Each summer, Food Engineering (FE) presents its Replacement Parts Guide. And even in the rather unglamorous world of spare parts, the need for speed is a top priority. In this issue, FE readers tell us that getting parts delivered promptly to the plant is equally as important as the quality of parts themselves.

More than half of those surveyed earlier this year by Food Engineering place spare parts orders over the Internet. An additional 10 percent of those surveyed intend to purchase parts on the web in the next six months. One of the largest increases in Internet usage for ordering spare parts involves distributors' websites. When FE conducted its first Replacement Parts Survey in 2002, only 14 percent of food and beverage manufacturers reported using distributors' websites to order parts. Today, that number has doubled to 28 percent.