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A User’s Guide to Getting the Most from the Lanham Supply Chain Summit

Q&A with Holly Kutil, Director of Business Intelligence, American Ring

We recently conducted a Q&A session with Holly Kutil, Business Intelligence Director at American Ring, headquartered in Solon, Ohio, to get some firsthand advice on how attendees at this year’s Lanham Supply Chain Summit can make the most of the upcoming event.

American Ring distributes and manufactures fasteners which are used to hold components or assemblies in place inside of mechanical products. They have a catalog of more than 40,000 parts, and three distribution centers located in Ohio, Wisconsin, and California. With assistance from their VAR, Western Computer, American Ring has been using Lanham E-Ship, E-Receive, E-Mail and Outbound Warehouse Request since they upgraded to NAV 2015.

Q. Why did you attend last year’s Lanham Supply Chain Summit?

As our NAV administrator for E-Ship and E-Receive, I thought the Lanham Summit would be a great opportunity to gain a better understanding of these products directly from the developers. We were also exploring EDI at the time, so I also thought staying on for the Lanham EDI day would be a good investment. And, truth be told, I really wish I would have stayed for the third day as well. (P.S. — I obviously liked what I learned about EDI because we’re going to implement Lanham EDI this summer!)

Q. How did you benefit from the event?

I had quite a few AHA moments, where I learned details that are still helpful to this day. For example, I learned a lot of really cool commands that I wasn’t aware of and wrote them all down in my notebook which I still keep by my desk today.

Networking – I made some great acquaintances who I stay in touch with on a regular basis. Distributors get involved in some very detailed areas, and from my perspective being able to network with colleagues facing a lot of the same challenges is invaluable.

Barcom – It was also really nice to be able to talk with Lanham’s hardware partner, Barcom, on site. They had a display full of various barcode readers, ranging from tiny, handheld plug-in ones to others that were RF with lots of bells and whistles. It was very enlightening to be able to better understand our choices in terms of which specific barcode scanners and printers would work best in our particular situation.

Q. Any specific advice to new attendees on how to get the most from their Lanham Supply Chain Summit experience?

1. Stay the whole three days! You’ll be sorry if you don’t.
2. Bring a big notebook, and come prepared to take notes. You’ll want to refer to it again and again. (I do!)
3. Be open to networking. Talk to people. Get involved!
4. Count on some personal attention. There are lots of opportunities for 1:1 time. Whether you’re asking situation-specific questions during the sessions or just talking with the Lanham team during a break, you’ll definitely get your questions answered.
5. The learning doesn’t end in the classroom! There were so many great opportunities for discussions, not only during the days but over cocktails and meals as well!

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Editor’s note: And here’s another tip: Don’t miss out on the March 10th Early Bird registration discount! Save money and register for the Lanham Supply Chain Summit before March 10th! Agenda and Registration details can be found here.