MPS Supply Management: Stop Overshipping and Start Saving

It is supposed to be a sign of great customer service­ to make sure your customers get their supplies before they run out. But it’s not always that simple.

If you structured your MPS contract on expected monthly volumes, auto-shipping toner based on cartridge yield might seem the easiest and most logical supply strategy. However, that proactive approach to supply management can cost thousands in unnecessary supply shipments.

MPS profitability hinges on tight control of service and supply costs. But in a manual or even semi-automated environment, missteps are hard to avoid—and they often go unnoticed until margins are already eroding. Here are areas where outdated supply processes can chip away at profitability:

1. Auto-shipping based on expected usage

Like the example above, you're often overdelivering when toner is shipped according to forecasted usage instead of actual device data. If users are printing less—or using less toner per page—you’ll burn through your margin by sending supplies that aren’t needed yet and sometimes never will be.

2. Lack of site-level visibility

Without clear visibility across all devices at a customer site, it’s easy to trigger multiple shipments within days of each other. One department calls in for a cartridge while another gets an automatic shipment. The result? Redundancy, waste, and unnecessary freight costs.

3. Premature toner replacements

Even when toner arrives on time, customer behavior can erode profitability. End users commonly replace toner at the first warning message—sometimes discarding cartridges with 20–30% of life remaining. Multiply that across an entire fleet, and the cost impact is staggering. This situation can be tricky to identify unless you can track toner levels when replacements are installed.

4. Back-to-back shipments to the same account

You sent your customer a replacement for black toner. Days later, a low toner alert on the magenta cartridge is triggered. Out goes another shipment. A week later, another device at the same site triggers another low-toner alert. Before you know it, you’ve sent 3 shipments to the exact location within a week. Without global visibility and intelligent alert capabilities, your shipping costs can put the squeeze on your profits.

5. Manual fulfilment processes

Price-checking across multiple vendors takes time. Being confident that current pricing and stock levels also burden manual order fulfilment. It’s possible to reduce the time spent on this type of clerical work and eliminate purchasing mistakes by completely automating this process. Modern workflows with electronic purchase orders and confirmations and the ability to shop from multiple vendors for best price options is an easy way to maximise your profit margins.

6. Disconnected systems and manual tracking

Without an integrated platform, tracking supply usage, order history, and device data requires much manual effort—and still leaves room for costly mistakes. Miscommunication between departments or a lack of real-time insights can easily result in missed savings and repeat inefficiencies. A missed order can result in having to expedite shipments, which is another costly expense.

Managing these pain points manually is costly, error-prone, and not scalable. The only sustainable way to preserve margins is by replacing estimates with real data, manual tracking with automated workflows, and guesswork with confidence.

For supply management, your MPS software should be providing you with the ability to:

• Monitor devices in real-time, across all makes and manufacturers
• Automate toner shipments based on actual usage
• Provide visibility into early replacements
• Consolidate shipments wherever possible
• Automate purchasing for lowest cost supplies
• Provide contract profitability data, down to the device level