Skip to main content
Sister Publication Links
  • Sustainable Plastics
  • Plastics News China
  • Rubber & Plastics News
logo-pn-color
Subscribe
  • Login
  • Register
  • Subscribe
  • News
    • Processor News
    • Suppliers
    • More News
    • End Markets
    • FYI Charts
    • LSR World
    • Multimedia
    • NPE2021
    • K Show
    • ENGEL Sponsored Content
    • Special Reports
    • Top materials of injection molders
      Recycled PET use by product category
      US PET, flexible packaging desintations
      Global fluropolymers additives market: CAGR
    • Exhibitors back NPE cancellation: ‘We couldn't take that risk'
      NPE2021 canceled as in-person event
      NPE reviews its options as pandemic prompts exhibitor to exit
      Machine builders meet pressing needs for plastic in 2020
    • Sponsored By ENGEL Machinery
      Tailored maintenance for injection molding machines and robots
      Sponsored By ENGEL Machinery
      Improve maintenance efficiency with e-connect.monitor
      Sponsored By ENGEL Machinery
      Maximum precision for lowest shot weights
      Sponsored By ENGEL Machinery
      Even more cost effectiveness for small precision parts
    • Injection Molding
    • Blow Molding
    • Film & Sheet
    • Pipe/Profile/Tubing
    • Rotomolding
    • Thermoforming
    • Recycling
    • Machinery
    • Materials
    • Molds/Tooling
    • Product news
    • Design
    • What Keeps You Up At Night
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Sustainability
    • Public Policy
    • Material Insights Videos
    • Numbers that Matter
    • Polymer Points Live
    • Automotive
    • Packaging
    • Medical
    • Consumer Products
    • Construction
    • Videos
    • Galleries
    • Podcasts
    • CEO Issue
    • Best Places to Work
    • Processor of the Year
    • Rising Stars
    • Women Breaking the Mold
  • Opinion
    • The Plastics Blog
    • Kickstart
    • Heavy Metal
    • One Good Resin
    • BRICS and Plastics
    • All Things Data
    • Viewpoint
    • Perspective
    • Mailbag
    • Watching, and hoping, for progress in 2021
      COVID-19 stories dominate 2020 headlines
      Plastic Globes ask: Was there a lighter side in 2020?
      Compounders write a business survival story in 2020
    • Kickstart: Recycling is complicated, even when you want to do it
      Kickstart: Unilever calls for 'living wage' pay in supply base
      Kickstart: Electric cars, recycling and warm mittens
      Kickstart: Welcome to the VUCA economy
    • Heavy Metal: Coronavirus edition, plus the work of working from home
      Don't put off succession planning
      What's a good gift for your cobot? Batteries?
      Here's some big ideas to mull over the holidays
    • Covestro volunteers build ramp for Ohio veteran
      Chase expands giving campaign in 2020
      McDivitt will showcase Ascend's COVID-19 work on CNBC's Mad Money
      Move over, Plastic Man: Here comes Plastic Woman
    • There was no choice but canceling NPE still a big deal
      The business case for producer responsibility
      Think divided government stalls plastics legislation? Think again
      ACC, NAM eye economic priorities in Biden presidency
    • Just how big is thermoforming in North America?
      Changing names for compounders embracing corporate branding
      Diversity the key to outperforming the market
      A timeline of the industry's COVID response
    • There was no choice but canceling NPE still a big deal
      Watching, and hoping, for progress in 2021
      The business case for producer responsibility
      Compounders write a business survival story in 2020
    • Perspective: Plastics manufacturers — a surprising contribution to sustainability
      Plastics industry business owners: Listen to your future workforce
      Perspective: ‘Fake news' of a different sort?
      Perspective: Making products in the USA is good for the planet
    • Modernizing recycling infrastructure will benefit businesses as well as the environment
      Mailbag: Oil-plastics connection is overstated
      Mailbag: Plastics recycling not cost-effective
