Supply Management

CORRECTION

Custodial Products — Capital Equipment Requests

In the article "Custodial Products - Capital Equipment Purchases" in Postal Bulletin 22176 (3-16-06, page 86), the first sentence of the second paragraph stated the dollar amount for equipment requests incorrectly. The corrected sentence is given below with the correct dollar amount shown in bold.

In the past, equipment requests over $10,000 have been processed through the Windsor, CT; Chicago, IL; San Francisco, CA; and Memphis, TN, Purchasing Service Centers (PSCs).

Direct any questions regarding this procedural change to the contracting officer for custodial products and equipment, Pat Chumney, by telephone at 214-819-7105, or by e-mail at Patricia.M. Chumney@usps.gov.

— National Supply Management Programs,
Supply Management, 3-30-06

NOTICE

Used Toner Cartridge Return Agreements Using Business Reply Mail Labels Benefit Postal Service

In an effort to generate revenue for the Postal ServiceTM, the Office Products & Utilities Category Management Center (OPU-CMC) has established agreements with the following three suppliers to accept used toner cartridges returned for recycling via Postal Service Business Reply Mail (BRM) labels. The OPU-CMC Web site, http://blue.usps.gov/purchase/supplies/sup_opu_2. htm, has links available to download BRM labels for the return of specific used cartridges. The links also are provided below.

1. Hewlett-Packard (HP) Toner: http://blue.usps.gov/purchase/supplies/sup_opu_mrlabel.htm

2. Ricoh (Copier Toner): http://blue.usps.gov/purchase/_doc/sup_copylabel.doc

3. Lexmark Toner: http://www.lexmark.com/vgn/images/portal/elpaso_79907.pdf

Unfortunately, toner manufacturers include return labels in their packaging that use competitor delivery services such as United Parcel Service (UPS), and neither the Postal Service nor its suppliers can control this practice. However, Postal Service employees do not have to use those pre-packaged labels. Whenever possible, employees should use the labels from the links provided to return used toner cartridges.

BRM labels have been established for the most popular toner cartridges used by the Postal Service. If the toner cartridge to be returned is not one that has a BRM label, the used cartridges - regardless of brand - can be given to the Boise Cascade Office Products (BCOP) Federal representative delivering an office supply order at the facility. Moreover, if there are large quantities of used toner cartridges that need to be returned, a special pick-up request may be made through BCOP Federal Customer Service at 800-229-USPS (8777). BCOP Federal is the national supplier of office products for the Postal Service.

— Office Products and Utilities Category Management
Center, Supply Management, 3-30-06

NOTICE

eSPIN — Enhanced Spare Parts Initiative

eSPIN (Enhanced Spare Parts INitiative) is a commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) system that will not only plan, forecast, and optimize inventory for item managers centrally, but also for maintenance field locations through the Maintenance Activity Reporting and Scheduling System (eMARS). This system will pull data from eMARS and the Material Distribution and Inventory Management System (MDIMS) to make new buy, repair, and transfer recommendations utilizing inventory at the Material Distribution Center (MDC) and field locations. Recommended orders will be generated in eSPIN and passed into MDIMS and eMARS. eMARS users will continue to approve the order recommendations in eMARS as they do today.

The eSPIN system will track new buy, transfer, and repair lead time for parts and supplies and recommend the most advantageous sources of supply. Key benefits of the system include the following:

• It will automatically recommend redistribution of "on- hand good" inventory versus recommending new purchases. Inventory transferred between locations will trigger journal voucher transactions to credit locations that share their excess inventory and charge locations that receive the inventory.

• eMARS will receive order and stocking recommendations from eSPIN based on forecast planning rather than re-order point calculations used today. Field locations will monitor forecast accuracies for their offices. They will also be able to request a forecast change if research shows a need.

• eSPIN will utilize total inventory (MDC plus field) when forecasting new buy recommendations to item managers. With this calculation, it should reduce the number of new buys.

• As machines are taken out of service or redistributed, the forecast for parts will adjust automatically as machine population is updated in eMARS at individual locations.

• Field locations will have total view of inventory at the MDC and field levels.

eSPIN was implemented for the item managers (MDC) in December 2005. eSPIN will begin making recommendations to eMARS on April 3, 2006.

See http://blue.usps.gov/purchase/operations/ops_ espin.htm for additional information.

— Capital Equipment Material Management,
Supply Management, 3-30-06