Manufacturing and Distribution category: Sales growth winner (tie) and employee growth winner

Ray Dalton, president of PartsSource LLC, says that in an average hospital today, repair technicians spend 3.8 hours making seven to 10 phone calls to secure a single part for a piece of medical equipment.

He knew there was a solution to this inefficiency and saw secondary parts procurement and distribution as more than a necessary evil. In 2001, he founded PartsSource, a Twinsburg-based multimanufacturer alternative parts supplier supporting requests for hospital equipment. The company provides savings of between 25 percent and 75 percent on original equipment manufacturer pricing on nearly every order with one phone call.

Last year, PartsSource was named the 23rd fastest growing company in America by Entrepreneur magazine, and in 2006, it moved up to 19th.

PartsSource has grown its work force from 10 employees five years ago to 92 last year, and today has more than 125 associates on its payroll with a retention rate of more than 90 percent.

The company’s revenue also grew from $800,000 in 2001 to more than $30 million last year.

Being a successful supplier requires more than just providing parts for customers. PartsSource staff members use an internally developed software application, PartsFinder, to quickly and efficiently capture parts requests online, scan their warehouse inventory for available stock and, if unavailable in-house, go to the best vendors on the open market to secure pricing options for their customers.

Beating the industry standard of finding parts in six to eight hours, PartsSource is able to contact potential buyers within two hours with OEM pricing and a variety of used and refurbished parts options depending on the customer’s particular needs.

While other companies in the industry take an indirect approach to the marketing and selling of their products — trade shows, advertising in industry periodicals and direct mail — PartsSource employs nearly 90 full-time employees whose only job is to call hospitals and solicit parts requests from technicians working on the broken equipment. The company has changed a reactive buying event to a proactive experience by changing the functional responsibility of its sales force.

Dalton says PartsSource is positioned to continue its growth from the present $50 million run rate to more than $100 million in less than five years.

HOW TO REACH: PartsSource LLC, (877) 497-6412 or www.mypartssource.com