GPI 293 – Start a suggestion campaign for rooting out waste. Give awards regularly for the best money-saving ideas!

Your firm buys lots of goods and services every day and most likely wastes or tosses things away that have value. Hold a suggestion campaign and give monetary awards for the top cost saving ideas submitted to find these savings. Once your employees see you begin handing out awards such as cash, prepaid debit cards, televisions, smartphones or maybe the payment of their next month’s phone bill, they will pay attention. You will start to get more suggestions. Some ideas will be minor or worthless but the effort to get your employees thinking is worth it. Your management will be educated quickly as to what should not be tossed once they discover what is going out in the company scrap bins or wastebaskets regularly.

Open the program to everyone. Do not limit the awards to only your employees. Put the details of your program on your display, poster and suggestion forms. Make them available for visitors, customers, vendors, truck drivers or the mail man. Let the UPS delivery man sign up as well as the lady who replenishes your candy machines. The man who hauls your trash certainly has ideas as well as anyone entering your lobby looking for employment. All of them have ideas that you may not possess. Give them money when they make money for you.

Ideas you may get from your waste program:

Bubblewrap, packaging peanuts, cardboard dividers, packaging materials constantly coming into the receiving department that can reused in shipping and the office.
File folders (turn them over to the opposite side for use), put white stickers over written labels to reuse.
Unused office supplies can be turned in for either a credit to your current supplier, or a discount to a new vendor who wants your business.
Unused office supplies can be donated to a non-profit and submitted for a tax deduction for business taxes (get a receipt).
Scan all company records versus keeping hard copies off site and paying monthly fees.
Increase employee benefits without costing the company (outside credit union membership, associated vendor benefits for employees, local businesses encouraged to advertise to your employees free, your company bank may offer free checking to your employees as long as you keep your lockbox at their bank).
Unutilized truck and trailer miles; company trucks not productive on return hauls.
Cut down on overnight freight costs; mail two day mail or ‘slow’ cheaper mail.
Energy savers can be fit on plant and equipment when not in use.
Automatic light dimmers or turn off switches when people leave offices or rooms.
Study all sales taxes paid in various states and plant locations.
Sales taxes paid on credit card bills are overlooked; too much is paid because some purchases are exempt.

Steps ensure a successful waste reduction campaign:

Anonymity: Offer anonymity for any suggestion. Some people do not want their supervisor to know about their ideas for a host of reasons.
Money sent home: Offer to send payments directly to the participant’s house. The winner may be a visitor, sales rep from a vendor’s facility, passerby looking for work or even a secret competitor who would be willing to give you great ideas but does not want his identify published anywhere.
Publish nameless ideas: Publish the winner’s idea without the name (if that is requested).
Post ideas to stir up others: Write up the winning ideas and post them (with or without names). Posting and sharing the ideas will make others think that their own ideas might be better and encourage more to participate.
Published ideas generate more ideas: Publishing ideas generates new ideas so you may get more related ideas stemming from the ones you allow everyone to see.