Ray Dalton saw an opportunity in the $3.8 billion medical equipment parts market.
Prices for replacement parts continued to rise because a staggering 94 percent of the market was controlled by original equipment manufacturers that were getting margins of up to 350 percent. If technicians wanted to order from someone other than the OEM, they had to wade through thousands of small niche firms to find the part at a cheaper price.
Dalton created PartsSource in March 2001 to provide parts for all 2,500 makes of hospital equipment.
The results have been impressive; the company has doubled its sales in each of the last two years and continues to grow.
“There is no place else in the world where a hospital can pick up one part for any of the 2,500 makes and models of equipment from 7,500 different suppliers that is all cataloged electronically,” says Dalton. “Our value equation saves the customer three hours on every part they buy, and they save 15 to 52 percent in dollars. Saving both time and money is pretty key in the health care industry.
“Our short-term challenge is to make sure we do not run out of high-quality parts to ship. No one else in the world is doing this, so we are having to find new supply channels that didn’t exist before. We are spending a lot of time shoring that up.”
The company recently made three acquisitions to help secure that supply, and is focusing on building depth in its supply chain.
“We are comfortable the supply is out there, it just has to be organized,” says Dalton. “We have to make sure suppliers can deliver what they say they can.” How to reach: PartsSource (330) 963-7030 or www.mypartssource.com
