I will go with the first definition, a list of things, especially items of property, assets or other resources. Reducing waste of the items your technicians use on a daily basis is the greatest opportunity for savings. Waste is like a cancer, it will grow right under your eyes without you seeing it and it will spread through your shop very quickly. When was the last time you walked through your shop and looked at what was sitting around on the work benches?

Now that I have piqued your curiosity, take a walk around your shop. How many partially filled cans of body filler did you see? How many rolls of 180-grit sandpaper are sitting on a bench? Did you know Joe grabs a can of body filler every time he goes to the supply cabinet just so he doesn't run out? Allen uses 180-grit sandpaper a lot so he likes to have an extra roll or two just so they are handy, one on his cart and one on his bench. All these extras add up because in most of the shops I've visited they have a process that reorders an item as soon as it is taken off the shelf.

To effectively reduce the waste, you have to determine who has what and why they have it. Create an inventory sheet that includes everything you purchase for use in your shop to include the cost. Make a sheet for each technician and then inventory his or her individual work areas. Look at everything, record each item and collect the extras. Discuss the findings with each technician and show them the expense they have created. Leave the technicians with the containers with the least amount in them and return the rest to your supply cabinet. If a replacement has been ordered, return it and enjoy the credits to your materials account. Once you have the waste under control, it is time to look at the actual products you are using.

While you are focused on the products you are using in your shop, take a good look at them. Are they the most cost-effective products? Green masking tape is a high-quality masking tape and is a great tape to use in the paint shop, but the tan tape is cheaper and would work fine in the metal shop. The same goes for masking paper. Spend the extra money for better masking paper for the paint shop but use cheaper paper in the metal shop.

Watch the technicians and see how they use the products you are buying. Are you saving money on body filler by using an inexpensive brand only to have your technicians add glazing putty to it to make it work better? Are technicians using different brands of the same type product causing you to have multiple products that do the same thing? Review the inventory you just created, how many different brands of seam sealer do you have? How about panel adhesive, are all of your technicians using the same brand or does each have a favorite? Review the inventory with your technicians once again and eliminate all the duplicate products. Then consolidate them so you are purchasing the majority from the same vendor.

Purchasing a majority of your supplies from the same vendor puts you in an excellent negotiating position. Show the vendor your inventory and put the vendor in a position to earn your business by developing a bid for your supplies. The bid should include a volume discount that will help you reduce your inventory cost. Secondary to receiving a discount on your supplies, developing a relationship with your vendor will further reduce your expenses through a continual review process. This process will enable you and your vendor to review new products and continually evaluate the products you use, ensuring you are maintaining the most cost-effective inventory.

Keeping control of the vehicles in your shop is another inventory issue but that would fit better in an article on production control, which I will cover at another time. The extra quart of tint on your mixing machine will be covered when I talk about savings in the mixing room.