Most employees of corporations (even those in Purchasing who have never personally managed the commodity) take office supplies for granted. They don't realize that the commodity is one of the few that actually touches every single employee in the company.
Here are 7 things I learned about managing office supplies.
1. Office supplies are a huge expense. They can easily cost small companies hundreds of thousands of dollars per year while the tab for medium and large companies quickly climbs into millions of dollars.
2. People take office supplies very personally. They think they are their personal property, rather than company property.
3. Consumption of many school-related office supply items spikes in September due to employee bringing home supplies. Battery usage spikes in December for the same reason.
4. Because of the high volume of transactions, Buyers will need to have a great working relationship with the vendor rep since they will be spending a lot of time together.
5. End users hate substitute and generic products regardless of quality. They prefer to order brand names such as Avery (AVY) and Duracell (Duracell on Google Finance) It is an uphill battle to introduce cost saving measures by changing brand availability.
6. Cost savings initiatives almost always target office supplies first.
7. If you want to be popular, get lots of samples of the latest thing in office supplies from the vendor rep and give them out to people when they visit your desk.
Have you managed office supplies in your Procurement career? Send your Top 7 List to PurchaseRealm@ComprehensiveAdvice.com and I will share it with my readers.
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