Ordering inventory for fabrication and manufacturing companies, as well as service companies and OEMs, is never an easy task. There is a lot of pressure in this job, particularly when scheduled orders can suddenly peak, leaving an Minnesota company of materials to keep lines moving.
One way to avoid this issue is to carry a high inventory level of nuts & bolts and basic fastener requirements. This is often easier than it seems as these are a component of your production needs that are small, compact and easy to store even in volume orders.
The Bulk Purchase Benefit
While it isn’t difficult to understand the cost savings with bulk purchases of nuts & bolts, there are other value-added aspects of ordering in bulk. To help to understand these benefits, let’s consider the typical order process.
In most companies, the person in charge of inventory management will do a rough count, assuming there is no VMI (Vendor Managed Inventory) or another inventory management system in place. Then, from the count, the order will be placed to bring up the inventory to a particular level.
The other option is to place a standard order on a weekly, bi-monthly, monthly or quarterly schedule, all of which runs the risk of ending up with an overstock of some items and shortages of others.
By purchasing in bulk, supplies can be easily and accurately counted based on cases, cartons or bags from the supplier. In addition, bulk purchases of nuts & bolts mean fewer deliveries, less time in inventory management and fewer risks of shortages.
Free Shipping
Look for companies selling fasteners in bulk or small orders, depending on your needs, that offer free shipping to Minnesota. This is a cost saving factor that will continue to save a company money, even if a small order needs to be placed, in between the bulk order schedule.
