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 custoemr must use with the product

Modify product to reduce maintenance
Reduce product or process components to reduce time in repair or maintenance
Standardize a variable product

Use a common standard

No.	SIC	Year	Note
1	2499	1987	Most food companies are developing products that can be heated in either conventional or microwave ovens, which entails some compromise of quality.
2	3571	2004	Many of the big server manufacturers still have a huge investment in proprietary server designs, and it costs a lot in the care and feeding of these product lines. The new future for servers is basically Intel-standard servers running Windows, Linux or Unix.
3	3571	1986	Digital has the capacity of computers to talk to each other seamlessly, and IBM doesn't have it. DEC offers compatible computers; IBM, a hodgepodge.
4	3571	1992	Five leaders of desktop computer industry agreed to establish common standards that will allow companies to more efficiently manage the PC's that they tie together in computer networks.
5	3571	1988	Name-brand IBM compatibles, such as Compaq or Tandy usually have designs that differ somewhat from IBM's products. Clones, though, are exactly the same size and shape, and most parts are interchangeable with those of old IBM computers.
6	3571	2003	Servers are shrinking in size as new smaller components emerge. That's helping drive down prices. The fastest growth area is in industry-standard servers. These are built to run on Intel Corp. chips with Microsoft Corp.'s Windows operating system. Such combinations are referred to as Wintel machines. Dell's server strategy focuses on these industry-standard servers. HP is the worldwide leader in sales of small and midsize Wintel servers.
7	3577	2005	SanDisk unveiled its latest USB flash drive product called the U3. U3 is a combination of software and design for a flash drive. Software developers can use U3 code for free, but SanDisk will charge U3 drive makers a licensing fee. The USB Flash Drive Alliance said it's changed its focus from a marketing group to a standards-setting body. The group include players like Microsoft.
8	3577	2004	New intelligence inside the latest Cisco gear will bring the many gadgets and the Internet together, from video-ready Internet phones to security-hardened switches and a speedy new router that can, in a single second, move 11 trillion bytes of data, or roughly 11 million novels.
9	3599	2004	A new industry trade group, the Semiconductor Test Consortium, is coming with standards for chip test gear. The big makers of chip test gear, aside from number one Advantest America, have not joined the group and oppose its plans, since standards would allow chipmakers to buy fewer testing machines. But the standards would cut down on the cost of making test machines as well, since test gear makers design their products from scratch with unique software.
10	3600	2003	Today more than 200 companies are trying to make Wi-Fi into a profitable product or service. Wi-Fi is a way to network computers or other devices via radio–without cables. Consumers can mix and match Wi-Fi products and 700 are on market.
11	3651	2003	Apple's iPod MP3 player was an instant hit when it was launched two years ago. It was head and shoulders above its rivals: easy to use, elegantly designed, and, best of all, held 1,000 songs. 18% of all digital music players sold in the U.S. were iPods last year. These sales, and the lofty price tag of $300 to $500 a pop, helped propel Apple's growth. Now Apple is planning to take its product to a whole new level. It is announcing a Windows version of the iTunes Music Store.
12	3661	2002	The Toshiba Pocket PC E740 has built in Wi-Fi connections and the memory can be expanded. However, it will run only for two hours with Wi-Fi turned on. Microsoft applications like Word, Excel and Powerpoint work well.
13	3694	1988	Mars Electronics' portable laser scan terminal is PC compatible and BASIC programmable.
14	3861	2000	Kodak is building Foto.net, a massive data network for digital images for consumers and retailers. It is investing equity in a handful of hot photo sites, launching Kodak's own internet business called PrintatKodak and selling online printing services.
15	4812	2004	Some 110 wireless carriers have made plans to offer WCDMA service, including AT&T and Cingular. 20 million WCDMA phones will be sold this year.
16	4812	2002	The new 3G technology's speeds are fast enough to beam hefty audio, video and voice and services seamlessly to globe-trotting cell phone users. The expected front runner technology behind 3G: Universal Mobile Telecommunications System, or UMTS which has been championed by Japan's dominant mobile carrier, NTT DoCoMo Inc. as well as a broad swath of wireless equipment makers and European wireless operators.

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