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ahead. We may be 70 years old, but I tell people we’ re a 70-year-old startup. We have the foundation of an established company, but we must think and move like a startup: agile, innovative, and ready to seize opportunities.” That mindset led to the company’ s‘ What’ s Next?’ initiative, focusing on technology, customer experience, product development, supply chain resilience, and investing in great people.
Innovation and flexibility
AI is becoming a bigger part of IPD’ s strategy. Instead of seeing AI as something for the future, IPD puts it to work in everyday business processes where speed and visibility make a difference.
Managing more than 60,000 SKUs is complex. It touches inventory, order fulfillment, sourcing, engineering, and customer support. AI and data analytics now help streamline inventory management, sourcing, engineering reviews, warranty analysis, and operational planning, allowing employees to spend more time solving customer problems rather than performing manual tasks. Michael explains:“ We use AI every morning to see what we have, what we can ship, and what’ s ready to go. What used to take hours now takes about five minutes.”
Sometimes, small adjustments make the biggest difference. After reviewing warehouse movement and order history, IPD’ s operations manager found a simple way to boost productivity in Carson.“ My operations manager built a model to cut steps in the warehouse,” Michael recalls.“ He mapped out where everything is and analyzed our layout and orders from the past year. Quickly, he figured out that relocating just 250 high-volume SKUs would save 500 miles of walking each year.”
For Michael, examples like these show the broader opportunity.“ From a logistics and supply chain perspective, we’ re just scratching the surface. AI is perfect for pulling together all this different data and making sense of it.” Those supply chain capabilities are more important than ever as global disruption becomes the norm.
In recent years, IPD has expanded its distribution network to put products closer to customers and create options when trade routes or policies change. Facilities in Denmark and Dubai add flexibility that’ s proved valuable during tariff disruptions and shipping challenges.
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