Photo Courtesy of: Michael Ninacs
By the time a nondestructive testing (NDT) technician begins an inspection, the work may already have been shaped by decisions made somewhere else. A product was specified. An order was interpreted. A technical question was either anticipated or left to become a problem.
Michael Ninacs, president of Test Equipment Distributors (TED), believes that is where the real story of NDT distribution begins. His work challenges the idea of the distributor as simply a link in the supply chain, raising a more consequential question: What does a distributor owe the people whose work depends on getting the details right?
A Technical Supply Chain
NDT distribution is not a routine purchasing exercise. Products used in radiographic, ultrasonic and magnetic particle testing are designed for different methods and applications, often with technical requirements that extend beyond availability or price.
That complexity puts distributors between manufacturers that develop inspection technology and the teams that use it in aerospace, automotive, petrochemical, nuclear and manufacturing settings. The role calls for more than moving products: it requires knowing what a product is designed to do, recognizing when an application calls for further technical review and coordinating with the manufacturer when a question falls outside a standard order.
For Ninacs, that makes distribution both an operational and a commercial discipline. The systems behind procurement, customer service and delivery can determine whether technical information and inspection-critical products reach customers with the clarity and timing the work demands
Rethinking Procurement
At TED, Ninacs helped bring purchasing for its Michigan, Oregon, California, New Jersey and Ohio locations under one corporate team. Instead of having each warehouse plan and buy independently, a smaller group of specialized buyers took on that responsibility.
The goal was straightforward: carry less unnecessary inventory, avoid duplicated effort and reduce purchasing mistakes without slowing the business down. But NDT purchasing is rarely routine. Buyers need to know how products differ, which manufacturer is equipped to answer a particular technical question and when an order that looks simple could create trouble for an inspection team.
That change gave procurement a more active role in how TED supports customers. Each purchasing decision now has to account for the application, the manufacturer behind the product and the time pressure facing the inspection team. In that model, buying is not simply about filling an order. It is one of the points where TED can prevent a technical problem from becoming a delay in the field.
Training the Front Line
The same principle applies to customer service. At an NDT distributor, representatives are often the first people customers call with questions about safety equipment, accessories or the products used in a specialized testing process. Their ability to understand the underlying method and to recognize when a request needs further review can shape the decision that follows.
Ninacs is developing training plans and standardized processes intended to give customer-service staff a stronger grounding in NDT methods and product applications. The work pairs technical training with clearer procedures for handling requests, identifying staffing needs and meeting TED’s internal service-time expectations.
The aim is not to turn customer-service representatives into inspectors. It is to give them enough context to recognize a problem before the wrong product is ordered, a question goes unanswered or an inspection team is left waiting for equipment it cannot use.
Beyond One Market
The pressures facing NDT distributors are not limited to the United States. Across Europe, industrial organizations rely on inspection technology in aerospace, automotive, manufacturing, energy and infrastructure, while market forecasts point to continued growth in NDT equipment and inspection through 2031.
As equipment and applications become more specialized, the challenge is no longer simply obtaining the right product. Businesses also need to manage supplier relationships, build technical knowledge within customer-facing teams and ensure that procurement decisions reflect the requirements of the inspection work ahead.
Ninacs’s work at TED offers one example of how those functions can be brought together. His approach puts purchasing, training and service performance in the same operating conversation, an alternative to treating each as a separate department with separate priorities.
Leadership in Practice
Ninacs’s imprint on TED is measured less by the visibility of any one initiative than by what customers do not have to confront: an avoidable wrong order, an unanswered technical question or an inspection delayed by a preventable gap. When that work succeeds, it often disappears into a job that proceeds as it should.
That is the point. Ninacs has brought the same expectation of precision that defines NDT to the business behind it, where the quality of the process can matter just as much as the equipment in the box.
