As your clients place greater downward pressure on the prices that you are able to charge for your work your margins are constantly being squeezed. According to a recent survey by the British Printing Industry Federation the average printing company will spend 40% of its turnover on materials and services used directly by jobs. The Shuttleworth Materials Management module will help you reduce the proportion of your turnover that you spend on Materials and thereby increase your bottom line profits.   These savings can come in various ways: The Purchasing element of Materials Management creates a discipline within a business that ensures that no order is placed without the relevant authority. Generally the people that are approved to place orders will negotiate on the prices rather than just accept the list price. This really does help you drive down the direct cost of production. Maximising the use of your Stocked Items enables you to reduce costs by ensuring that your stock holdings are appropriate to your needs. You don’t have cash tied up in stock unnecessarily and similarly the system ensures that you have the stock when you need it bringing to an end the spectres of standing machines and urgent delivery charges. By ensuring that your stocks are administered in an effective manner the overheads associated with keeping and delivering stocks are minimised. As well as saving you money it means that your staff can concentrate on adding value to your services. For many of our customers Material Management extends to their Finished Goods Stock area. Here the Shuttleworth system can manage your individual clients’ needs allowing them to call off their stock holding of products in an efficient and effective manner. As this module is a wholly integrated element to the Shuttleworth MIS it allows both you and your customer to take advantages of the economies of scale of producing a long run and then delivering in small quantities.   You will see from our CASE STUDIES that companies have achieved significant savings by being more effective with their purchasing and materials management.