      Mailbag: Price increases hurting North American PE buyers
  • Shop Floor
    • Blending
    • Compounding
    • Drying
    • Injection Molding
    • Purging
    • Robotics
    • Size Reduction
    • Structural Foam
    • Tooling
    • Training
    • Maintenance can ensure efficient blender operation
      Dosing: Perfect for adding color
      Blending vs dosing: What you need to know
      Going low or high: Comparing volume
    • Colors and custom compounds
      In the laboratory: Compounding solutions
      Recycling content: Resins going ‘green’
      Compounding: Glass and other fillers
    • Dryer maintenance: Don’t err with air
      Dryers: Options for a shop’s process
      Dryer installation: Going central?
      Resins: Hygroscopic or non-hygroscopic
    • Electric injection molding presses: Efficiency is key
      Hydraulic injection molding machines
      Proper maintenance can prevent downtime
      Hybrid injection molding machines
    • Purging Hot runners: Open or closed methods
      Purging extrusion machinery
      Purging extrusion blow molding machines
      Purging: Chemical, abrasive and non-abrasive
    • Controls, special applications boost production, profitability
      Robot maintenance key for smooth operation
      High-speed robots: A rapid way to increase efficiency
      Robots: Every shape and size
    • Maintenance: Key for efficiency
      Shredders: Plastic in pieces
      Safety first for size reduction
      Granulators: The right fit
    • Structural foam molding: Flexibility for processors
      Video: Structural foam molding
    • Mold inventory: How many molds does a shop have?
      Molds: Innovation
      Mold changeover: Saving time and money
      How molds work
    • Labor: Apprenticeships may provide answer
      Internships: Solving the skills gap in-house
      College training, programs
      Lean Six Sigma: Transforming business operation
  • Events
    • Plastics News Events
    • Industry Events
    • Livestreams/Webinars
    • Ask the Expert
    • Polymer Points Live
    • Reifenhäuser Technologies Livestreams
    • 2020 Caps & Closures Library
    • Plastics in Healthcare Library
    • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum Library
    • Polymer Points Live - February 2021
      Polymer Points Live - January 2021
      Polymer Points Live - December 2020
      Polymer Points Live - October 2020
    • Plastics in Healthcare 2020
    • Plastics News Executive Forum
    • Plastics in Automotive
    • Plastics News Caps & Closures
    • Plastics in Healthcare
    • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum
  • Resin Prices
    • All Resins
    • Commodity TPs
    • High Temp TPs
    • ETPs
    • Thermosets
    • Recycled Plastics
    • Historic Commodity Thermoplastics
    • Historic High Temp Thermoplastics
    • Historic Engineering Thermoplastics
    • Historic Thermosets
    • Historic Recycled Plastics
  • Rankings
    • Injection Molders
    • Blow Molders
    • Film Sheet
    • Thermoformers
    • Pipe Profile Tubing
    • Rotomolders
    • Mold/Toolmakers
    • LSR Processors
    • Recyclers
    • Compounders - List
    • Association - List
    • Plastic Lumber - List
    • All
  • Data Store
  • Directory
  • More+
    • Classifieds
    • Digital Edition
    • Newsletters
    • Sponsored Content
    • Processor of the Year submissions
    • White Papers
    • Sponsored By Mitsubishi
      Innovative new technology from Mitsubishi Engineering-Plastics Corporation helps reduce emission footprints
      Canon Virginia, Inc.
      Sponsored Content By Canon Virginia, Inc.
      Canon Virginia Inc. brings collaboration to the table
      Sponsored By CDS MACHINES
      Facing medical equipment shortages during COVID-19 outbreak?
      Sponsored Content By Canon Virginia, Inc.
      Transform your molding capabilities with the Canon Shuttle Mold System
    • Sponsored By Conexiom
      Use Sales Order Automation to free up time for CSRs to focus on customers, not manual entry
    • Place an Ad
    • Sign up for Early Classified
MENU
Breadcrumb
  1. Home
  2. News
June 15, 2000 02:00 AM

