Lean Procurement™ brings the power of Lean Manufacturing to your procurement process. It is the trademarked strategic service of Consumers Interstate Corporation
“Lean Procurement is a strong compliment to a company’s lean manufacturing initiatives”, says Kenn Fischburg, president of Consumers Interstate Corp. “It applies similar strategies to cut the fat and build a smooth flow in this often overlooked area of procuring high velocity, low value MRO, office products and business supplies. This area of supplies may be low in dollar volume but is very high in the number of products and in the number of associated activities. Often it takes an inordinate time with wasted steps to procure these everyday products that are used up and procured again the following week.
It’s not just about continuous improvement: it’s a powerful rethink and redesign of the whole procurement process that yields dramatic results, top to bottom.”
Lean Procurement™ (LP) is a more efficient method to procure the multitude supplies that are used at your facility on a repetitive basis. LP utilizes the principals of Lean Manufacturing to identify, recommend and implement a streamlined process. A main ingredient of LP is utilizing ecommerce as a means to place orders, get confirmations, and obtain usage reports for controls and invoicing, preferably one summary invoice at the end of a month.
Lean Procurement is a simplified process.
Lean Procurement™ is our part of Lean Manufacturing that focuses on the procurement process for thousands of factory expense items including; janitorial, paper, packaging, safety, office and maintenance supplies.
We can help you as we have experience with implementations in over 300 companies in New England.
What is the objective?
The objective is ‘more time to be more productive ‘. Our end goals: says Kenn Fischburg, President of Consumers Interstate Corp. “is to help customers get deep into what we call a ‘lean zone’ across all their operational activities in the procurement process and not just the usual manufacturing ones.”
The objective is to eliminate: procurement activities that have no value, paperwork, filing, phoning, and talking and data entry. You want to reduce mistakes in ordering, receiving, and incoming supplier invoices. You want to speed up the: ordering process, receiving process, invoice reconciliation and accounting processes. You want more control and accountability. Consolidation of the supplier base and elimination of wasted steps is a main ingredient.
- Eliminate procurement activities that have no value
- Eliminate mistakes; ordering, receiving, a/p invoices
- Speed up the ordering process
- Speed up the receiving process
- Speed up the invoice reconciliation process
- Speed up the accounting process
- Reduce paperwork
- Reduce human transactions passing from hand to hand that take up valuable time.
Where does Lean Procurement™ fit in?
Where does Lean Procurement™ fit in to Lean Manufacturing? It’s just another process up for review. On the plant floor production processes are the first areas to attack for better efficiency, reducing waste and optimizing productivity. The procurement process is often overlooked. It runs throughout a company and needs to be attacked for greater efficiency just like a production process.
The procurement process is just another process that can be examined and improved.
What is the procurement process?
The procurement process is a transactional process that affects many different departments. End users need supplies, managers approve requests, buyers get the pricing and place orders, staff creates purchase orders and enters data into the computer, filing occurs, phone calls, the receiver unloads the orders and puts it away, he/she reconciles the receiving, the invoice goes to accounts payable to be paid.
What supplies are we talking about?
The supplies that Consumers Interstate Corp. delivers are factory, industrial, janitorial, safety, office, printed and packaging supplies. (This product group can be 10-20% of all your MRO supplies but can account for over 50% of your activities.) Although these supplies can amount to a very low portion of your total spend they can take up a large portion of time in your company’s procurement process. Often these supplies are bought from many suppliers that create many deliveries, invoices and activities. Getting a handle on these can help you consolidate, reduce paperwork and activities across many departments; purchasing, receiving, clerical, a/p.
How is Lean Procurement implemented?
Consumers Interstate Corporation’s proven solution has already been implemented successfully for hundreds of manufacturers and business throughout New England.
It begins with a no-cost analysis that reveals all the choke points, overlaps and wasted activities, and exactly where and how they can save significant time, costs and paperwork. Then it lays out a details road map, and offers expert help from Consumers to put a faster, easier and online procurement process in place: including employee training.
The first step is to contact Consumers Interstate Corp. Ask for Kenn Fischburg or any employee at the company including the receptionist as all employees are invested in helping our customers achieve a better method of procuring supplies.
We do the heavy lifting for you. We know inside-out the issues you’re dealing with and how to ramp up productivity, painlessly.
Contact us at 1-800-223-7475 ext 226 or k@cicgo.com
What are the results?
The results of a Lean Procurement™ process are many. But most of all you will see how attacking the procurement of these low value high velocity supplies can bring you an easy streamlined process. Afterwards you will look back and wonder how you ever got to a point where so much time was spent on so little dollars.
- Unnecessary activities are eliminated
- The procurement process is streamlined
- Paperwork is reduced
- Orders are placed and received faster
- Less time spent on the low value items
- Controls and accountability is established
- Invoices are consolidated to be a once a month summary
- Data is available 24/7 online for review
Lean Procurement™ means:
‘More time for more productivity’
