The School Board of Sarasota County Sarasota, Florida GRADUATING TO A BETTER SUPPLY PROCESS SBSC’s strategy for parts and supplies has become increasingly efficient over time. Years ago, the individual facilities managers were responsible for purchasing – a decentralized, low-bid process that led to overbuying, excessive travel time for technicians, and a lack of engagement from non-strategic, often remote, suppliers. They took a step forward when they brought in an outside supplier to run a centralized crib, but the role of the supplier’s onsite representative was limited to placing web orders on their behalf. Processes were still manual, SBSC still owned the inventory, and they still had to handle and distribute the product themselves. Those gaps were filled when they partnered with Fastenal, which today oversees the flow of supplies across the district. The program is centered on an onsite Fastenal branch located within SBSC’s Zone 2 maintenance facility. Two full-time Fastenal employees manage roughly $150,000 worth of consigned onsite inventory, fulfill daily requests from the field (including sourcing specialty items when needed), and make daily deliveries to multiple buildings. Jody Dumas Executive Director of Facilities Planning and Construction Responsibilities: maintenance and custodial operations along with long-range planning and construction “For us, it’s a hands-off approach for parts and supplies. And that’s really what I wanted to have in the district – to have Fastenal come in, be integrated with our entire operation, and be able to get parts where we need them, when we need them, and how we need them. I’m a pretty demanding customer, so I asked that of them, and they’ve done a great job of doing that for us.” ELEMENTS OF EFFICIENCY ONSITE BRANCH Home to $150k worth of consigned inventory and two fulltime Fastenal employees, enabling the SBSC maintenance team to step away from inventory management and focus on repairs. VENDING Technicians are able to self-serve supplies via all five maintenance facilities. Cloud-based software tracks usage by individual and work order while providing a live view of current inventory levels. B2B INTEGRATION Vending transactions and web orders automatically flow to SBSC’s electronic work order system, tying every product to a specific project. SAFETY SUPPORT Providing expert consultation while taking on the heavy lifting of labor-intensive projects like ladder inspections. COOPERATIVE CONTRACT By utilizing a cooperative contract, SBSC was able to implement Fastenal’s onsite inventory management program without having to resolicit a contract for these services. The cooperative contract was already competitively solicited and fulfilled SBSC’s procurement policies, allowing for quick implementation.
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