Q+A with Quanex | Beyond the Screen

In today’s competitive and rapidly evolving fenestration market, manufacturers face mounting pressure to optimize operations, reduce costs and accelerate production timelines—all while maintaining quality and meeting increasingly complex customer demands. This environment has transformed the supplier relationship from a simple transactional exchange into a strategic partnership, where operational efficiency and exceptional customer service deliver measurable value far beyond the product itself. 

Window + Door sat down with Jamie Hartford, customer service manager, and Jeff Sieg, director of operations, at Quanex to discuss how their comprehensive screen solutions deliver operational efficiencies and long-term savings for window and door manufacturers. 

Window + Door: Let’s start with the basics. What sets Quanex apart in the screen market? 

Jamie Hartford: From standard window and door screens to fully custom-engineered screen systems, Quanex manufactures screen solutions built for precision fit, durability and seamless integration. Our capabilities span from roll form and extruded frames to mesh options, reinforced corner construction, custom sizing, broad finishes options, and scalable production programs. But what truly differentiates us is not just the quality of the screen itself—it’s how we support our customers beyond the product. 

Jeff Sieg: Exactly. When customers choose Quanex, they gain more than a screen supplier. They gain a strategic partner. Through integrated systems, engineering collaboration, automated ordering and just-in-time delivery, we help manufacturers drive efficiency, reduce handling and unlock long-term operational savings. 

WD: Tell us about your automated ordering system. 

JH: One of the key solutions we offer at Quanex is a fully automated ordering system through EDI. It is completely customizable and eliminates manual entry errors. The system includes an electronic scan feature called ASN, or Advanced Shipping Notice, that enables efficient single-scan receiving. Our customers can scan once, and the data flows electronically directly into their system. We manage all the programming on the back end to simplify the process for them. It is highly cost-effective for both us and our clients because you do not need someone manually entering purchase orders. The result is faster processing, fewer errors and significant labor savings on both ends. 

WD: How does your custom packaging and bundling work? 

JS: Our EDI process streamlines receiving significantly. When we bundle products, there is just one scan—that’s it. Customers don’t have to manually scan every single screen into their system to confirm receipt, move them to the loading dock and then scan them all back out when they are ready to ship. With our EDI bundling system, one scan captures the entire bundle, eliminating all those redundant steps and the labor that goes with them. 

Packaging developments over time have yielded positive impact for our customers. Our options span from bulk pack to house pack to single pack, and offer a nimble and impactful solution for our customers. They can choose the configuration that best suits their needs and many take advantage of our packaging solutions to drive value into their own value stream. In addition to our multiple options, our shop floor manufacturing execution system provides customers with options to develop a custom labeling solution. Integrating with Quanex systems opens doors to drive customization that can reduce handling at the customer level. 

WD: What about your sequencing and just-in-time delivery capabilities? 

JS: Our sequencing process allows screens to be ready for immediate use, moving straight from the truck to the customer’s production line. If you need our truck there at 7:00 a.m., we’ll be there at 7:00 a.m. They unload our carts directly onto their production floor. As the windows or doors move down the assembly line, workers simply pull the screen from the cart, in order, and install it—no warehousing, no repackaging and no searching for inventory. This approach cuts labor costs, reduces storage and inventory needs, and streamlines just-in-time delivery. 

WD: How do these efficiencies translate to cost savings for customers? 

JH: The value extends beyond the quoted price. Just-in-time delivery supports direct line flow, reducing inventory storage, handling and tracking requirements. End-to-end scanning provides real-time visibility, eliminating time lost to locating misplaced packages. Together, these process efficiencies lower operational costs and improve throughput across the business. 

JS: We have even collaborated with customers where we’ve completely pulled their entire screen operation out of their facility and taken the whole business. We go out to their facilities and realize they’ve got all this space dedicated to screens, and their expertise should just be in making windows and doors. We can take the entire screen process out of their facility and give them room to put something different there, and more people to make windows and doors. 

We are driving savings at the plant level for our customers. We see our value in absorbing inefficiencies our customers may have that prevent them from manufacturing more windows and patio doors. Our goal is to partner with a customer and figure out how we can support them with a goal to utilize their plant capital to build more windows and doors. From a high level, savings include, but are not limited to, added floor space due to inventory reduction, reduction in overhead and packaging waste, reduction in multi-handling product and lead-time, and reduced over-buys, which stabilizes the supply chain. 

WD: This system did not develop overnight. How has customer feedback shaped your processes? 

JS: The reason we can adapt so quickly comes down to the seamless connection between our customer service team doing the listening and our fantastic engineering support group responding to what they hear—identifying the problems, determining what we need to monitor and implementing the necessary changes. Much of the machinery in our facilities was built from the ground up by our engineers specifically to manufacture these products and offer time-savings solutions. We are not outsourcing to third parties for the equipment that makes everything we produce. Our customer service team excels at filtering customer feedback directly to engineering, and engineering is constantly modifying and improving our processes in response. 

One of Quanex’s core competencies is continuous improvement in everything we do. Our system has evolved over the years and continues to evolve daily driven by feedback from all that interact with it. We listen to the needs of our associates and our customers and blend their needs to offer the most comprehensive and efficient solution possible. If we can dream it, we can build it. 

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