University of Houston Houston, Texas TURNING TO A TRUSTED SOURCE With well over 1,000 restrooms on campus, the pair began to look at exactly how many touch-free devices they would need, what the cost might be, and how long the project would take. Benjamin oversees the facilities services, and Kemp is the manager of programs operations. Neither man knew of a supplier who would be able to secure the devices within the desired timeline. But when Kemp mentioned the project to his on-site Fastenal team, he was surprised by the reaction. “We were so pleased they said they could help us,” said Kemp. “Fastenal already manages the supply chain for around 95% of the purchases that we make. It’s an embedded service that we are fortunate to have available. They have an onsite shop location with over 3,500 parts of inventory in two warehouse spaces, and they staff the whole thing.” The partnership between the university and Fastenal started in 2014. Now, Justin Camp leads Fastenal’s Onsite team, and he is proud of the fact that if the university needs something, he finds a way to make it happen. “We shorten their supply chain, we take on the responsibility, and we take it off their plates,” said Camp. “We buy from vendors that a normal Fastenal team doesn’t. One example is we buy from landscaping companies. So, basically, we’ve taken the whole side of procurement for the facilities department off the plate of the university.” THE FASTENAL ONSITE With campus staff working 24/7, the University of Houston relies on Fastenal to help manage the campus’ supply chain. In total, Fastenal has six full-time and one part-time employee working at the university. Led by Justin Camp, they work out of two locations where the campus had available space. University staff access needed items via racks, bins, and vending machines that are maintained by the Fastenal Onsite team. Part of that work is regularly checking the min/max levels and replenishing supplies as needed. This frees up the university’s staff to focus on their work rather than worry about ordering or stocking parts. Camp also leads quarterly business reviews with the university to ensure everything is running smoothly and to help with other projects similar to the restrooms going touchless. “There may be some very obscure things that we might not be able to get through Fastenal, but I think we would be hard-pressed to find out what those are,” said Jeff Benjamin.
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