Office Supplies Project

The Lean Office Supply Team has designed a new process for ordering supplies and developed a standardized office supply list for improved efficiencies and over-processing reductions. The number of steps it takes to order supplies has been reduced from 18 to 7. Additionally, staff time has been reduced by eliminating a support staff role for keeping the Administration building supply cabinet stocked.

Moving forward, GBMSD's Buyer will be responsible for all office supply orders. The stockroom in the Maintenance building will store all standardized office supplies and special orders. The office supplies will be stocked through a Kanban card system from supplies in the stockroom. The objectives of standardizing office supplies were to reduce inventory, costs, over-purchasing, staff time, and storage space. The team realizes that its standardized list will not capture everyone's needs, so special order items can be purchased.

A Kanban card system is a scheduling system that tells you what to produce, when to produce it, and how much to produce. The Kanban card system works by placing a Kanban card in each office supply bin or stack with a minimum and maximum amount of supply. Once the minimum supply is out, the person who took the last item places the Kanban card in a tray next to the supply cabinet and moves the supply from the back of the bin forward. Ordering history and refill frequency will tell the purchaser if more or less stock is needed to meet demand.

Currently, GBMSD has saved over $18,000.00 on office supplies and special orders. Below are the most current numbers and progress of the office supplies project.

The data from calendar years 2010 and 2011 were used to develop the results. Data related to people time goal includes a 38% reduction in Purchase Order volume and a 20% reduction in Purchase Requistion volume.