Reduce the Units of Input Not Producing Output

Reduce units of Input (I) available but not producing Intermediate Cost Drivers (ICDs). This action makes Input levels more directly variable with the quantity of the ICD by reducing the amount of the available Input that is wasted or idle. For example, an employee (I) might produce one subassembly (ICD) per day. During that day, the employee spends a total of one hour waiting for parts for the subassembly. If the Company could eliminate that one lost hour of the employee's work day by providing parts in a more timely manner, the Company could reduce the number of employees (I) needed to produce the same subassembly (ICD) by 1/8th.

F. Speed the Process

2.
Perform previously sequential tasks concurrently

No.	Industry SIC	Year	Notes
1	0	1996	Traditionally, most companies perform financial analysis of product development only after much of the development work has been done, to then determine whether to continue investment. A financial analysis done early in the design process can accomplish much more.
2	2741	1991	UMI began moving manuscripts to the next step instead of waiting for corrections, and cut production time considerably.
3	2820	1989	Research involves improvement, managed evolution, and innovation; these should be complementary yet different processes. Example of DuPont's synthetic fibers: it immediately began work on inventing competing fibers, it improved nylon, and nylon was developed for women's stockings and then as automotive tire cord.
4	3325	2004	Most of its products are listed by building code agencies such as the Building Officials and Code Administrators. To get these listings, Simpson does extensive testing, which is witnessed and certified by independent engineers. Last summer the company kicked its testing process up a notch when it opened an engineering and research lab. The new gear lets Simpson test all its connector products as a system. In the past, it was able to test each connector only individually.
5	3570	1990	DEC started using concurrent engineering 4 years ago. This is a technique where product and process to make it are designed simultaneously.
6	3570	1992	DEC simplified its order fulfillment system. Order processors use an expert system to configure each product, then coordinate production and shipment of each part to one of DEC's new consolidation centers. Even before the component parts arrive, employees prepare the shipping documents and schedule a carrier for final delivery. The new process reduces the number of transactions, streamlines the distribution flow, improves delivery time, and increases the accuracy of orders.
7	3571	1988	With computer simulations, IBM can work in parallel instead of sequentially. Thus avoids the wait time built into sequence production.
8	3571	1988	Toyota Motor used an electronic data network to link salespeople directly to the shop floor, eliminating both batches and hierarchies. Before the new system, it took 4-6 weeks to deliver a new car. Now it takes 8 days.
9	3576	1999	Today Cisco sells nearly 78% of its gear over the Net, speeding up the process and wiping out costly and needless steps between order taking and delivery. This streamlined way of doing business has saved the company $1.5 billion over the past 3 years.
10	3589	1996	Raychem's Elo TouchSystems lowered its defect rate from 25% to 1% within months by changing the way it experimented with its production process. It designed experiments in which several variables were altered all at once.
11	3599	1988	Theta Resources uses a "parallel engineering" approach: project teams tackle various aspects of a program simultaneously. Teams are assembled from staff of designers, engineers, CAD/CAM specialists, and modeling and prototype specialists.
12	3663	1992	Motorola's government electronics group in Scottsdale, AZ has built a supplier network that allows the firm to pass computerized design drawings directly into suppliers' systems.
13	3674	2001	STMicroelectronics was to design and build the microchips that would provide the brains for a navigational mapping system to be installed in new Fiats and Peugeots. The carmakers needed those systems fast; customers were demanding them. Without navigation systems the carmakers would lose sales. STMicroelectronics is a truly global company and the highly specialized talent needed to do the job was scattered all over the world. Success would depend on contributions from a wide array of disciplines: chip design, engineering, fabrication, systems integration, quality control, packaging, marketing, sales and, of course, management. There was no way STMicroelectronics would achieve what it had to through traditional hierarchical, command-and-control management. These folks had to be gathered into a team, and the time, personal and cost factors would be too great to get them all into one place for the period required. It would have to be a virtual team, tied together by groupware.
14	3721	1993	Boeing is reducing expensive rework by using computers and teamwork to design simultaneously the 777 airliner and the machinery that will build it.
15	3861	1989	In designing its low-end microfilm machine, an assembler was added to the Kodak production group to ensure the new machine would be easy to assemble. Number of parts in machine was reduced.
16	3949	1996	Sports Authority invested in computer systems early on to monitor inventory at each store on a daily basis. Orders are automatically transmitted to suppliers, who ship to stores directly. Eliminates need for a distribution center.
17	3990	1988	Allen Bradley abandoned old "sequential" method of developing new industrial controls. Reduced result time by 1/3. Big 3 have adopted "parallel engineering" programs instead of sequential approach.
18	4513	2002	The Memphis, Tenn., Company plans to equip the 40,000 U.S. Couriers in its express-delivery unit with the devices over roughly the next two years. The computers, jointly developed with Motorola Inc., are expected to save each courier more than 10 seconds per pick-up stop, FedEx said. The company's current system, launched in 1986, requires drivers to return to their trucks in order to transmit information.
19	5961	1999	The real plus for Bluefly.com is that the Web lets it measure supply and demand right up to the minute. That allows it to move merchandise faster; price items more flexibly and target promotions.
20	7372	2004	Product life-cycle management (PLM) software is being embraced as a way of using software to manage a product from dawn to dusk of its like: from creation through development, manufacturing, testing, and then maintenance in the field. PLM links both well-known older programs such as CATIA with newer software that can perform such feats as simulating an assembly line or a whole new factory. PLM allows each function – design, development, and so on – to be tested concurrently on the screen, thus enabling engineers to create manufacturing layouts even as the product is being designed. Pioneering users like Pratt & Whitney Canada, General Motors, and IBM have saved hundreds of millions of dollars.

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