Commerx PlasticsNet offers purchasing software

Joseph Pryweller
  • Tweet
  • Share
  • Share
  • Email
  • More
    Print

    CHICAGO (June 15, 10:45 a.m. EDT) — Commerx PlasticsNet (Booth E10103) is shifting its e-commerce engine into a different gear, moving from a pioneering marketplace model into Web-hosted systems for individual processors.

    The Chicago-based company — which changed its name in May from PlasticsNet.Com — is undergoing a fundamental change in focus, said Tim Stojka, chairman and chief executive officer of parent company Commerx Inc.

    PlasticsNet now is providing Web-based purchasing software to processors, who then integrate it into their computer systems. The first customer for PlasticsNet's new eBuy software is custom injection molder Nypro Inc.

    Clinton, Mass.-based Nypro plans to use PlasticsNet's technology to buy goods and services online with its trading partners, said Nypro global purchasing director Bob Smetana.

    "The payback really lies in our ability to take this across all of Nypro," Smetana said.

    The sprawling company has 25 injection molding plants in 11 countries.

    "If we can consolidate (purchasing) volumes, we can get better leverage. There are a lot of opportunities to uncover savings," he said.

    PlasticsNet also is counting on a big payback with its new collaborative model. Founded in 1995, the company developed one of the plastics industry's first commercial Web sites.

    Then, a year ago, PlasticsNet.Com announced it would open an electronic marketplace so buyers and sellers could trade products over its site, with suppliers paying the dot-com company a transaction fee.

    Several resin companies, including Huntsman Corp., Eastman Chemical Co. and Ashland Chemical Co.'s General Polymers unit invested in the company.

    Yet, that model was always a stopgap for the company on the road to its true mission, Stojka explained recently. Its vision always has been to improve the way companies do business in the plastics industry, he said.

    "Being a virtual distributor was not where we wanted to be," Stojka said. "But companies were at the very early stages of technology. They wanted Web sites and brochure ware. And then they wanted sites matching buyers and sellers."

    The company plans to maintain its marketplace site for now, Stojka said. But PlasticsNet wants again to be a pioneer in what Stojka calls the next wave, which e-business researchers have referred to as the collaborative marketplace.

    Companies use Internet software from an outside application service provider that connects them to suppliers and end users. The software can combine purchasing, transportation and administrative functions with a mouse click.

    A March e-commerce report from Boston-based consultancy AMR Research Inc. said the next evolution of plastics and chemical trading sites will be as application service providers.

    "It makes perfect sense in fragmented markets with small to midsize buyers and suppliers," the report stated. "These companies cannot afford a dedicated implementation of an (in-house computer system)."

    Instead, online companies such as PlasticsNet maintain the Web site and charge a fee for use on a pay-as-you-go basis. PlasticsNet developed its eBuy software package in an alliance with leading software development Commerce One Inc. of Pleasanton, Calif.

    A feature of the site, developed by Tampa, Fla.-based CommerceQuest, uses messaging technology to translate data from different computer systems.

    PlasticsNet is seeking other processors to use the technology, Stojka said. Other online marketplaces also are looking closely at their customers. San Francisco-based ChemConnect Inc. plans to offer back-end integration of spot purchases onto customer's computer systems, said Linda Stegman, senior marketing vice president with ChemConnect.

    After a customer makes a spot purchase of plastics or chemicals on its site, the order will be automatically processed on that customer's computer system, Stegman said.

    The system currently is in pilot mode, and ChemConnect is working with several processors in its development, she said.

    "It's paperless from beginning to end," Stegman said. "It's a way to do seamless transactions for a customer."

    While industry evolution is spurring some of the change at PlasticsNet, the company is making the shift for more basic reasons. Making money from a resin catalog site has been difficult, Stojka said.

    "You need billions of dollars of product sales over time to make any money," Stojka said. "There is some value in matching buyers and sellers, but it's difficult to build a business around the model."

    According to a January prospectus when it registered for an initial public offering, PlasticsNet lost $12.4 million in the first nine months of 1999. Its sales for that period were $833,000.

    Margins are too thin in commodity plastics to allow many companies to be successful trading resins online, said Donald Goodwin, president of Northbrook, Ill.-based consulting firm Technomic Inc.

    "Margins become like that for a grocery store," Goodwin said. "You might make 1 percent on some products. One mistake, and you're dead. An online company needs more content to distinguish itself. Desperation can be the mother of invention."

    Commerx eBuy's business suite includes the creation of purchase orders, order status and history, central data reporting and requisition requests from anywhere within a company. Approval signatures are received electronically.

    Nypro plans to integrate the purchasing software into its computer systems immediately and roll it out to plants as early as July, said Mike MacKenty, Nypro vice president for information technology.

    "It acts as a kind of pass-through to our vendors and suppliers," MacKenty said. "The system provides us with the means to incorporate our (computer) systems into the supply chain. The idea is to shrink (purchasing) cycle times."

