Reduce Inventory, Consumption, PO’s and Headaches

Reduce inventory of abrasives, gloves/PPE supplies, and welding supplies by 15% to 20% (conservatively) with industrial vending. For a company spending $20,000 annually on these items, that results in $3,000 to $4,000 of cash savings annually.

• Reduce consumption – dispense items in the quantities you want
• Reduce inventory carrying costs
• Reduce/eliminate obsolete inventory
• Reduce/eliminate stock-outs – know what’s on hand all the time
• Reduce purchase orders
• Place tool cribs strategically in the shop for greater employee access – reduce time to access tools

A Case Study: Breakfast Burritos

Recently, I decided to make breakfast burritos. I went to the store and bought everything I needed; eggs, chorizo, cheese, etc…. Unfortunately I couldn’t make the burritos during the week that I planned. Over the course of the next week, my family used eggs here and cheese there.

When it came time to make the burritos, I went to the store to buy the ingredients that we had used in other recipes. I bought eggs. I bought cheese. But, I couldn’t remember how much cheese we still had in the refrigerator. I decided to buy another jumbo pack just in case. At home, when I opened the refrigerator drawer to put the cheese away, I discovered my wife had also purchased a jumbo pack, which would have been sufficient for the recipe. I spent eight dollars on cheese, unnecessarily, and now I have to make room in the refrigerator to store it. I hope I can use all this cheese before it expires.

Is there a solution?

My experience described above is not too far off the experience many General Air customers have when buying tools and equipment for the shop and/or a specific job. How often have orders been placed for product that was already in the tool crib? Consequently, space has to now be created for the additional parts. Or have you ever started a job thinking you had all the parts in place only to find out at the last minute that some of those parts were used in other jobs? Unfortunately, this usually ends up in having an employee run down to the store to pick up what was left out or having to expedite material from the supplier. As a result, you are wasting valuable time and money.

Wouldn’t it be nice knowing exactly what is in the tool crib at any given time? Better yet, wouldn’t it be nice if your supplier knew what was in the tool crib and could anticipate the need, and make a delivery, before a run out?

Now Enters Industrial Vending

Recognizing the need to continue to help customers reduce their overall costs, General Air pursued Industrial Vending as a cost reduction for customers. Industrial Vending dispenses so many different items from safety equipment to welding supplies – even a single welding contact tip. Conservatively, a vending machine reduces the purchase of items by 15% to 20%.

Utilizing vending software, inventory management is just a click (with the mouse) away. Below is a snapshot of some of the software benefits:

• Sends email alerts to the purchasing manager and General Air indicating a time to reorder.
• Generates reports to determine how much product you are using for a specific job, or how much of a specific product an employee used, or uses, in a day, week, or year.
• Reduces inactive inventory by generating reports that indicate product usage trends.

Industrial Vending has many different faces to meet your specific dispensing needs. Contact your General Air sales representative to see how Industrial Vending can help save money. I wish my refrigerator had the same functionality as a vending machine. I wouldn’t have  so much cheese. How much cheese is in your refrigerator?

Author: Steve Duren