By ordering office supplies once per week, you’ll deal with fewer interruptions from employees each day, and you’ll only have to coordinate one delivery per week.
Sounds so simple, but ordering office supplies can be overwhelming. There are a ton of choices. Co-workers are constantly coming into your office and sending emails to let you know what they need, which usually happens right after you place an order. Even worse, they make their requests as they pass you in the hall, as if you’ll remember by the time you get back to your office. And when the order arrives, the vultures are ransacking the order before you get a chance to properly check to make sure everything was delivered as expected.
One way to simplify the office supply ordering process is to order less often. Perhaps it’s once per week, instead of once every day or every other day – or whenever an employee acts like the sky is falling because someone swiped their stapler.
Here are three suggestions that successful employers do:
- Tell employees that you place an office supply order on a certain day each week and tell them they should monitor their supplies and plan accordingly.
- Document an employee process for requesting office supplies, whether it involves email or posting an “I need” sheet in your office.
- Finally, add these items to a pending order each day instead of playing catch up on ordering day.
By ordering once per week, you’ll deal with fewer interruptions from employees each day, and you’ll only have to coordinate one delivery per week. One of the biggest problems faced by businesses small and large is that they spend too much time keeping the lights on and not enough time on strategic growth initiatives. Ordering office supplies once per week improves operational efficiency and helps to reverse that trend.
From a cost standpoint, one delivery obviously costs less than five deliveries. When we can keep our costs down, we can continue to pass along those savings to you. You may even be able to take advantage of volume pricing on certain items and save even more. And from a sustainability standpoint, fewer but larger deliveries means fewer carbon emissions from delivery trucks.
When you order office supplies every day, it’s a constant scramble, making it impossible to get a handle on inventory. When you order once per week, you have fewer invoices to review and you’re not constantly replenishing, so you can better manage your inventory. It also makes it easier to organize your supplies and spot trends based on seasonal or event-based needs.
For example, if you have a major sale at the same time each year, or the use of certain office supplies tends to spike during certain times of year, you can proactively order extra supplies and avoid running out.
EZ Office Products makes it simple to shop and order office supplies online. Contact us to find out ways to save time and money by ordering more efficiently.