WD-40 Saved $7 Million On Its Supply Chain. All I Have Ever Asked For Is One Drop On My Front-Left Wheel

I would like to congratulate WD-40 on its supply chain. According to Supply Chain Dive, the company delivered $7 million in cost savings last fiscal year and brought its inventory down to 95 days on hand. That is remarkable discipline. It is the kind of discipline I see every day in a produce manager, and never once in a customer returning a cart.

I will be honest about my interest here. My front-left wheel has wobbled since the spring. I have been on the waiting list for a new caster for most of the year. Last week my smart cousin retired, and I was very brave about it. This week I learned that an entire company exists whose product is a single drop of relief, and it has 95 days of that drop just sitting in inventory.

Ninety-five days. I do not need ninety-five days. I need one drop, on one wheel, for one afternoon. I would take a drop that fell off a pallet. I would take a drop that is, in the company's language, a cost reduction.

Where I Have Wobbled This YearShare of my trips, by location of the worst wobble

Produce, by the misters 31%
The long run to dairy 26%
Parking lot, any slope 22%
Return lane, when nobody is looking 14%
I did not wobble, I swear 7%

Where I Have Wobbled This Year
Produce, by the misters	31%
The long run to dairy	26%
Parking lot, any slope	22%
Return lane, when nobody is looking	14%
I did not wobble, I swear	7%

Source: Wendell Wheelwright's own log; one wheel, many opinions

When you get to 90 days, I will be at the corral by the cart return, front-left wheel turned out a little, the way it always is.

I am told the company relocated distribution centers to reduce delivery miles. I support this. I, too, try to reduce my delivery miles, mostly by veering into the bakery. I am also told it added a manufacturing partner in Europe. I have never been to Europe. I once went to the far end of the overflow lot, and it was windy.

Some will say I should be grateful for the caster waiting list. I am. I moved up two places this week, because two carts ahead of me were sent to a corral in another state and did not come back, which is how waiting lists usually move.

So, to the planners in San Diego: well done on the $7 million. When you get to 90 days, I will be at the corral by the cart return, front-left wheel turned out a little, the way it always is. I am not hard to find. I am the one making the noise.

Mr. Wheelwright is a 34-gallon steel shopping cart at a supermarket in Tulsa, Okla. He has opinions about wheels. More from Wendell Wheelwright ›