Most people know the importance of intelligent spending. But how do companies “spend intelligently?”

How to Spend Intelligently

There a lot of ways to spend intelligently, including:

• Ensuring that you are buying what you need and what you will use within a reasonable timeframe,
• Finding the best value items (a combination of price and quality),
• Negotiating better pricing for existing items,
• Being innovative with how you utilize your supplier base, and
• Being cost conscious about the resources you have on hand.

Intelligent Spending at Fastco

Intelligent spending innovations at Fastco this year included:

• Negotiating material costs as practicable
• Oil conservation efforts
• A cost conscious focus on repairs, supplies, and contracts
• Ongoing market testing in our Purchasing Department

Be Intelligent with Usage

Spending intelligently doesn’t strictly apply to buying things. Resources such as labor, machine time, and tool life all have a dollar value.

Here are some ways that Fastco “spent intelligently” through conserving resources in 2023:

• Improved tooling performance by 50%
• Reduced scrap as a percent of sales by over 1%
• Implemented process improvements to increase uptime by 18%
• Developed an ergonomic solution to dump pans, saving labor time and effort

It is also important to note that solid setups can help improve die life. Our Tool Room also churns out high-quality tooling that lasts longer, saving the company time and money.

At Fastco, we are always striving to meet customer expectations and add value to our community through continuous innovation. Spending intelligently is one way that we can achieve that goal.

by Aaron Headrick, Purchasing Manager, and Bethany Tap, Sales & Estimating Team Leader