A new year brings new opportunities, it’s also a good time to make sure you’re organised for the year ahead. There are lots of things that can be done to get organised early in the workplace, one of which can be to get all of your office and warehouse supplies sorted.
For bigger workplaces that may use up supplies frequently, it’s important to have good plans in place now so that supplies don’t run out, or you’re not left short. To help you get sorted, we’ve outlined some things that you can do that will make organising your office and warehouse supplies, that little bit easier.
Complete a stocktake
The first thing that you can do to get your supplies organised for the year ahead is to complete a stocktake. A stocktake is a physical count of the inventory currently held by your business; a stocktake should identify the items that you already have, the quantities of these items, and the total value of your current inventory.
For any business that carries physical stock, completing regular stock takes is important. This will ensure you know what you have on hand, what you need more of, and will save you in wasted costs topping up supplies that you already have enough of. They have the added benefit of identifying items you’re close to running out of, before you reach the end of your supply. Analysing stock takes can help you understand how frequently you consume certain goods, which can assist in forward-planning and even bulk buying to achieve cost efficiencies over time.
Stocktakes are relatively simple to complete and can even be done with the use of something like a spreadsheet or special software to make the process even simpler. If you have a lot of supplies that you need to count you may want to consider getting a few of your team members to help you so that you can get the stocktake done quickly. It’s important to remember that a stocktake is a snapshot in time of how many items you have currently in stock, so carrying out a stocktake over a week will defeat the purpose of what you’re doing. Dedicate a single day to focus on this task and conduct a new stocktake every quarter at least.
Once you’ve completed your stocktake you will be in a better position to be able to identify what you need to order for the next 6 months (or 12 if you like to plan that far ahead).
Have a repeat order in place
Another way to stay organised for the year ahead is to have repeat or ‘standing’ orders in place for items that you routinely run out of. Repeat orders are automatically in place and will ensure that you don’t run out of important workplace and office supplies.
Say your workplace goes through one carton of coffee a month, you know that you need to be ordering one carton every month. Rather than going through the process of placing a separate order once every four weeks, you could have a repeat order in place that means your coffee order automatically goes through every month, so you never run out!
Talk to our sales team about setting up a repeat order here >
Bulk ordering
Bulk ordering your supplies is another great way that you can stay organised, as long as you have enough storage space!
By spending a bit of time working out how much of your workplace and office supplies are used every month, you’ll be able to easily calculate how much you would use in 3 months, 6 months and even an entire year. Ordering in your supplies in bulk means you don’t need to worry about running out of any important supplies, leaving you to get on with the important stuff! More often than not ordering in bulk lots will also save you money – another big benefit.
Evaluate the types of supplies you’re using
If you find that the supply and office cupboards are looking a little bare, and that you’ll need to be doing a lot of ordering, then now could also be a great time to reassess the supplies that you’ve been ordering. With climate change in the back of many New Zealanders minds, making the switch to more sustainable supplies that can either be reused, recycled or composted has become a common theme among Kiwi households and businesses alike.
There are many sustainable alternatives to traditional warehouse and office supplies that can make the switch that much easier. Here at Primepac we’re working hard to play our part in creating a more circular, sustainable economy and we’re proud to be able to supply a number of sustainable supplies that are better for the environment. So much so that we’ve also created a Sustainable Choice logo which helps customers to identify our sustainable products at a glance. If your business has committed this year to making ethical changes to reduce your carbon footprint then changing some of your supplies can be a great start and the team at Primepac can help you make the switch.
From paper packaging tapes to recyclable void fill and even compostable courier bags, we stock a number of sustainable supplies for businesses.
Learn more about what we’re doing for the environment here >
We hope that this article has given you some good tips to stay organised in the workplace this year and will help to make ordering your workplace supplies a little easier! As a leading NZ manufacturer and distributor of industrial and packaging products, our team are here to make ordering your packaging supplies easy. So whether you run a small retail shop or a big commercial business, we’d love to chat to you to see how we can help. Simply get in touch with our friendly team here to learn more about ordering from Primepac and our rewards programmes like pacpoints.
