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

Bring products closer to the customer

Place current products closer to current customer's location of purchase or use

No.	SIC	Year	Note
1	2844	1991	Compaq doubled its distribution outlets from 3000 to 6000 by end of 1992 and enlarged its customer support staff by 40 by redeploying workers from mfg., quality control, and other parts of the company.
2	3523	1988	John Deere has a parts distribution center that offers parts for models up to 40 years old that is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Deere also has locations in the heartland where they are easily accessible to farmers.
3	3570	1992	Compaq offers a free one-year, on-site limited warranty that covers "just about anything that could happen to your COMPAQ hardware, anywhere it happens in the U.S. or Canada.
4	3577	2002	About 90% of the company's 6,000 employees can access the wireless network at any of Novell's 96 offices worldwide.
5	7299	2002	Recently, Coinstar planned to launch a program with Prizm Technology to allow prepaid mobile phone users to refresh their account balances at Coinstar change centers in three U.S. cities. The centers would allow users to simply enter their mobile phone numbers and then insert cash, which would be directly deposited into their mobile phone accounts.

<<Return to Maintain Steps