Not more than five years ago, warehouse managers were glad to have their scrap forklift batteries removed for free or a core charge refund.

Today warehouse managers have options due to regulatory changes and an increase in worldwide demand for lead.  This gives warehouse manager’s a couple of options for disposal.

One option is to sell it back to the manufacturer.  The customer sends scrap batteries back to the distributor for credits toward the purchase of new batteries.  This is recommended for a customer who will have loads under 44,000 lbs.   Unfortunately, the customer doesn’t get an additional revenue stream or directly profit from increasing lead charges.

A second option would be to sell it through a broker.  Brokers have bulk agreements with smelters and can pay a top price.  They will pay you based on a present Spot Market Pricing of Steel Cased Lead / Acid Battery Scrap and the Quantity of batteries that you want to get rid of.   Additionally, brokers educate the customer on packaging guidelines dictated by DOT.   This makes the implementation of a recycling program much easier. However, the option is only available for loads above a truckload (44,000 lbs.).  

Brokers are really only interested in Flooded Cell Batteries (these are the type of Batteries that have the removable tops where you add water).  They will however take Maintenance Free Batteries and even give you something for them. 

The markets are strong and should be for some time. So no matter which option you choose, now is a great time to start making money on those old batteries.  In fact, run a reverse auction for this and you will be sure that you get the best price for your scrap.

For more information on SafeSourcing and how we can assist your company with sourcing this category or any others, please contact a Customer Service Representative for more information.

We look forward to and appreciate your comments.

The May issue of RetailSolutionsOnline.com has an article by Erin Harris about the shift that is occurring in the retail industry “from focusing on labor just as a cost center to viewing their labor pool as a valued asset to drive customer centricity.”

When you think about all of the elements that contribute to the employee life cycle, you begin to see many opportunities for creative sourcing that can allow a retailer to really get the most out of their workforce.  Today we will be looking at a few of these to better understand how they can be positively affected by a good sourcing strategy.

Recruiting – The process of recruiting employees is such an important first step in getting the right employees for your business.  With so many local, regional and national players in the recruiting space and because so many retailers have the recruiting process happening in different ways all over the company, this is a spend category that may initially begin as an RFP.   A quality RFP can not only help to understand the offerings of the vendors themselves but also to help you collect and understand what your own company is doing in this area.

Task Management – Some categories such as Task Management solutions are a little more focused and understanding the side-by-side features as well as how your company is handling the process is a little easier.  As a result, Task Management may a little easier sourced and is something that a strong competitive bid collection to compress the vendors’ pricing is all that is needed.  If it makes sense, this is a good path to follow because it allows you tighter, more competitive pricing, provides a detailed list of where these prices are coming from as well as a realization of savings and services that can start within weeks of the event.

Performance monitoring – One thing that is often overlooked in the process of improving the management of your workforce is the overseeing channel that monitors how you and your company and employees are doing.  Understanding the options for Customer Satisfaction monitoring and how they should be integrated into your WFM processes are important pieces to this puzzle.  These services can be sourced as many of the other items of your business are and should be part of how you evaluate how your associates are handling your customers.

Regardless of which pieces of the employee lifecycle you choose to address first in improving your workforce management, know that there are companies who can help you research and collect the information you need to make the most out of your selection decisions.

For more information on SafeSourcing and how we can assist with this process, please contact a Customer Service Representative for more information.

We look forward to and appreciate your comments.

There are quite a number of educational sites that procurement professionals can visit in order to educate themselves as to best practices (I hate that term), strategy development, execution management and reporting. Some companies refer to themselves as e-procurement companies, some as reverse auction companies and others as strategic sourcing companies. Most will have an outline as to their implementation ideas somewhere on their website. It might be in a WIKI, a blog archive or in a products and services tab. The point is you can probably find one pretty easily and most likely it is better than what your company already has in place.

Typically the proof is in the pudding, which is to say there are many tools out there, but the services delivery model and what it is based on will be what determines how strategic you become if you follow it. I like to break the tools and services into three areas which are;

1. Analyze
2. Assess
3. Source

These areas can then be expanded to support most strategic platforms tools and services.

If your company is not particularly strategic, it does not mean that you can’t be. Who knows, you might event get noticed.

We look forward to and appreciate your comments.