Increase the Output Over Which a Fixed Cost ICD is Used

This action reduces the quantity of a unique fixed cost ICD used to produce a unit of Output by increasing the units of Output. For example, a new product design, or a new process patent, are both ICDs that have virtually limitless capacity for use. These are fixed cost ICDs. You pay for them once and you can use them over a virtually unlimited amount of Output. Their ICD/O ratios are limited only by the current demand level for Output.

B.
Use fixed cost ICDs with more customers
By using fixed cost ICDs with more customer volume, the unit cost of the ICD declines as a component of the final Output cost.

Use fixed-cost ICDs with new customer segments. Sell ICDs in major cost functions of the company:
Sell Present ICDs

No.	Industry SIC	Year	Notes
1	5331	2004	While dollar stores still rely on low-income households for the majority of sales, some dollar store companies are moving up the retail food chain. Established retailers are looking for ways to fight back. Wal-Mart has tested a bargain-basement section in its stores called Pennies-n-Cents. Wal-Mart's chain of grocery stores called Neighborhood Markets, built as smaller alternatives to its traditional supercenter, may pose tougher competition for dollar stores because they are also inexpensive and convenient. Dollar General says competition just gives the segment that much more credibility. In November, Dollar General posted a 3.4% increase in same-store sales while Family Dollar saw such sales climb 5.2%. By comparison, Wal-Mart's sales edged up a mere 0.7%.
2	5511	2002	The Tweksburry dealership contracts with four auto-referral Web sites, like Autotel.com which send several hundred leads every month.
3	5541	2006	The discount dynasty in Wyoming, run by the Call family, keeps the gasoline cheap. The first chain, called Maverick, was started in the early 1960s. Today, it has about 175 stations across the Western U.S. and Canada. While other gas-station owners of the era bragged about good service, Maverick specialized in stripped down stations with gravel driveways and offices barely big enough to fit a desk. Maverick helped to pioneer the self-service pumps and gas station convenience stores in the region, slashing their labor costs and boosting their revenue with high margin items like milk and candy.
4	5699	2006	TheTieBar.com offers a tie-of-the-month option for customers. For $199 a year, customers receive one silk tie, designed by the company and manufactured in China, each month. This allows retailers to ensure a stable revenue stream and better control inventory. They take advantage of a more efficient business model.
5	5712	2002	Furniture.com, an old failure during the dot-com bubble, has announced plans to reintroduce its site as an online storefront for well-established furniture stores. Levitz Furniture and Seaman Furniture have both signed up.
6	5900	2006	Online clubs can be an efficient way of doing business. Either online or linked with a catalog or boutique, these plans offer a stable source of revenue. Because sales are fairly stable, retailers can seek out greater efficiencies of scale.
7	5941	2005	Sikko Snowboards was launched for kids who wanted to design their own $50 snowboard skins (vinyl graphics) on the web. The business sky-rocketed but not for that reason. The consumers weren't interested in customizing. The 10,000 online fanbase spent time on Sikko's site discussing hobbies and buying habits and rating skins. This info has helped Sikko design better skins; 60% of Sikko's revenue also comes from companies who use its customers for market research.
8	5944	2005	Online jeweler Blue Nile has grown into one of the nation's 10 largest specialty jewelers, focused on the diamond category. However, the company faces competition from Websites run by traditional retailers as well as pure dot-coms. Traditional retailers include Tiffany and Zale Corp.'s Bailey Banks & Biddle.
9	6141	2001	Capital One added superprime customers three years ago, attracting them with frequent-flier miles. The company has found safe bets that spend enough to compensate for the demographic's tendency not to pay late fees.
10	6531	2002	Houston-based eRealty got a big boost in February when it signed on as exclusive provider of listing and brokerage services in nine markets for Yahoo! Inc.'s real-estate arm.
11	7375	2004	Last year Bankrate had 648 advertisers, up 21% from 2002. Bankrate also feeds data to well-known Internet firms such as Yahoo, America Online and MSN.
12	7379	1999	Expert help sites hope to make money from advertising and fees from experts. Some sites including XpertSite plan to earn revenue from licensing. Next month XpertSite plans to sell its content to a web portal for $30 million.
13	7999	2004	Harrah's casino company doesn't spend on broadcast and print ads to coax families and young professionals to sojourn on the Strip. The company instead has set out to change the reason that customers come to its casinos and to persuade existing customers to up their usage levels. Harrah's paid for the 35th annual Poker World Series, continually broadcast on ESPN. Each of the 13,000 poker players who entered the World Series filled out a form at the Rio the night before the tournament began; the information went straight into Harrah's database of 9,300 people, targets of telemarketing and direct-mail blitzes. Harrah's showgirls appeared outside the main poker room luring spectators to casinos by offering free tickets to comedy shows and comps for food. Discounts on rooms at the Rio and Harrah's kept both places booked solid through the last night of the tournament.

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