Argyle Welding Supply Now Tracking Smarter

Argyle often lacked reliable data to provide accurate billing, resolve customer disputes and account for the 26,000 cylinders they managed.ย  The company struggled with these problems until a vendor introduced them to TrackAbout, giving them the confidence to invest in an advanced asset tracking system.

Argyle Welding Supply is a family-owned wholesale distributor of industrial, medical and specialty gases, welding equipment and supplies, and water treatment chemicals.  Established in 1975 and headquartered in Albuquerque, NM, the company operates branches in Las Cruces, NM and El Paso, TX.  Employees strive to ensure high quality products are delivered promptly while adhering to strict safety standards.  As testament to the companyโ€™s success, business continues to grow in spite of challenging economic conditions.

However, that success didnโ€™t come easy.  Argyle often lacked reliable data to provide accurate billing, resolve customer disputes and account for the 26,000 cylinders they managed.  The company struggled with these problems until a vendor introduced them to TrackAbout, giving them the confidence to invest in an advanced asset tracking system.

The Dangers of Unreliable Information

Without a modern asset tracking software system, distributors maintain asset balances manually by noting the size and number of cylinders as they are delivered to and returned from their customers.  This method consumes a substantial amount of time to maintain and is susceptible to manual error.  Often a variety of discrepancies arise as both distributors and customers must maintain separate paper-based records. 

โ€œWe accounted for cylinders on an in and out basis,โ€ said Jim Wright, President of Argyle Welding Supply.  โ€œUnfortunately, that resulted in constant โ€˜he said, she saidโ€™ situations over delivery, asset balances and billing.  Weโ€™d argue that the customerโ€™s signature was evidence, but they were quick to say our driver didnโ€™t write down the exception.  It was an endless battle.โ€

The packaged gas industry is extremely competitive and distributors must comply with an increasing array of challenges, including pricing and government regulations.  But there is little room to compete on price since industrial gas is a commodity that lacks differentiation.  Instead distributors focus on ways to increase efficiencies, reduce costs and provide exceptional customer service.

โ€œWe never want customers to take their business elsewhere so we found ourselves caving in because we didnโ€™t have the indisputable backup we needed,โ€ said Wright.  โ€œIt affected our business financially as we were often writing off lost cylinders and rental revenue, not to mention the time spent arguing these disputes.โ€

Wright admitted that Argyle employees made their share of mistakes such as forgetting to add a cylinder to a customerโ€™s account or a driver picking up a return from the wrong customer.  Or there was the time when a 2,000 pound carbon dioxide bulk tank was installed at a customer site and wasnโ€™t added to the customerโ€™s account.  โ€œIt was about two and a half years before we discovered it,โ€ said Wright.  โ€œWith a rental fee of $175 per month, we hadnโ€™t billed for over $5,000.  It wasnโ€™t easy approaching the customer with that.โ€

Moving to a Modern Tracking Software Solution

Given the problems Argyle experienced, it might seem strange that the company didnโ€™t implement a modern asset tracking system sooner.

โ€œWe looked at a few tracking systems, but none of them seemed to be worth the investment,โ€ said Wright.  โ€œThat is, until one of our suppliers referred us to TrackAbout.โ€

That supplier, one of the worldโ€™s largest providers of industrial gases, had implemented TrackAbout to manage their U.S. operations several years before.  After visiting the companyโ€™s facility in Phoenix, AZ to learn how they were using TrackAbout to manage their cylinder fleet, Wright contacted TrackAbout to learn more.

Thatโ€™s when TrackAbout sales representative Doug Oโ€™Dell invited Wright to visit a customer site in Nebraska.  โ€œWe showed him the customerโ€™s production facility and visited one of their retail stores,โ€ said Oโ€™Dell.  โ€œThere were opportunities to speak with employees to learn about how they were using TrackAbout throughout their operations and with management to gain insight into their implementation and overall cylinder tracking philosophy.โ€

It was a positive experience for Wright.  โ€œI remember being very impressed by their plant and their operations.  And when I saw how well TrackAbout worked for them, I knew it would work for us too.  It was time to invest.โ€

Working Smarter with Better Information

TrackAbout is a closed-loop asset tracking solution which leverages technology to eliminate the inefficiencies of traditional paper-based systems.  Data is collected at key stages via mobile handheld computers, providing timely, accurate information that is free of manual keying errors.  Smart technology automatically and intelligently corrects mistakes such as missing scans, duplicate serial numbers and syncing mobile units out of sequence.  TrackAbout creates a digital historical information record for each asset which is stored indefinitely and available for instant recall.

โ€œWhat really amazed me was the ability to capture cylinder history,โ€ said Wright.  โ€œWe now have the evidence to back up our claims in customer disputes.  We can provide our customers with specific detail as to the exact cylinder, order number and delivery date and time.  We can even tell them when the cylinder was scanned on and off the truck.  This adds legitimacy to our claims and it has reduced dramatically the financial issues weโ€™d experienced.โ€

Wright added that TrackAbout also helps Argyle support their customersโ€™ businesses.  Previously, when cylinders got mixed up, the customer didnโ€™t always get credit for their return.  For example, on a busy Saturday night when a restaurant runs out of CO2, the manager borrows a cylinder from their competitor across the street.  The borrowed cylinder gets returned to the restaurantโ€™s gas supplier and the restaurant gets credit for the borrowed cylinder while the competitor continues to pay rent on a cylinder they donโ€™t have.

โ€œWith TrackAbout, weโ€™re able to ensure our customers get credit no matter who returns the cylinder,โ€ said Wright.  โ€œOur customers are confident that we account for our cylinders accurately and are applying credits correctly.  Theyโ€™ve come to trust our system and Iโ€™m certain that makes them more likely to continue doing business with us.โ€

Wright also noted that Argyle is deploying cylinders more effectively with TrackAbout.  โ€œWe know the number of cylinders at each location at the click of a mouse,โ€ he said.  โ€œBut more importantly, we also know the characteristics of each.  For example, itโ€™s easy to see how long a filled cylinder has been sitting so we are sure to rotate our stock to prevent the product from expiring.  And we also are able to reallocate cylinders among our locations more efficiently.  We can tell if a location is hoarding cylinders and transfer some of them to correct a shortage at another location.โ€

A Real Return on Investment

TrackAboutโ€™s experience has proven that typically over five percent of a distributorโ€™s cylinder fleet is out at customer sites and not collecting rent.  By capturing unique asset IDs, TrackAbout uncovers these cylinders and corrects errant balances as empty cylinders cycle back to the distributor. 

Armed with accurate asset balances, Argyle was able to start billing for the cylinders that werenโ€™t accounted for.  โ€œWe increased our rental income by about six to eight percent,โ€ he said. 

โ€œOverall, TrackAbout enables us to do a better job,โ€ said Wright.  โ€œWe will never forget to bill for a 2,000 lb. bulk tank again.โ€

About TrackAbout

TrackAboutยฎ is a scalable software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution to track, manage, maintain and optionally rent portable physical assets.  Items are tagged using barcodes or RFID tags.  Data is collected using rugged handheld scanners, smartphones, tablets or integration from other systems.  Dynamic fields and forms may be easily added to support a companyโ€™s unique workflows.  TrackAbout integrates all of this information with existing enterprise systems.  Founded in 2000, TrackAbout has evolved through an active relationship with our customer base. For more information, visit www.trackabout.com.

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