29 Apr 2002
NEW DOW CORNING WEB FEATURE FOR RUBBER MATERIALS SLASHES MATCH-TO-SAMPLE DELIVERY TIMES 25%
Custom Compounder e-business Module Matches Silastic® Brand Products with Customer Specifications Faster, More Efficiently than Conventional Processes
HANNOVER, GERMANY - (April 26, 2002) - Dow Corning announces the addition of a new feature to its rubber Website that can reduce the match-to-delivery time for custom-compounded silicone rubbers by as much as 1-2 days or 25 % compared with conventional specification-matching processes. This e-business tool can be accessed at http://www.dowcorning.com/content/rubber/rubber_compounder.asp.
The new Custom Compounder module has been designed to match customer needs as effectively as possible with Dow Corning’s extensive range of Silastic® brand silicone rubber custom compounds and bases, liquid silicone elastomers, and fluorosilicone rubbers. The module allows customers to precisely specify the properties of a silicone product that would best suit their needs, and has been specially designed for speed and ease of use.
“This e-commerce feature is another step in Dow Corning’s investment in new ways to better answer our customers’ needs for effectiveness. The Custom Compounder module helps ensure customers receive the right product for their needs quickly and efficiently at the best price and service,” says Chris Walton, eTeam project manager for Dow Corning, who was instrumental to developing the system.
The timesaving we will bring to our customers using the new Custom Compounder module represents 25 % of the number of days typically required from the start of the specification-matching process until customer approval, in the conventional approach.
Using a series of pull-down menus across a logical flow of steps, the customer is guided though an organized material specification exercise. As customers begin specifying application and material properties using the Custom Compounder module, the system constrains choices of fabrication technique, preform, packaging type, and specifications available to the customer in that particular region of the world. The result is that a product requirement can be quickly matched with Dow Corning offerings.
“This approach to collecting customer requirements and determining the best product match is designed to channel customers through specifications that can be fulfilled in their region. Our objective is to increase effectiveness for our customers, as we choose to constrain various options when we know they would not be available in their region” Walton explains. “Some competitive offerings may seem less discriminatory; we decided to be more directive to ensure that our customers would benefit from an increased response time and easy procurement of the best product answering their needs” he says.
Once all of the information has been collected through the Custom Compounder module, the request is e-mailed directly to Dow Corning’s Customer Service Teams. Dow Corning’s Customer Service Teams can quickly match a material requirement against Dow Corning offerings and e-mail back the information on the best solution identified. This whole procedure is fast and benefits from an overall consistency of approach. “Having all of the right information at their fingertips makes this an extremely efficient process for improved customer service,” explains Walton.
“The new Custom Compounder module simplifies and speeds up the product-specification process by offering customers the most practical and cost-effective solutions to their rubber requirements. And, for those special cases where no commercial product matches a customer’s needs, Dow Corning can provide further customization,” added Walton.
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Silastic is a registered trademark of Dow Corning Corporation.
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Notes for editors
For more information about the Custom Compounder module, or the complete line of Silastic silicone rubber, contact the company at www.dowcorning.com/rubber, or call 800.637.5377 in North America (US); 44.1676.528.000 in Europe (UK); or 852.2835.0350 in Asia (Hong Kong).
Dow Corning currently offers more than 7,000 products to customers around the world. With shares equally owned by The Dow Chemical Company and Corning Incorporated, Dow Corning is a global leader in silicon-based materials and more than half of its sales fall outside the U.S.