How Can I Reduce Janitorial Inventory Without Running Out of Supplies?
Managing janitorial inventory can become a balancing act. Keep too much on hand, and you tie up money while filling valuable storage space. However, keep too little, and you risk running out of toilet paper, paper towels, soap, trash liners, or cleaning chemicals when you need them most.
Fortunately, you do not have to choose between an overcrowded supply room and empty shelves.
The key is building a smarter janitorial inventory management system based on what your facility actually uses. By tracking usage, reducing unnecessary products, setting reorder levels, and working with a dependable janitorial supplier, you can carry less inventory without increasing the risk of shortages.
Start With What Your Facility Actually Uses
Before changing your ordering process, take a close look at your current janitorial inventory.
Many facilities accumulate supplies over several years. As a result, storage rooms often contain duplicate chemicals, outdated dispenser refills, several sizes of trash liners, unused floor pads, and specialty products that employees rarely touch.
Therefore, start with a basic inventory count.
However, don’t simply count how many cases you have. Instead, determine how quickly your facility uses each product.
For example, knowing you have eight cases of paper towels tells you only part of the story. If you use two cases every week, you have roughly a month’s supply. On the other hand, if you use one case every two months, eight cases represent significant excess inventory.
Once you understand actual usage, purchasing becomes much easier.
Set PAR Levels for High-Use Janitorial Supplies
Next, establish a PAR level for your most important supplies.
A PAR level is simply the amount of a product you want to keep available based on normal usage and delivery frequency.
For example, suppose your facility uses four cases of toilet paper each week. Furthermore, suppose your janitorial supplier delivers every week. You probably don’t need 20 or 30 cases sitting in your building.
Instead, you could maintain enough product for normal usage plus a reasonable backup supply.
PAR levels work especially well for products such as toilet paper, paper towels, trash liners, hand soap, cleaning chemicals, gloves, floor pads, and microfiber products.
Once inventory reaches your reorder level, you place another order.
As a result, purchasing becomes predictable rather than reactive.
Reduce the Number of Cleaning Products You Stock
One of the easiest ways to reduce janitorial inventory is to reduce the number of different products you purchase.
Walk through your chemical storage room and count the bottles.
Do you have several glass cleaners? Multiple restroom cleaners? Three different degreasers? Several general-purpose cleaners?
If so, you may be carrying unnecessary inventory.
Instead, look for products that can handle several cleaning applications. For example, a quality multi-purpose cleaner may replace several specialty products.
Additionally, standardized products make employee training easier. Your staff no longer has to remember which of six similar chemicals should be used for a particular task.
Consequently, product consolidation can reduce inventory, simplify purchasing, and decrease chemical waste at the same time.
Standardize Your Paper and Soap Dispensers
Dispensers are another area where facilities often carry too much inventory.
For example, one building may have several types of paper towel dispensers installed over the years. Unfortunately, each dispenser may require a different refill.
Now the facility must stock three or four paper towel products instead of one.
The same problem often occurs with toilet paper, hand soap, and hand sanitizer.
Therefore, consider standardizing dispensing systems throughout your facility.
By using the same towel, tissue, or soap system in multiple areas, you can dramatically reduce the number of SKUs you need to keep in stock.
Furthermore, supplies can easily move between departments or buildings when everyone uses the same system.
Use Dilution Control to Reduce Chemical Inventory
Cleaning chemicals can take up a surprising amount of storage space.
Ready-to-use chemicals are convenient. However, you are essentially storing large amounts of water along with the active cleaning ingredients.
Concentrated chemicals paired with a chemical dilution control system can provide a much more efficient solution.
A single container of concentrate can produce many bottles or mop buckets of ready-to-use cleaning solution. Therefore, facilities can keep significantly less physical inventory on the shelf.
Additionally, dilution control systems automatically mix chemicals at the proper ratio.
That matters because employees often use too much chemical when manually mixing products. More chemical does not necessarily mean a cleaner floor. In fact, excessive chemical can increase costs and even leave residue behind.
As a result, dilution control can help reduce both janitorial inventory and chemical waste.
Keep Safety Stock for Critical Supplies
Reducing inventory does not mean eliminating your backup supply.
Some janitorial products are simply too important to run out of.
Toilet paper is an obvious example. However, paper towels, hand soap, trash liners, disinfectants, and other essential supplies may also require a safety reserve.
Therefore, identify the products that would create a serious problem if you ran out.
Then, establish a reasonable amount of safety stock for those items.
However, avoid treating every janitorial product as critical. Otherwise, your safety stock quickly becomes excess inventory.
