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Savings from purchasing activities are achieved by negotiations and shopping, but they also can be obtai..." />

Save by Changing the Specifications

Date: 03/01/2012

Savings from purchasing activities are achieved by negotiations and shopping, but they also can be obtained by changing the product’s specifications. Changing the specs doesn’t necessarily lower the quality, but care must be taken to avoid doing so if the intent is to keep all the functions and features that were in place before the change. Here are some ways that specifications or product descriptions can be changed to reduce cost.

Reduce unnecessary thickness of the product.

Change the material from a high priced wood to a lower priced wood.

Change wood to plastic.

Change the grade of metal used. Change the type of plastic used.

Change from a metal casting to a stamping.

Reduce the weight of paper to reduce the cost of both the paper and postage.

Change custom colors of printed material to standard colors to reduce the cost of ink.

Redesign cartons to save on shipping cost.

Revise screw and bolt sizes to reduce the number of items. This saves by obtaining economies of scale, a higher volume for a few items and eliminating low volume items altogether.

Change paint or coating specifications to increase the time when repainting will be necessary. This may increase the cost of the paint per gallon but be more than offset by the labor saved.



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