Everyone wants their employees to be optimally protected at work, so that they can return home safe and sound in the evening.
But the purchase process takes a lot of time.
Do you also want to get through this process faster and easier?
Here are our best tips to make the safety equipment purchasing process faster and more efficient.
- Build a good foundation and secure it via a management platform
- Identify alternatives for your critical products
- Use a PunchOut catalogue
- Automate your ordering process with EDI
- Let your employees order themselves
- Utilise a distribution solution
1. Build a good foundation and secure it via a management platform
Selecting the right personal protective equipment for each residual risk within your organisation is a real challenge.
Not just because of the large range and complex standards involved. But also because many parties are involved.
- There are many legal responsibilities when purchasing protective equipment. Just think of the role of the internal prevention service, the committee, the external service, the employer, and the employee.
- There are also parties involved within your organisation: logistics, warehouse, internal distribution, purchasing department, maintenance, etc.
Each of these stakeholders has different interests to take into account.
Therefore, establish a fixed product range on the basis of the risk inventory. That gives you a stable foundation.
You can also keep track of this in a PPE matrix.
If necessary, get assistance from your dedicated safety equipment partner. Thanks to their in-depth knowledge of the market and their contacts with various manufacturers, they are always able to provide brand-independent advice.
This way, you can select those products that offer the right protection, are sufficiently comfortable, are available quickly, and have the right price/quality ratio.
The satisfaction of all parties involved comes as an added bonus.
Once your product range has been put together, you can secure it by running your purchases through a management platform.
Naturally, you must make sure that only products from your selected product range can be chosen.
- You no longer need to send out requests for price quotes as the prices were discussed beforehand and laid down in a contract.
- Your orders will always be processed on the basis of these prices.
- You no longer have to go looking for the right product either.
You can also link products to applications or departments via the vdp.com management platform.
Optimise your own process via vdp.com
Vdp.com is the most complete safety equipment management platform for any organisation that wants its employees to work safely.
You manage and order your own product range and gain insight into your consumed products.
Contact us or book a free demo
2. Identify alternatives for your critical products
Protective equipment is crucial for keeping your production process or your activities safe. Sometimes a piece of protective equipment is so crucial that its absence can bring production to a halt.
Of course, it’s your safety partner’s job to ensure the supply of these products.
Unfortunately, despite the efforts made, you can never fully rule out the possibility that products may still be unavailable…
When you define alternatives for the critical products in your organisation in advance, you can switch faster when needed.
It can also help to select products that are made locally. Then you eliminate the uncertain factor of transport.
3. Make your process more efficient with a PunchOut catalogue
Managing master data is a challenge for any organisation. Do you want to jettison part of this task and still work in your own ERP package?
Then use PunchOut. This allows you to log into your partner’s e-shop securely and select the desired products from your company’s product range.
After filling your shopping cart, you will return to your familiar ERP environment. You still follow your own approval process here.
This means:
- you always have access to the latest prices and delivery times,
- you have all the essential product information at your disposal without having to manage it yourself in your ERP package,
- you reduce errors because both parties are using the same information.
Integrate PunchOut into your ERP
Contact us and we’ll map out how you can integrate PunchOut into your ordering process.
4. Automate your ordering process with EDI
Did you know that you can still save up to 35% on administrative costs and up to 25% on your time even if your purchasing process is already highly automated?
Thanks to EDI (Electronic Data Interchange), you can link your own ERP package to that of your supplier.
EDI is a collective term for the electronic exchange of documents such as orders, order confirmations, and invoices. In addition to saving time and money, ordering via EDI also means a lower error rate in deliveries and invoices.
You will also receive an order confirmation and information about the delivery period in no time.
Setting up EDI with Vandeputte
Would you like to share your most important documents with us faster and with fewer errors?
Contact us and we’ll explain how you can integrate EDI into your ordering process.
5. Let your employees order themselves
More and more companies are letting employees order their own protective equipment.
They know best what size they need, when something needs replacing, and what they need to work safely.
Give your employees access to the approved products on your supplier’s website or online ordering platform.
Have the goods delivered to the company, to the employee’s home, or to a distribution machine.
Set rules and determine what budgets they are not allowed to exceed. Also indicate which cost centre or department someone belongs to so that invoices contain this information.
The Financial Department then immediately receives a correct invoice and can allocate the costs to the correct cost centre. This greatly reduces the administrative work!
6. Utilise a distribution solution
Thanks to distribution machines, your employees have 24/7 access to available safety materials.
As soon as a product runs out, a new order is automatically created with your trusted safety partner. This is more pleasant for the employees and for you.
And of course, as a buyer, you can track the availability and consumption of the products.
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