The Customer Is Always Dead

Fast Caskets

Every 53 seconds, a new casket rolls off the assembly line in Batesville. That's more than 1,000 caskets per day, in hundreds of designs, all made to order. Within 24 to 48 hours, most of the caskets will have already arrived at a customer's door. Those customers, licensed funeral directors across the country -- and, in some cases, around the world -- depend on Batesville to deliver. So how does Batesville get each of those caskets to the right place on time, every time?

Part of the answer to that question lies in the tight control that the company maintains over its entire supply chain, most of which it owns. From the tools that are used to make metal casket components at its stamping plants, to casket assembly, to trucking, BCC runs the whole show. According to Weigel, this tight integration is a major factor in the company's success. "None of our competitors own all of their facilities," he says. "Also, most of them use jobbers, especially for shipping. We own our entire distribution channel, so we can control every step of the process."

But perhaps even more important is the FedEx-type hub-and-spoke distribution system that BCC implemented two years ago. All caskets are first shipped from one of the company's five manufacturing facilities to one of seven regional rapid-deployment centers (RDCs) -- such as Tinley Park -- depending on which facility is closest to a casket's penultimate destination. From the RDCs, caskets are trucked to a nationwide network of 81 local customer-service centers, which then distribute the caskets to funeral homes awaiting delivery. The caskets travel in one of BCC's 1,600 distinctive green-and-white trucks, among the largest private truck fleets in the nation.

At the end of each day, the seven RDCs send reports to Batesville central that detail exactly which caskets were shipped. Based on those logs, Batesville creates next-day orders to replenish each RDC with the caskets it needs. "The normal resupply procedure is to replace what was purchased," explains Ken Camp, 54, VP and general manager of the company. "Of course, some other logistics come into play as well. The resupply isn't always perfect -- sometimes humans order in different patterns. But every day, we're a little closer to perfecting the process."

The new system represents a huge improvement in speed and service. Before the RDC hubs were built, inventory piled up at manufacturing plants and at customer-service centers -- which made it difficult to fulfill orders on time. "We developed a system like FedEx's because we never had the right stuff in the right place when inventory was at the manufacturing plants and at 81 different customer-service centers across the United States," Camp explains. "If a funeral director in California wanted a specific casket, it might be located only in, say, New England. Now, when a customer calls the local customer-service center with an order, it can always be filled. That's possible because all customer-service centers are within a 10-hour drive of an RDC, which almost always will have the required casket in stock."

The result? In the first 18 months after the RDCs were implemented, the amount of shortage -- caskets ordered and not delivered the very next day -- was reduced by 75%. Today, 98.5% of BCC's caskets are delivered on time.

Custom Caskets

When BCC gets a call for a black, copper casket lined with army-fatigue fabric and engraved with a bald eagle, it makes it -- within one day. Or an order for an oversize casket painted pink, with special handles, and lined with fabric printed with tiny red roses? It makes that, too -- within one day. Batesville, in fact, will customize caskets down to the smallest detail. John Amberger, 49, custom-product marketing manager, is in charge of overseeing all of the custom orders that Batesville gets -- and he's seen it all. "More and more people are interested in ordering a customized casket," he says. "And believe me, there have been some unique orders. One time, we made a casket with alternating red, white, and blue stripes on the interior for a woman who always wore red, white, and blue."

Nearly every casket that comes off of the Batesville assembly line is different. Altogether, the company offers more than 700 different casket designs (not including customized orders). Consumers can choose between caskets made of different woods or metals. They can also choose from more than 150 color combinations, 27 shapes, and thousands of embroidered panel designs for the interior lining of casket lids. And that's just for starters.

Customization takes place at both the manufacturing plants and at the distribution centers. BCC's custom shop is located in the Batesville manufacturing plant. All special orders are filled there -- whether the request is for an unusual fabric for a casket's lining, or for an uncommon match between a particular exterior treatment and the interior decor. Another increasingly popular form of customization, engraving of casket lids, is performed on-site at the RDCs. Each of the seven RDCs has a laser engraving machine and can process an engraving order in an hour or less.