This fireside chat recap is from Thursday, the third day of FreightWaves’ Global Supply Chain Week.
FIRESIDE CHAT TOPIC: Disrupting the oilfield equipment supply chain
DETAILS: Distributing oilfield parts and equipment has long been the classic structure of a manufacturer selling to a physical distributor that then sells that inventory on to the final user. GoExpedi, an e-commerce-based company, is trying to cut out that middleman and using machine learning to also better manage customer needs. CEO and co-founder Tim Neal sits down with FreightWaves to discuss the company’s approach.
KEY QUOTES FROM NEAL:
“What GoExpedi is focused on is disruption in this brick-and-mortar world. We’re focused on the remote industrial supply chain.”
“If you look at ordering from a traditional distributor, they have a catalog that is their inventory. We took a different approach. We digitized the industry’s PDF catalog and built an e-commerce platform for our customers. So no longer are you making a phone call and somebody in the back is checking the SKUs for you. We put that in the hands of the end user. “
“We took an approach similar to Amazon. They started with books. We also started with very specific product categories and built out our product portfolio. “
“We have six locations and 97% coverage throughout the U.S. for deliveries in four days because we operate a hub-and-spoke model.”