Final Customer Purchasing from the Product Producer
Use Steps: Use steps include all the customer's value added activities or the consumption of the product itself. These steps include all the costs the customer incurs in employing the product in its intended use.
B.
Resources: Reduce resources required for the use of the product
1.
Money: Reduce the money the customer uses with the product. For more ideas on using pricing, please see the Improve/Pricing section of StrategyStreet.
B. Reduce the customer's spending on people, purchases or capital costs the customer uses with the product itself
Purchase costs used with the product itself
Reduce purchases of items used with the product itself
Enable product to use lower cost purchases
| No. | SIC | Year | Note |
| 1 | 3500 | 1989 | Some fax machines can delay sending until night, when telephone rates are lowest. |
| 2 | 3572 | 1986 | PA has improved the performance of optical-disk storage systems. Allows a laser of much lower power to record digital data, which trims the cost of the disk-drive system. |
| 3 | 3575 | 1989 | With HP's Unix operating system, users would be free to build up a set of computing platforms from multiple vendors–they wouldn't be tied down to a single vendor as they are now with the Digital VAX architecture. |
| 4 | 3577 | 1987 | Hitachi introduced a color transfer printer that uses plain paper and low-cost ribbon to reduce the cost of each printed page. |
| 5 | 3674 | 2001 | Advance Micro Devices worked with partners to develop chipsets that enhanced performance and reduced the costs of other parts of the computer. The technology, called DDRAM, doubled the transfer speed of data and allowed AMD's Athlon processors to outperform Pentiums with higher speed ratings. Intel refused to build DDRAM chipsets, forcing many companies to switch to AMD. This move pushed AMD's market share to 20% from 13% in two years and gave them claim to the first PC microprocessor whose speed measured one gigahertz. |
| 6 | 3861 | 2000 | Sanyo this fall will introduce a new kind of compact magneto-optical storage device that will cost only a sixth as much as the flash memories now used; it will have ten times the capacity – enough to hold over 500 pictures at high resolution. At $20 per 730-megabyte disk, a picture will cost about 3 cents to store, making digital storage far cheaper than film. The cameras have the added advantage that they can be plugged into a computer or a mobile phone. The improved quality means more than 10 million digital cameras will be sold worldwide next year, compared with 5.4 million sold in 1999 and 7.5 million this year. |
| 7 | 3900 | 2003 | Zimmer's latest endeavor- minimally invasive surgery- should help the company maintain its growth pace. At places like Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center in Chicago, surgeons working with Zimmer now replace hips on an outpatient basis. |
| 8 | 4813 | 2002 | Low rates have been a reason for the success. Even if VoIP calls aren't free, they're still much cheaper than conventional calls, which can cost anywhere from $0.25 to $2.50 a minute. Routing calls over an IP network can cut the cost 75% to 90%. |
| 9 | 4899 | 2002 | FHP has developed a way to broaden the deployment of 802.11 networks- the broadband wireless technology- and make it even more mobile. Companies, schools, and even consumers could soon establish 802.11 connections in places that don't have Ethernet cable connections. |
| 10 | 4911 | 1987 | Scientist invented a commercial electrical generator powered by waves in the ocean. Power from the system should cost about 3 cents per kwh. That price is about 1/5 the cost of electricity from diesel-powered generators. |
| 11 | 4911 | 1988 | One Florida electric company installed radio-controlled switches on water heaters & swimming pool pumps of willing homeowners, allowing devices to be turned off during peak consumption times. Others give rebates for energy-efficient refrigerators. |
| 12 | 7011 | 2004 | Timeshares offer features that regular hotels don't, such as full kitchens and separate bedrooms for the kids. |
| 13 | 7372 | 1990 | Barrister bought most of Legal Eagle in order to offer software that runs on IBM machines. |
| 14 | 7372 | 2004 | Nintendo and Sega made it risky for their development partners to increase the variety of the games because of the high up front investments to develop the software and load it onto expensive cartridges. Sony used commodity disks. |
| 15 | 8742 | 2004 | Today a growing breed of consultants uses sophisticated computer programs to help corporate clients negotiate aggressive shipping discounts. |
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