At the intersection of specialty parts and facility maintenance, The Part Works Inc. takes a unique approach to keeping customer bathrooms, faucets and facilities running across the northwest. Founded in 1980, the company was established as a family business operating with a cohesive team of experts out of the garage of Rick and Sandy Johnson.
“Now, with a 16,000-square-foot warehouse in Seattle and on-the-ground sales representatives across Washington and Oregon, we continue to provide the technical advising, fair prices and a culture of continuous improvement that customers have valued for the past 40 years,” said President and CEO Katie Parris, who is the daughter of Sandy and Rick.
Parris grew up at The Part Works, working at the company on and off through college. However, when she graduated, her parents encouraged her to gain experience elsewhere, so that she would have expertise to bring back to The Part Works in the future. When she returned to The Part Works in 2006, she brought a wealth of experience in marketing and management. Parris worked alongside of her parents for several years, serving as the vice president of marketing and information systems until they transitioned ownership to her in 2012. Today, she brings a modern approach to the timeless need of solving plumbing problems.
“Our mission is to empower our team members to deliver outstanding customer experiences by enabling them with the development and skills training, technical product information and advanced technology tools that together set us apart,” Parris said.
Under Parris’ leadership, the company reinvested the majority of profits over the past several years into improving systems and services to customers, including upgrading to a cloud software system, integrating an online purchasing platform and Text-a-Tech services and promoting leadership development. “I’ve heavily invested in technology to enable better, faster, smarter support for customers,” Parris said.
The Part Works is currently working on three major initiatives:
- People: The management team is engaged in a year-long leadership development program that will enable and empower its growth.
- Process: Continuous improvement identifies opportunities for automating a variety of processes that enable employees to focus on what humans do best, critical thinking and personal relationships.
- Technology: Implementing a series of significant technology improvements will drive the company into a position of strength for the future. The Part Works seeks to be a leader in tech-enablement to improve customer experience while providing team members with a truly engaging career path.
“My goal is to nurture a strong, collaborative environment,” Parris said. “I want my team to be asking questions, thinking critically and considering how we can be better. My leadership team has embraced this, and I love when they bring ideas that they’ve worked out cross-functionally to improve our customer experience or operational efficiency. A great team makes a great company.”
With an open-door policy, Parris proactively seeks input from all employees. “Our diverse management team ranges from knowledgeable industry veterans to smart competent newcomers,” Parris said. “We are about 50/50 female/male. We range from millennials to boomers. Our team comes from all over the United States and brings a diversity of skills and experiences.”
The Part Works proudly became certified as a woman-owned business enterprise in 2014. And while some might consider being a female-led company in a male-dominated industry to be a challenge, Parris said it opens up the opportunity to win business based on merit.
There are 13 million women-owned businesses in the United States, representing 42% of all businesses. However, the U.S. government, which is the largest purchaser of goods and services in the world, spends less than 6% of its total dollars with women-owned businesses. In state and local governments, the numbers are typically much smaller, less than 2%-4% of total spend. “Governments at various levels and major corporations have identified this disparity and many are working to close the gaps through various techniques,” Parris said. “This creates opportunities
for companies like mine to bid for work that may have previously gone through the ‘old boys’ network.’ We win on merit; with our best-in-class customer support, deep local stocking inventory and ability to meet all the special needs of government and corporate purchasing requirements.”
In addition to site visits, The Part Works serves customers by phone, text message, email, live chat on its website, online catalog and account access, e-procurement and even fax for the old-fashioned. A current challenge the company faces is creating customer journeys in digital that truly bring human value to the customer. “We simply can’t compete with Amazon’s investment in technology, but we can provide a better experience that meets our customer’s specific challenges,” Parris said. “Identifying this path and investing carefully is our goal.”
A member of IMARK Plumbing since it was known as Equity, The Part Works has greatly benefited from membership in the buying group. “The buying program and rebates are the No. 1 benefits,” Parris said. “Second for me is the networking at meetings—the opportunity to meet other business owners and compare best practices and learn what business is like in other parts of the country. The last thing is having access to vendors we wouldn’t have access to because we’re just too small. Since we’re part of IMARK, we now have the opportunity to work with them because of the much larger buying power. We’re finding vendors and whole product segments that we wouldn’t have pursued.”
For more information, visit thepartworks.com.