Final Customer Purchasing from the Product Producer

Maintain Steps: Maintain steps include all activities required to keep the product in working order. These steps include the costs the customer incurs to diagnose and correct product problems.

B.
Resources: Reduce resources required for the use of the product

2. Time – Reduce the time the customer must spend with the product

b. Reduce steps the customer must use with the product

Reduce customer steps in the product process
Modify product to reduce maintenance
Increase the quality of the product to reduce customer time in repair

Reduce delivery errors or delays

No.	SIC	Year	Note
1	100	1986	One reason the Soviet Union buys wheat from the U.S. is that when it promises to deliver a half a million tons in the week of April 11, it generally arrives on time. The Argentines, who have only one suitable and overworked port, are often late.
2	3571	1999	In the past month, Sun acquired Star Division. The merger allows Sun to offer a more complete dot-com offering. Star Division deal gives Sun a suite of products similar to Microsoft Office. What makes Star really flexible is that it can be written onto and operate directly over the Web. Rather than load software for services, the programs reside in equipment in more central locations. This frees the customer from the continual need to upgrade that other computer users face.
3	3576	2001	Cisco still has a chokehold on the computer networks of virtually every major U.S. corporation and a growing presence inside local and global telecom networks. Components for some Cisco products, especially switches used in corporate computer networks, were in critically short supply. The company has a two-fold strategy to revitalize its supply chains: help contract manufacturer's accumulate parts and commit to buying specific quantities of components from key suppliers.
4	4213	1997	Serving all 48 contiguous states, WERN has focused on serving customers with time-sensitive/time-definite truckload shipping needs, seeking to compete on both service and price. The company pursues a power-lane strategy like most major TL carriers.
5	4513	1993	Fed Ex had a PowerShip program, in which a computer terminal was given to several thousand of the company's best customers. The terminal can be used to create address labels and routing instructions, and automatic billing.
6	4813	1990	US West offers phones with different rings to families whose children have a phone number of their own.
7	4813	2002	AT&T Wireless features high-rates but also offers an automatic dropped-call credit in which customers are reimbursed by any call that was cut off mid-conversation.
8	4813	2004	With 54% of the market between them, the new Cingular (30%) and Verizon Wireless (24%) are emerging as the monsters of the consolidating American cell phone market. For the Cingular/AT&T Wireless combination, size means newfound strength. The two networks are expected to mesh in a way that will help eliminate the dropped calls and spotty coverage that have bedeviled Cingular and AT&T Wireless. With 44 million subscribers, the new Cingular will easily be the biggest cell phone company in the country.
9	4900	1990	Utilities are using hand-held computers to read meters more quickly and efficiently.

<<Return to Maintain Steps