Our Shipping Department Ensures FOC Is a Sourcing Partner That Delivers. Bonus: You Reduce Inventory Costs.

Published: October 19, 2017

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At first glance, “shipping” doesn’t appear to be a jazzy, snazzy topic. Actually, it’s incredibly important to YOU.

If you manufacture fiber optic cable assemblies and you need something –anything– then you need to get the correct item, delivered on time.

Fiber Optic Center, Inc. (FOC) may be the only company in the world that sells and ships all the equipment, components, and consumables required to produce fiber optic cable assemblies. As your sourcing partner, this means our Shipping Department works hard to ensure the quality, accuracy, appearance, and speedy delivery of every package we ship.

In fact, here are a few key activities on our Shipping Department’s checklist:

Stock all items needed for fiber optic cable assembly production and testing
Locate and procure any non-stock items you may need
Understand your delivery requirements and other instructions
Ship the proper items, with accurate quantities
Take care to ensure you receive a clean, well-identified, undamaged, secure package
Ensure you receive the shipment on time, with proper documentation
Quickly arrive at a solution to overcome any hurdles or issues

With FOC as your sourcing partner, you reduce inventory costs.

FOC customers know they can depend on our Shipping Department for fast delivery of the equipment, components, and consumables they need to maintain production schedules. More, they can do this without carrying the costs of inventory by using FOC as their “shelf.” This is a significant benefit to any fiber optic cable assembly house. You can readily access the thousands of production items you need without investing substantial financial resources to purchase, store, and inventory each and every item.

Here’s a quick update of our in-progress activities to further streamline and improve shipping.

We’re proud of our Shipping Department’s track record of ensuring package quality, accuracy, appearance, and speedy delivery. Still, there’s always room for improvement. To this end, FOC recently announced the promotion of William (Billy) Sorell to Shipping Supervisor. Billy will lead the charge in our commitment to improve daily operations, deploy a new inventory management tool, and continuously improve the Shipping Department’s delivery of the “FOC Customer Experience.”

Improve daily operations– We are completing build-out projects of our physical space and reorganizing our inventory, which will streamline the fulfillment process. Also, when you call to place an order, you may notice that we ask more questions to clarify your packaging and shipping preferences. Additionally, our Shipping Department will evaluate all aspects of inventory and shipping management to avoid unnecessary losses, avoid unnecessary shipping charges via improved internal planning and communication, and avoid errors with customers’ shipments thanks to multiple quality checkpoints.

Deploy a new inventory management tool– We recently upgraded to a new shipping program to gain more control of the inventory and shipping process. Our new software is making a significant, positive difference by streamlining portions of the shipping process that previously had been a very time-consuming part of our business.

Seek continual improvements to support the company brand: the “FOC Customer Experience”–The “FOC Customer Experience” is the quality of the relationship between us and our customer over the duration of the relationship. The ingredients to a successful experience include awareness, understanding, relationship cultivation, trust, and loyalty. The experience is measured by the customer’s perception against expectations and success results in loyalty.How does this relate to the Shipping Department? When you place an order with FOC, one of your first impressions will be receiving your shipped package. You’ll judge the shipment’s quality, accuracy, appearance, and speedy delivery. That’s why the Shipping Department plays a critical role in delivering the “FOC Customer Experience.”

We’ve got your back…

As your sourcing partner, FOC maintains a massive inventory of the equipment, components, and consumables you need to manufacture high-performing fiber optic cable assemblies.

Thanks to our Shipping Department’s strong working relationships with vendors, internal teamwork, and logistical prowess, we have built – and are improving – a shipping system that delivers.

Additional resources from the FOC team include:

View FOC technical solution content
View the Glossary, Acronyms, Military Specifications for Connectors
Q&A Resource: email technical questions to AskFOC@focenter.com

Follow:@FiberOpticCntr

About the Author

Tom Waite Tom Waite, Vice President Tom Waite started at Fiber Optic Center in May, 2000 in IT, developing an interactive program that became the company website and keeps product information current and accessible for sales and customer service. Since then, Tom has used his product knowledge to lead the customer service, inventory and shipping departments. As Vice President, he continues to lead these departments and company operations. Before Fiber Optic Center, he was an IT consultant for Keene Inc., Boston, MA. Tom graduated from the University of New Hampshire with a BA in Economics and Mathematics and a minor in Business. He currently resides in South Dartmouth with his wife, Heather, and their two daughters, Emma and Breanna. He enjoys skiing, boating, playing golf and traveling in his free time.

About Fiber Optic Center, Inc.

Fiber Optic Center, Inc., (FOC), is an international leader in distributing fiber optic components, equipment and supplies and has been helping customers make the best cable assemblies in the world for over two decades. Several areas of specialization and expertise, in which they are the industry leader, make them the preferred choice for many of the world’s fiber professionals. In these key technology areas, FOC is "at least as technical as the manufacturer" about the products they sell. Striving to "make the business part easy," they offer outstanding and personal customer service, low or no minimum purchase order values, and from-stock delivery on industry-leading products and technology. FOC is the industry connection to the most innovative optical products, technologies and technical experts who integrate their manufacturing knowledge and vast experience into customers' worldwide operations. @FiberOpticCntr

For further information contact:

Fiber Optic Center, Inc., 23 Centre Street, New Bedford, MA 02740-6322
Toll Free in US: 800-IS-FIBER or 800-473-4237 . Direct 508-992-6464. Email: sales@focenter.com or fiberopticcenter@focenter.com

For media contact:

Kathleen Skelton, Director of Strategic Marketing, C: 617-803-3014 . E: kskelton@focenter.com

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