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

1.
Money – Reduce the money the customer uses with the product

b. Reduce the customer's spending on People, Purchases or Capital costs the customer uses with the product itself

People costs

Substitute technology for people

No.	SIC	Year	Note
1	3600	2002	The new trend in the hyper-competitive data storage industry is to consolidate large numbers of smaller machines, simplifying administrative chores. In the past, computer technicians might take days to allocate increased storage capacity to a particular software application. The newest hardware can complete that chore in minutes, giving companies increased flexibility.
2	3661	2003	Cognex Corp makes vision systems, gear that can be used to inspect computer chips and circuit boards to ensure proper manufacturing. The In-Sight Vision Sensor is the size of a small cell phone and can be applied to almost all types of manufacturing processes. It is priced from $4,000 to $5,000 compared with $12,000 for high-end chip products. The company is also working on a people sensor that will detect and count people to ensure security at airports and government buildings.
3	3674	2002	Radio frequency identification (RFID) is used in oil and gas facilities to regulate the integrity and pressure of pipeline joints to prevent their dangerous rupturing.
4	4512	1987	American Airlines introduced Capture, a service that lets companies automate their travel & expense information, so that they can instantly see what is being booked. Idea to create an electronic T&E report for each traveler, eliminating need for paper.
5	7372	2003	Autodesk's drive to shift customers to subscriptions, in which they would pay annual fees to use the software instead of buying periodic upgrades, is making progress. Subscription revenue grew 6% and the company's overall revenue grew 4%.

<< Return to Maintain Steps