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How to Maintain Control Over Office Supplies

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Indoff

If you’re running an office, then you’re managing supplies. Or, at least you should be managing supplies. Paper, pens, toner, breakroom supplies, cleaning supplies—it’s a lot of stuff to manage. What supplies do you need? How do you keep from running out, and how do you prevent wasting precious resources buying supplies you don’t need or supplies you already have? Here are three strategies to help you maintain tighter control of your general office supplies.

Limit Access

It’s nearly impossible to manage supplies if everyone has unlimited access. Restricting access is essential to keeping office supplies under control. There are two general ways organizations can choose to limit access to office supplies:

●      Appoint one or more gatekeepers. An open supply room may seem efficient, but they pretty much allow employees to take whatever they want whenever they want with no accountability. Gatekeepers are people appointed to be in charge of the supply room. Anyone needing supplies must go through the gatekeeper, which tamps down on wandering supplies and overuse of supplies.

●      Supply log. Asking your employees to log the supplies they take from an open supply room is another way to manage supplies. Yes, a log relies on the honor system, and it’s easy for folks to forget, but it’s better than a free-for-all. Simply being asked to be accountable for items they take by logging them is a deterrent to waste and misuse.

Organize

Poor or absent organization is one of the most common causes of buying redundant supplies. An organized supply room is essential to saving money and maintaining your inventory to keep things functioning.

Organizing best practices include the following:

●      Store like items together.

●      Place the most frequently used items in prime locations where they can easily be seen and restocked.

●      Practice FIFO – first in, first out – especially for sensitive, expensive items like ink and toner.

●      Make tidying the storage room a regular event, maybe weekly. This allows you to observe your inventory, assess what’s not being used, and order replenishments before you run out.

Strategize Reordering

It’s often less expensive to buy supplies in bulk, but if you buy in bulk, you’ve got to store the stuff and be certain that it will get used and not go to waste. “Right size” orders are best; just enough to satisfy your needs and get a bulk discount, but not too much that things go to waste. An office supply partner can help you create a strategy for reordering and give you tools to make it easy.

Get the most from your office supplies, avoid waste, and never face the dreaded problem of being out of printer toner with these helpful strategies.

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