In today's super-competitive business environment, manufacturers must seek continually to drive overhead costs out of their operations. One area where significant reduction of overhead expenses can be achieved is the procurement of fasteners.

Although fasteners generally constitute a very small percentage of a manufacturer's Cost of Materials, the procurement of fasteners can be a difficult, time-consuming and expensive task. Even a small manufacturer may use 50 or 60 different fasteners items, and a large manufacturer may use well over 1,000. Each purchase, of each of those items, has to be ordered. Each incoming shipment has to be received, inspected and stocked -- often in several different areas of the plant. And of course, incoming freight has to be paid. And since fasteners generate a very high level of overhead in comparison to their value, all this activity may cost as much as the purchase price of the fasteners -- if not more!

An EFI Fastener Management Program eliminates virtually all of this overhead. Furthermore, it assures regular, scheduled and dependable re-stocking to an economically optimized level of inventory. The result is a dramatic reduction in the overall cost of procuring fasteners.

Will fastener management reduce your fastener overhead? Our Fastener Management customers certainly think so. Most of our largest customers have Fastener Management Programs. Fastener management is the fastest-growing segment of our business, and now provides well over half our total revenues.

For a full description of our inventory systems, click here.