Engineering Magazine – June 2019

ENGINEERING JUNE 2019 35

OPERATIONS AND MAINTENANCE

pricing and arranging delivery - coupled
with internal processes such as
approval, issuing purchase orders and
processing invoices and payments.
This can equate to a huge cost to the
business, given that they may be raising
hundreds of purchase orders a year for
low-value products.
Order management tools can
help streamline this process and
drive down the purchase order cost.
We’ve helped customers drastically
reduce their procurement costs with
PurchasingManager, our e-commerce
controlled spend solution which
automates large sections of the
purchasing process, allowing staff to
place their own orders, under specified
controls. PurchasingManager is a
web-based order management tool
that is customisable and involves no
investment or IT upgrade requirement.
Our customers can benefit from
features including strong spend control,
approval, tracking and reporting
capabilities, all on one platform. It can
be installed in businesses large and
small, providing a level of functionality

that wouldn’t otherwise be achievable

without significant investment in a

large, costly, purchasing system. Using

this system, we helped a customer

operating a huge confectionery business

to reduce their £74 purchase order

cost down to £46, and created savings

of £30,492 based on the new cost per

order when they consolidated orders

with us.

Purchases in the MRO category

are often low value, but when low

value items are bought in high volume,

and the procurement process not

streamlined - with multiple supplier

invoices and a long source-to-pay chain

• this can incur a huge cost for any
  business. Effective MRO procurement
  processes should be high on the
  agenda of any organisation with an
  ongoing need for industrial supplies.
  By taking a holistic view of the indirect
  procurement process, quantifiable
  amounts of time – and, therefore,
  money – can be saved.
  There’s no doubt that outsourcing
  the task of MRO procurement will
  lead to both cost savings and pressure
  reduction on the MRO professional,
  so they can focus on other important
  operational areas and adding value to
  the business.

Mark James is Senior Product Marketing

Manager for RS Components in

Northern Europe.

http://www.uk.rs-online.com