PERSPECTIVE: Paperless Fasteners In Your Future

John Wolz

While much has changed with computer software in fastener offices, warehouses and plants in the last 25 years, Margaret Jackson found lot traceability the most important.
Jackson and spouse Neil Hadfield developed Faspac software and sold the dominant fastener software company to Prophet 21 this summer. Jackson and Hadfield are now retired from the fastener industry.
�Most people were on Cardex before Faspac,� Jackson recalled. Even as the industry moved to computers during the 1980s, in the pre-Fastener Quality Act days there was not the demand for lot traceability. �We anticipated it,� Jackson said of one of the updates of Faspac since it was developed in 1979.
What is next in fastener software? �Everything electronic,� Jackson predicted. �Paperless,� she emphasized.
Just five years ago the industry was calculating how many file cabinets full of paper companies would need to meet the lot traceability record requirements of the U.S. Fastener Quality Act.
�Software will allow even more business partnering. A distributor can see the master distributor�s stock without picking up the phone.�
The process will require more education at all levels. �All of your employees will be using computers.�
The use of computers has changed during their 25 years in the fastener industry. �Now it is more than software,� Jackson said of computers in fastener warehouses and plants. �Now it is a business tool. At first it was �What�s in stock?� and now it is �Where can we get it?��
The #1 obstacle in 1979 was teaching people to use the software, and #2 was �home grown� programs, which distributors may have designed to do the minimum they needed. Jackson rated teaching basic computer usage that most take for granted today as the third obstacle.
Hadfield and Jackson both started in the computer industry at Lloyds Bank in their native England. In roles they kept throughout the years Hadfield was a programmer, and Jackson was in charge of operations.
�We met in the bank,� Jackson recalled. �We were the first computer department there.�
Hartford Insurance recruited them to come to the U.S. before they were married. In the early years they held jobs in Arizona, Chicago, Germany and Italy. They worked for Motorola, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Addressograph, Alfa Romeo and Nixdorf, among others.
Their first child developed asthma problems, and doctors advised moving to California.
�We gave up our jobs and moved without anything. We were headed to San Francisco and stopped to say �hello� to friends in San Diego. The friends mentioned Western Fastener was looking for a computer programmer. Hadfield was hired, and a few months later Jackson was added.
It became clear that the fastener distributor needed a complete software package. If one was developed for Western Fastener, it could be used for other fastener distributors. So in 1979 Bill Vollmer and Dennis Marteeny of Western Fastener, Jackson and Hadfield started Western Pacific Data Systems. All four received only stock options as compensation.
Vollmer and Marteeny were in the fastener distribution business and not software. After a year of tax write-offs, they didn�t want to invest more. �I talked them into selling their stock to me,� Jackson said.
She signed papers from her hospital bed, where she was giving birth to her second daughter.
Within 10 months Hadfield and Jackson repaid Vollmer and Marteeny, and WPDS was their own company. They hired two fastener people to provide the industry-specific information.
Coleman Industrial in Longview, WA, was the first fastener distributor to sign a contract, and Dave Duncan�s Duncan Bolt was the first to install Faspac. Ironically, instead of being the first customer, Western Fastener was the 11th to sign on.
Many early Faspac users still know their sequence number.
Jackson recalls being na�ve about marketing protocols in those early years. They parked a motor home at the entrance to a National Fastener Distributors Association meeting to demonstrate their software. Jackson said she didn�t realize it was against NFDA policy, but �people wanted to pop in, but not be seen popping in,� Jackson recalled.
They also learned about how friendly the industry could be. Hadfield developed an acute medical problem while installing Faspac at Coleman Industrial. Not only did Dick Schneider get him to a hospital but he arranged for a private room.
Market Requires Change
In the end, despite having sold over 500 systems over the years, Hadfield said they had no choice but to sell Faspac. �The economics of the software industry have changed drastically. There is no longer room for the small specialist supplier,� Hadfield explained. �Either we had to grow Faspac outside the fastener industry or sell it to a broader market player.�
The latest program, Faspac-SQL, was expensive to develop, and in the current economy �people aren�t spending on new,� Jackson observed.
�The capital requirements to compete today are vast. We therefore decided to merge with a stronger industry player,� Hadfield explained.
�The market is so competitive,� Jackson said. �If you don�t grow, the others are getting bigger around you.�
Jackson said Prophet 21 offered the better choice for Faspac�s customers and employees. �We�ve known them for years,� Jackson said. Indeed Prophet 21 was a competitor with 70 fastener companies to Faspac�s 300.
Besides, Prophet 21 was �also started by an Englishman,� Jackson justified the choice.
Editor�s Note: Hadfield and Jackson can be contacted at Margaret.Jackson@Hadfield.com \ �2003 FastenerNews.com