The goal is to protect your facility against unexpected demand without turning your supply closet into a warehouse.
Order Smaller Quantities More Frequently
Many facilities place large janitorial supply orders because they are worried about shortages.
However, bigger orders are not always better.
If your supplier offers dependable delivery, smaller and more frequent orders can actually improve inventory control.
For example, instead of keeping two or three months of paper products in your facility, you might keep several weeks of inventory and replenish it regularly.
As a result, you free up storage space and reduce the amount of money sitting on your shelves.
Furthermore, frequent ordering allows you to adjust faster when usage changes.
Organize Your Janitorial Supply Room
Sometimes facilities don’t have an inventory problem. Instead, they have a visibility problem.
If employees cannot easily see what is available, they may order products unnecessarily.
For example, several cases of trash liners might be hidden behind boxes of paper towels. Someone assumes the liners are gone and orders more.
Suddenly, you have twice as much inventory as you need.
Therefore, assign a specific location to each product. Additionally, label shelves clearly and keep similar products together.
Whenever possible, use older inventory first. Place newly delivered products behind existing stock so employees naturally use the oldest products before opening new cases.
A clean and organized janitorial supply room makes inventory easier to count, manage, and reorder.
Watch for Changes in Supply Usage
Once you begin tracking inventory, you gain another important advantage: you can identify waste.
For example, suppose a building normally uses four cases of trash liners each month. Suddenly, it starts using seven.
Something changed.
Perhaps employees are replacing liners unnecessarily. Maybe occupancy increased. Alternatively, another department may be taking supplies without recording them.
The same thing can happen with toilet paper, paper towels, hand soap, chemicals, and other janitorial supplies.
Therefore, don’t only ask, “How much inventory do we have?”
Also ask, “Why are we using this much?”
That simple question can uncover significant savings.
Work With Your Janitorial Supplier
Your janitorial supplier should do more than deliver boxes.
A good supplier can help you evaluate usage, consolidate products, select better dispensing systems, establish ordering schedules, and identify products that may be creating unnecessary costs.
Additionally, a dependable supplier allows you to maintain leaner inventory because you know replacement products are readily available.
At ChemSource Direct, we work with facilities to look beyond individual products. Instead, we help customers build practical cleaning and supply systems that make sense for their buildings.
Sometimes the best way to reduce supply costs isn’t negotiating a few cents off a case. Instead, it is changing how the facility purchases, stores, dispenses, and uses those supplies.
Frequently Asked Questions About Janitorial Inventory
How much janitorial inventory should I keep on hand?
The right amount depends on your normal usage, available storage, supplier delivery schedule, and product lead times. Generally, keep enough inventory to cover normal consumption plus a reasonable safety stock for critical supplies.
What janitorial supplies should I always keep in stock?
Most facilities should prioritize toilet paper, paper towels, hand soap, trash liners, essential cleaning chemicals, and other products required for daily operations.
What is a PAR level for janitorial supplies?
A PAR level is the target quantity of a product your facility wants to keep available. Once inventory falls below a predetermined point, you reorder enough product to return to the desired level.
How can I reduce cleaning chemical inventory?
Start by eliminating duplicate products. Additionally, consider concentrated chemicals and dilution control systems. These systems can produce large amounts of ready-to-use cleaning solution from a smaller amount of concentrate.
Can standardizing dispensers reduce supply costs?
Yes. Standardizing paper towel, toilet tissue, soap, and chemical dispensers can reduce the number of different refill products your facility must purchase and store. Furthermore, standardization makes ordering and inventory management much easier.
How often should I count janitorial inventory?
High-use products should generally be checked weekly or before each regular order. However, the best schedule depends on your facility’s usage and delivery frequency.
Reduce Inventory Without Increasing Your Risk
Ultimately, reducing janitorial inventory isn’t about having fewer supplies simply for the sake of having fewer supplies.
Instead, it’s about having better control over what you purchase and use.
Start by tracking actual consumption. Then, establish PAR levels, consolidate unnecessary products, standardize dispensers, consider dilution control, and maintain reasonable safety stock for essential items.
Most importantly, match your inventory levels to a dependable delivery schedule.
When you put these strategies together, you can reduce excess inventory while actually lowering your chances of running out.
At ChemSource Direct, we can help you evaluate your current janitorial supply program and identify opportunities to simplify products, improve dispensing systems, reduce chemical waste, and better manage inventory.
If your janitorial closets are overflowing but you still find yourself placing emergency orders, give ChemSource Direct a call at 336-515-9990. We can help you build a smarter supply system that keeps the products you need on hand without filling your facility with inventory you don’t need.