Consolidated buying: one order, many products

When one supplier sells you many products, ordering them together shares the fixed cost of each order — freight, customs, paperwork.

Purchase order lineContainer fillFree freightThis week

Week 52

POs / year, separate: 20
POs / year, consolidated: 7
Cost / year, separate: $29,731
Cost / year, consolidated: $15,067
Savings: $14,664 (49%)
Order every: 8 weeks

Most of your products come from a handful of suppliers. A parts dealer might buy filters, bolts, seals and pumps from the same distributor in Miami. Every purchase order to that supplier pays the same fixed bill: the customs broker, the freight, the paperwork, someone receiving the container.

If each product is bought on its own schedule, that bill is paid again and again — often for half-empty containers that arrive a few days apart. The timeline above starts that way: every blue mark is a separate purchase order.

Consolidating means picking one rhythm for the supplier — say, an order every 8 weeks — and putting everything that is due on the same order. You pay the fixed cost once and spread it over many lines.

Not every product needs to ride every order. A fast mover goes on every one. A slow, cheap item can ride every second or third order: it carries a bit more stock, but saves a line on each order.

How the consolidated plan is built

1Pick a base cycle for the supplier. Expensive shipments push it longer; expensive stock pushes it shorter.
2Give each product a multiple: 1 = on every order, 2 = every second order, and so on. Slow, cheap items get higher multiples.
3Check each order against the supplier's rules: the minimum order value, the free-freight threshold and how full the container is. Pulling an item forward to reach free freight only makes sense if the freight saved is more than the extra stock costs.

The plan, product by product

Separate buying orders each product at its own economic quantity. The consolidated plan uses one base cycle and a multiple per product.

Product	Sold / year	Unit cost	Alone: order every	Consolidated: rides
Hydraulic filters	2,290	$45	12.6 wk	every order · 8 wk
Bucket teeth	1,388	$106	10.5 wk	every order · 8 wk
Track bolts	841	$34	24 wk	every order · 8 wk
Seal kits	510	$69	21.6 wk	every order · 8 wk
Brake pads	309	$92	24 wk	every order · 8 wk
Hydraulic hoses	187	$39	47.5 wk	every 2 orders · 16 wk
Bearings	113	$60	49.2 wk	every 2 orders · 16 wk
Alternators	69	$123	44 wk	every 2 orders · 16 wk

NexusChain does this for you

Procurement → Consolidated buying runs this same calculation for every supplier: it finds the best cycle and multiples, tells you which products must go on today's order, which can be pulled forward to reach the minimum or free freight, and how full the container will be.

Open Consolidated buying

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What to remember

Every purchase order pays a fixed cost: freight, customs, paperwork. Consolidating pays it once for many products.
Pick one ordering rhythm per supplier, and let each product ride every order or every k-th order.
Fast movers go on every order; slow, cheap items can skip some and carry a little more stock.
Fuller containers and free-freight thresholds are a bonus of consolidating — check them before you release each order.
The more expensive each shipment, the longer the cycle and the more you gain from ordering together.