    Commerx plans the same initiative in the metals industry. In May, the company launched Commerx Metals to provide U.S.-based companies with a portfolio of Web-hosted purchasing and supply-chain solutions.

    With technology stocks still trending downward, the company has not yet made its initial public offering. No time line is imminent, but Commerx still is planning an IPO.

    "It's definitely still on," Stojka said. "We're in conversation constantly with our banking team. We'll wait to see what happens."

    Letter
    to the
    Editor

    Do you have an opinion about this story? Do you have some thoughts you'd like to share with our readers? Plastics News would love to hear from you. Email your letter to Editor at [email protected]

    Get our newsletters

    Staying current is easy with Plastics News delivered straight to your inbox, free of charge.

    Subscribe today

    Subscribe to Plastics News

    Subscribe now
    Connect with Us
    • LinkedIn
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Instagram

    Plastics News covers the business of the global plastics industry. We report news, gather data and deliver timely information that provides our readers with a competitive advantage.

    logo-pn-color
    Contact Us

    1155 Gratiot Avenue
    Detroit MI 48207-2997

    Customer Service:
    877-320-1723

    Resources
    • About
    • Staff
    • Editorial Calendar
    • Media Kit
    • Data Store
    • Digital Edition
    • Custom Content
    • People
    • Contact
    • Careers
    • Sitemap
    Related Crain Publications
    • Sustainable Plastics
    • Rubber & Plastics News
    • Urethanes Technology
    • Plastics News China
    • European Rubber Journal
    • Tire Business
    Legal
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
    • Privacy Request
    Copyright © 1996-2021. Crain Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
    • News
      • Processor News
        • Injection Molding
        • Blow Molding
        • Film & Sheet
        • Pipe/Profile/Tubing
        • Rotomolding
        • Thermoforming
        • Recycling
      • Suppliers
        • Machinery
        • Materials
        • Molds/Tooling
        • Product news
        • Design
      • More News
        • What Keeps You Up At Night
        • Mergers & Acquisitions
        • Sustainability
        • Public Policy
        • Material Insights Videos
        • Numbers that Matter
        • Polymer Points Live
      • End Markets
        • Automotive
        • Packaging
        • Medical
        • Consumer Products
        • Construction
      • FYI Charts
        • Current FYI
      • LSR World
      • Multimedia
        • Videos
        • Galleries
        • Podcasts
      • NPE2021
      • K Show
      • ENGEL Sponsored Content
      • Special Reports
        • CEO Issue
        • Best Places to Work
        • Processor of the Year
        • Rising Stars
        • Women Breaking the Mold
    • Opinion
      • The Plastics Blog
      • Kickstart
      • Heavy Metal
      • One Good Resin
      • BRICS and Plastics
      • All Things Data
      • Viewpoint
      • Perspective
      • Mailbag
    • Shop Floor
      • Blending
      • Compounding
      • Drying
      • Injection Molding
      • Purging
      • Robotics
      • Size Reduction
      • Structural Foam
      • Tooling
      • Training
    • Events
      • Plastics News Events
        • Plastics News Executive Forum
        • Plastics in Automotive
        • Plastics News Caps & Closures
        • Plastics in Healthcare
        • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum
      • Industry Events
      • Livestreams/Webinars
      • Ask the Expert
      • Polymer Points Live
      • Reifenhäuser Technologies Livestreams
      • 2020 Caps & Closures Library
      • Plastics in Healthcare Library
      • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum Library
    • Resin Prices
      • All Resins
      • Commodity TPs
        • Historic Commodity Thermoplastics
      • High Temp TPs
        • Historic High Temp Thermoplastics
      • ETPs
        • Historic Engineering Thermoplastics
      • Thermosets
        • Historic Thermosets
      • Recycled Plastics
        • Historic Recycled Plastics
    • Rankings
      • Injection Molders
      • Blow Molders
      • Film Sheet
      • Thermoformers
      • Pipe Profile Tubing
      • Rotomolders
      • Mold/Toolmakers
      • LSR Processors
      • Recyclers
      • Compounders - List
      • Association - List
      • Plastic Lumber - List
      • All
    • Data Store
    • Directory
    • More+
      • Classifieds
        • Place an Ad
        • Sign up for Early Classified
      • Digital Edition
      • Newsletters
      • Sponsored Content
      • Processor of the Year submissions
      • White Papers