speaker A: Right. Well. And then, you know, it's locked. Right? You listen for that. You get used to that. Yeah, that makes sense. But I like that we're exploring. Right, right. And like trying to say, okay, here's a lock that we already have and it's working well, but can we improve it? How can we make it better or less costly or, you know, still proprietary, but improve it?
[00:05:53] Speaker B: Yes. And the supplier was heavily involved in many of the iteration. I believe we're on the fourth or fifth iteration at this point of that lock, and it's definitely a success story out at Milgard.
[00:06:03] Speaker A: Yeah, that's awesome. I knew it was a proprietary lock, but I never considered that it would be something that we would need to examine to change.
So what are some of the biggest lessons learned from collaborating with external partners on these kinds of emerging technologies?
[00:06:20] Speaker B: Emerging technologies. The big thing to consider there is that just because there's a cool technology doesn't mean it's useful.
[00:06:26] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:06:27] Speaker B: There's a great deal of technology out there that is flashy and cool and neat, but it needs to be practical for the homeowner. A great example. There would be any kind of automation automatic door opening and closing system, or windows for that matter.
[00:06:43] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:06:44] Speaker B: In the R and R market, these technologies are advanced and would seem useful, but at the end of the day, a lot of folks don't want to foot the bill to put in automatic doors and windows in their homes.
So these technologies have to come at the problem from a different angle, which is where is our customer base and where is it applicable? That technology has absolutely exploded in the pet door market and also in the accessibility market. So folks who maybe don't have the mobility, they would like to open and close the door themselves. Automatic opening and closing doors work well there.
[00:07:20] Speaker A: Right.
[00:07:21] Speaker B: And for folks that want to let their pets in and out of the home, either without being present in the home or without having to get up and open the door for them, or installing a little doggy door, that's where that market is. Currently
[00:07:34] Speaker A: we are sharing our expertise around all topics relating to the window and door industry. Whether you are a customer selling our products or a homeowner doing.
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Oh, yeah, I've always wondered that. So, like, you go to the grocery store or you go to the supermarket and you get close and the door opens, or the airports or wherever, you know, big public spaces, the door opens automatically for you. So is that what kind of technology you're talking about?
[00:08:07] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:08:07] Speaker A: So not necessarily like a remote control kind of thing.
[00:08:11] Speaker B: It can be operated either way. The issue with the door opening for you in the R and R space is you need some way of identifying the owner. Otherwise it's a security risk.
[00:08:22] Speaker A: Oh, right.
[00:08:23] Speaker B: So you can connect it to your phone via Bluetooth, but most folks aren't interested in the investment.
[00:08:28] Speaker A: Yeah, I never even Thought about that, but I don't have a dog, so I'm sure when I get a dog, I might be interested in something like that.
[00:08:35] Speaker B: The way it works with the dogs a lot of the time is they'll have it only open to a certain degree or a certain number of inches or feet, however you like it, and they'll put the chip in the dog's collar. And then they'll have times during the day that the dog can or can't activate the door.
[00:08:50] Speaker A: So you don't have to remember to let them out or let them in. They can just maneuver that.
[00:08:54] Speaker B: Exactly.
[00:08:55] Speaker A: Oh, so smart.
[00:08:56] Speaker B: It's pricey, though.
[00:08:57] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. Well, for some folks, it's probably worth it. For the rest of us though, just get up and take the dog out. I like that. And so how do those partnerships help us stay ahead of the industry trends? Without discussing the specifics of the technologies, how do those partnerships really help us?
[00:09:19] Speaker B: Our industry's trends are tied to more than just the fenestration industry. And suppliers get to see more than just our industry. So a lot of the time they'll have a broader view of what's going on in glass, in aluminum, in vinyl, as opposed to just in windows and doors.
And that broader view helps us, with a good partnership, gain access to more data and understand what's really happening in the marketplace as opposed to what the news is reporting on and what sources are saying is happening. We get to see the truth of the matter.
[00:10:00] Speaker A: And then when we have those strong partnerships, then they're willing to like, hey, this is what's happening in the automobile industry, or this is what's happening in the aerospace industry. I don't know if we ever have partners that deal with those things.
[00:10:14] Speaker B: We do. There's one that I can't talk about that's cross industry with aerospace right now. One I can talk about. I mean, heck, we use a food grade coating in our process. And that food grade coating would have never come about without a key supplier partnership saying, hey, we have this coating that's spray on, water resistant and durable and maybe you should look at it. And that coating had never, to my knowledge, been used in the fenestration industry ever before.
[00:10:41] Speaker A: Is it? No, you can't talk about it.
[00:10:43] Speaker B: Yeah, probably not.
[00:10:44] Speaker A: Okay, all good.
[00:10:46] Speaker B: But just an example of how that cross industry knowledge from our supply base does generate real improvement.
[00:10:54] Speaker A: Oh, that's awesome. Yeah. Because you do have to really get outside the norm. I mean, that's what we did with Corning. Right. They were really great at TV monitors and smartphone screens and things like that. And then it was like, what about windows and doors? Like, that's a completely different industry, completely different market, and it's taken us a long time to get there. Right. But that thin laminated glass that we have and the triple panes that we're using, that's currently being rebranded. So I don't know what the name is right now, but that was the same technology that's used in smartphones. Like, nobody really knew that you could make a door out of that kind of glass. And so it's that same kind of thinking into a different space. I like that. What excites you the most about the future of the collaborative innovations across supply chain?
[00:11:42] Speaker B: Going back to some of the earlier Q and A responses, there's just a lot of information locked up in silos in the supply base and supply chain in the past, and we're moving beyond this, but in the past, it's always been seen as this is how you get your materials to build your product and supply chain is evolving into a collaborative resource for the organization to use and rely on, not only for raw materials, but also for product development and manufacturing optimization, even. It just goes back to, you know, having more tools in your toolkit and making sure to use them all or not use them all, depending on how you want to outmaneuver your competition.
[00:12:27] Speaker A: You know, one of our quality pillars is around creativity, and so I love that you're having those kinds of conversations with suppliers that are in different spaces and saying, wait, you guys can do what? And then how can we apply that into our space?
I think that's really where that value really comes from, having those kinds of connections, because if you didn't have those relationships, they wouldn't bother sharing that. Right. So that's pretty awesome.
[00:12:52] Speaker B: Exactly. There's a very big difference between a true partnership and something that is transactional.
[00:12:59] Speaker A: Exactly. Yeah, that was the word I was thinking, too. Okay, well, thank you for sharing all of that information, what you could share. But I do have one last question.
This is around the Mitre DNA, and we've been asking this of folks on the podcast, and it's so interesting to hear everybody's different answers. And so what is the DNA point that resonates with you the most?
[00:13:21] Speaker B: It's absolutely having a bias for action.
[00:13:24] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:13:24] Speaker B: Making any decision is better than making no decision. I think many others view decision making as a clock. And if where you are currently is the middle of that clock and the perfect choice is noon, you've got a pretty good shot of being closer than you were. If you make the decision today, you have a small chance of, hey, you know, you might end up in a worse place, but usually human intuition and gut instinct gets you close enough. Even with just a bare minimum amount of analysis, even if you shift that hand from six to four, well, you're a degree closer than you were. And it's better than sitting and letting the problem languish and doing nothing.
[00:14:05] Speaker A: Yeah, no, I like that one, too.
All right, Mario, thank you so much for your time today.
Appreciate knowing a little bit more about the supply chain partnerships and how we're really able to translate that down into products that serve our customer base and the homeowners.
[00:14:21] Speaker B: Thank you very much.
[00:14:21] Speaker A: Yeah, thanks, Mario. Have a good day.
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