Buying time, saving money: by eliminating the paper chase and having standardized product selection in purchasing, AvalonBay is able to turn apartments more effectively.

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It takes a lot longer to fix a leaky, toilet when the maintenance technician is roaming the aisles of a hardware store looking for the right part. The process isn't any faster if the technician is waiting for a purchase-order request to be approved by someone at Corporate headquarters.

Those are two scenarios that AvalonBay once faced. But today, those delays have been all but eliminated through use of purchasing software that saves time and, even better, money.

Previously, maintenance technicians or their supervisors had to fill out forms, look up and enter transaction numbers and forward the paperwork (often via overnight mail) to the corporate office for payment

"Now, the paper chase has been eliminated," said Mike Nootens, Vice President of Engineering and Maintenance. "The savings on the cost of overnight mail delivery and the administrative costs associated with cutting manual checks--roughly $17 to $20 per order--make it worth it."

There are 180 communities and approximately 50,000 apartment homes in AvalonBay s portfolio, mostly in major metropolitan areas. Nootens said Avalon-Bays ability to purchase in bulk also trims the bottom line. He said the company spends approximately $70 million annually on maintenance parts.

"Because of the volume of maintenance parts purchasing we do, we might get a rebate based on hitting a total annual dollar figure or discounts simply because of the volume of sales for a particular product," Nootens said.

Nootens said the choice of most maintenance products or parts already has been decided by AvalonBay's procurement team. "This group has done the due diligence and comparison shopping," he said. "The [stock keeping unit] SKU numbers for products are already in the system. And if they need something that's not, there's a process for that to happen as well. Our technicians can make smart decisions. And because it is an electronic, standardized system, we can see what our maintenance staff is buying. We can run real-time reports each month to help track and control costs."

Nootens said ordering is done directly from the onsite level--not through the corporate office--and items then are delivered by the nearest distributor. Or, the technicians can pick up the order at the distributor's warehouse or have the distributor deliver the order to the community.

"We're in a situation in which we have to make apartment turns in five days or less," Nootens said. "For some of our communities, that's 20 per month or more in peak season. Spending our time wisely is very, important."

Paul R. Bergeron III is NAA's Director of Communications. He can be reached at [e-mail] or 703/797-0606.