Unnecessary purchases can have a significant impact on your spend. But many buyers are unaware of exactly how much money they're wasting because they don't have accurate information about what they need, says Joel Roth in Case Studies: Saving Hard Dollars in MROP.

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For example, a bearings manufacturer discovered it was stocking expensive replacement parts based on an outdated machine census. As a result, the storeroom was buy parts for machines that weren't in use. Updating the records resulted in savings of over $600,000.

The same principle can be applied across any company. Don't simply rely on a historical account of what is needed or place orders based on "that's what we bought in the past." Conduct an audit to evaluate your company's true MRO needs and adjust your orders to meet those needs.