In business where PPE is essential for safe, effective working environments, having a well-thought-out procurement process is crucial. Once a straightforward administrative task, procurement now plays a strategic role in supporting business direction, reputation, and health and safety.
Managing budgets, PPE suppliers, stakeholders’ needs, and departmental pressures can be complex, especially with so many brands and options available. But there are a few simple ways to streamline the process, helping you save time and money will keeping everyone happy.
Here are four ways you can save time and money in PPE procurement
- Buy better quality items.
It might seem counterintuitive, but investing in higher-quality PPE can actually save you money in the long term. Durable products wear our less easily, which is especially important for high-use items like gloves, goggles, and masks. Plus, opting for reusable options instead of single-use items not only cuts costs over time but also supports sustainability. - Reduce your suppliers
If you’re sourcing PPE across various locations or departments, consolidating your list of suppliers can make a big difference. Buying more from a single supplier not only simplifies contract negotiations but also strengthens your relationship with them, often leading to better deals and terms. - Review what you are buying
To realise efficiency and savings begin by understanding your own consumption behaviour. Imagine achieving your business goals by buying fewer, better-quality products and brands. This approach will reduce energy consumption and shrink maintenance and training costs. Discover smarter inventory management through stock optimisation and obsolescence reduction; focusing on the stocking of critical items. This will save time in inventory management, reduce incidences of downtime and boost your cash flow. - Use digital ordering portals
Going digital usually means less time on paperwork and on the phone. A good digital ordering platform will also have a higher level of automation, so you can streamline your admin time and keep everything you need for ordering in one place.
Feel like it’s easier said than done?
We understand that saving time and money isn’t always straightforward. Many of the businesses we work on face challenges like aligning stakeholders to one trusted brand, adapting to new digital ways of working or range rationalisation with suppliers.
At Bunzl Greenham, we’re here to help you break down those barriers and streamline your operations.
Here’s how we make it happen.
A true partner to your business
We work with you to tackle challenges collaboratively by forming a committee of stakeholders. This approach lets us proactively provide solutions and select products that meets everyone’s needs – from procurement and Health and Safety to your end users. Not only does this reduce your procurement workload, but it also helps ensure compliance across the organisation.
By tailoring processses to suit your needs, we ensure you feel heard and can carry out business in a way that suits you.
One supplier, one solution: Simplifying your supply chain
Time effort, and money are the cornerstones of your business – so why waste them? Instead of juggling multiple suppliers and PPE contracts, or randomly shopping online, you can streamline your procurement with a sole supply relationship.
As part of the world’s largest safety equipment distributor, we handle everything fro start to finish, tailoring our services to fit your needs, so you can focus on what matters most.
We understand that changing suppliers or procurement strategies can be daunting. That’s why we’ll guide you every step of the way and create a personalised implementation plan to manage the transition smoothly. Our approach focuses on understanding your procurement challenges, simplifying processes, unlocking potential savings, and enhancing your operational excellence.
Giving you time and cost saving at your fingertips
Our Advantage Platform is a digital solution with an exceptional blend of digital capabilities, outstanding service and top-quality products.
Advantatge gives you the ability to reduce costly administration by tailoring product ranges and restricting certain locations, contracts or users to a specific range of products. Plus, with easy access to your contracted products, you’ll be buying at the best price every time you place an order.
Find out how Advantage works in this video:
Making the purchase-to-pay cycle simple, yet effective
After payroll, procurement is usually your biggest expense, covering supplies, services, and capital items essential for operations – The ‘cost of doing business’. In today’s fast-changing environment, many of our clients are looking for ways to streamline operations and reduce costs – that’s where our P2P Integration software can help.
Our P2P Integration software gives you unparalleled procurement power. It streamlines the entire process, makes it more collaborative, captures purchase history for future analysis and carries a complete audit trial.
It helps you cut costs in the four largest areas of business:
- Budget control and Cash flow managment
- Automation and Operational Efficiency
- Quality and Risk Control
- Information Capture and Reporting
Find out more about P2P Integration here
Our proven experience: Achieving £120k annual savings for Diageo
Global leader in alcoholic beverages, Diageo, faced challenges in managing procurement due to a decentralised approach where each site had differing product needs and perceptions of the brand. This led to significant variations in purchased items and pricing, resulting in poor service and compromised safety. For instance, Diageo was acquiring 97 different type of gloves and 127 types of boots, which created inconsistencies and vulnerabilities in safety for their over 4,000 UK employees.
To address these issues, we collaborated with Diageo’s procurement team to standardise their PPE range, forming a committee with representatives from all sites. This approach allowed us to streamline the glove selection from 97 styles to just 7, and reduce logo variations from 119 to 3, enhancing brand consistency and stock availability. As a result, Diageo achieved hard cost savings as £100k and soft savings of £20k annually, alongside improved safety compliance and a reduced carbon footprint.
Discover the Bunzl Greenham difference
Speak with one of our team about how we can help you save time and money in PPE procurement.
Get in touch today be sending us a message online or calling your nearest Service Centre.
