PHCP and PVF Technology & Operations - Articles - Page 2

And So It Flows Podcast

AI adoption in distribution starts with action, not perfect data

Brooks Hamilton says speed, decision-making and sales impact will define winners in the next wave of AI

March 30, 2026

Artificial intelligence has quickly moved from buzzword to boardroom priority across PHCP-PVF distribution, but for many companies, adoption still feels stalled before it even begins. According to Brooks Hamilton, principal at AI Strategy Advisors, that hesitation often comes down to a long-standing misconception: that AI requires perfectly clean data before companies can get started.

February 2026 ASA Master of Distribution Management cohort

ASA News

February 2026 MDM cohort kicks off at full capacity; May classes now open

March 27, 2026

The February 2026 ASA Master of Distribution Management cohort is officially underway, with a class of 13 students kicking off, ready to embark on their leadership growth pathway.

ASA News

Podcast: Robotics in Distribution

Practical lessons from the field

March 25, 2026

Robotics has moved from trade show demonstration to boardroom discussion. For many larger distributors, the question is no longer whether automation exists; it is whether it belongs in the next phase of operational strategy.

A graphic showing the Daikin and Outerport logos.

Daikin Industries selects Outerport to make unstructured engineering design data AI-ready

The Outerport platform has been fully deployed to streamline Daikin's design engineering operations.

March 19, 2026

Built by a team of former research engineers who led AI development at major US tech giants such as NVIDIA and Meta Platforms, Outerport was selected by Daikin for its leading extraction accuracy and its ability to meet information security standards required for high-security manufacturers.

ASA News

Cybersecruity starts with awareness, not technology

March 18, 2026

What makes this resource especially effective is that each attack scenario is explicitly tied back to related controls in the Cybersecurity Checklist. The attacks describe what can happen. The checklist outlines the practices organizations use to reduce exposure across increasing maturity levels.

ASA News

Navigating FMLA: DOL’s opinion letter clarifies travel time

March 17, 2026

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division recently issued an opinion letter explaining an employee’s available leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) may be applied toward time spent traveling to and from a medical appointment.

ASA News

Experience is the product you are actually selling: What 5,000-plus customer responses reveal

Brian Hopkins Jonathan Bein

March 13, 2026

Analysis of 5,063 customer responses from 10 MEP distributors confirms what many suspected but few have quantified — customer experience has become the primary differentiator in wholesale distribution. Companies prioritizing experience demonstrate higher retention rates, greater wallet share, and reduced cost-to-serve.

The Silent Cash Drain: Why slow-moving inventory is killing your branch

Dead stock is not a warehouse accident.

Will Quinn

March 11, 2026

very distributor has it: The pallet of specialized fittings that hasn’t moved since the Biden administration. It’s the high-efficiency boiler ordered for a commercial project that got cancelled three years ago. It’s the "seasonal" SKU that seemed like a genius buy in March until the weather or the building code changed in May.

Retail warehouse worker in a safety vest and hard hat, scans inventory using a barcode scanner. A virtual infographics is displayed on the boxes.

ASA News

ASA University’s Year in Review: Most used courses, MDM milestones

February 26, 2026

ASA members stayed busy in 2025, taking full advantage of ASA University’s tools and training to boost employee performance and drive profitability across their businesses. This year also marked a return to some familiar training trends, with members gravitating back toward foundational product knowledge.

Computer chip labeled 'AI' on a circuit board, illuminated by a cool blue glow, highlighting circuit pathways and components.

ASA News

Women leading the way in AI adoption across the ASA community

February 13, 2026

AI is helping women streamline complex or time-consuming tasks, such as preparing commercial quotations, entering sales orders, managing email and calendars, and organizing large volumes of product information. It is also becoming part of daily life, supporting everything from cooking and budgeting to travel planning and quick problem solving.