I've seen quite often one department is throwing away things while another department is buying more of those same things. The left hand doesn't talk to the right and most people simply don't care, it's not money out of their pocket. Drives me nuts though, I hate waste, and corporations are often incredibly wastedful, yet they're happy to cut amenities and benefits to save a few bucks.
Never stiff your employees over a few dollars unless you are firing them immediately after the fact.
Another slightly divergent angle, is the way different industries often use the same equipment, but have no inkling of this.
A case in point, was where a TV Studio was spending big bucks sending the wheels off camera dollies back to the UK for retreading with appropriate "magic" stuff.
This was expensive, incredibly time consuming, & meant the dolly concerned was out of service for long periods.
One of the Techs (not me) checked around, & found that a local company used the same material for the wheels of hospital trolleys, tables, etc.
The upshot was that they could get all four wheels on the dolly done locally for the price of one wheel done in the UK, with a two week maximum turnaround, compared to two plus months.
One of my jobs, for my sins, in a previous job was to fix "dehydrators".
These were used to pressurise large coaxial feeders with dry air to prevent moisture ingress.
They had a lot of black nylon tubing between various parts & for the outlet.
As they came, they used brass fittings wnich included "olives"as a vital part of the sealing function.
The "olives" were effectively "consumables" as after one use, they usually would no longer seal.
We quickly used up our inadequate quota of spares, so, armed with a handful of "petty cash", I set off to the last place we had bought such bits.
They didn't have any that size, & couldn't tell when they were likely to get some more, so I was cast back on my own resources.
Looking through the "Yellow Pages", I found a likely contender.
They didn't have the parts, but pointed out that "the world had moved on", & the brass fittings had been replaced with nylon self locking fittings.
These were a "dream" to fit, so we went over to them.
When I changed employer, the TV Studio were in the process of moving & upgrading their Earth Station, which used the same sort of dehydrators.
Unfortunately, they also still had the brass fittings.
This company had their own "pet" source of the fittings, so, again, I set out with a handful of petty cash. (as a "noob"in this firm, I didn't care to "make waves" & bring up the new type in discussion).
Same story :- "Sorry, out of stock, dunno if we will stock them again!", so I went to the other place & bought the nylon ones.
I returned to work in some trepidation, however, they not only approved, but were enthusiastic about the change.