Excessive Equipment Wear from Abrasive Bulk Materials

$20,000-$60,000 annually (operational inefficiency, labor hours spent categorizing invoices, incorrect cost allocations affecting product costing, delayed variance analysis) • $30,000-$80,000 annually (excess inventory carrying costs, expedited shipping premiums, production downtime waiting for parts, lost orders) • $50,000-$150,000 annually (emergency replacements, expedited freight, unplanned labor, safety incident investigation if failure causes injury)

Expense coding done post-hoc by accounts payable clerk with no context; wear-related costs tagged as 'repairs' vs 'capital' based on invoice description, not actual root cause; historical data mined from GL using keyword searches • Maintenance costs absorbed as overhead rather than tracked to root cause; capital budgeting based on prior-year actuals without trend analysis; cost justification for upgrades done retroactively after failures occur; manual cost allocation via spreadsheet roll-ups • Manual inventory checks via warehouse walks; replacements ordered based on memory of 'last time we needed parts'; safety stock quantities guessed at budget meetings; supplier relationship management via personal contacts