Our secret to doing things better
The Stanley Fulfillment System (SFS) is at the heart of everything we do. It goes
far beyond a traditional operating philosophy, far beyond supply chain management,
far beyond a chart on a piece of paper. It is a transformational, multifaceted
commitment to operational excellence and continuous improvement, and its tenets
are ingrained in our culture.
SFS guides every one of our employees to serve our customers better and work
more productively and efficiently each and every day — and drives Stanley
to push the limits of performance.
A dramatically better company
Stanley's approach to customer service is a function of excellence through
the Stanley Fulfillment System. The way we look at it, differentiated customer service
isn't about being just slightly better than our peers or just slightly better than
our previous best — we aim to be dramatically better than both, and we utilize
the Stanley Fulfillment System to make that happen.
SFS drives results
In 2009 we embedded SFS even deeper into our daily framework, across all of our
businesses. The results:
- Working capital turns improved 34% to a record 7.9x
- Gross margins were a record high 40.4%
- Free cash flow for the year was $446 million, with $226 million of that due to effectively
managing working capital
Download a full copy of the 2009 Stanley Black
& Decker Annual Report To Shareholders, which includes the Letter to Shareholders,
Stanley Financial Summaries and the Stanley 10-K. You can also download a copy of
the 2009 Black & Decker 10-K.