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.

E. Reduce other underemployed input.
These changes put idle, or wasted, Purchases and Capital to work. These examples complement the ideas above, which deal primarily with improving the efficiency of People.

Purchases:
Energy

No.	Industry SIC	Year	Notes
1	4213	2006	As oil prices soar, some of the nation's biggest energy consumers are revamping their operations to shrink energy bills. Trucking company Schneider National is installing fat tires that improve gas mileage by a few percentage points. Because fewer fat tires are needed per truck, there's less air resistance. Schneider also uses in-cab heaters that allow drivers to cut the engine while sleeping and stay warm, saving about a gallon of gas per hour.
2	3571	2007	As concerns over energy usage rise, Dell Computer offered personal-computer models designed to use less power. The machine will automatically power down components when it is not in use. Customers can save $63 per desktop.
3	3211	2006	In industries from airlines to glass-making, companies are curbing usage, revamping machinery, and shifting production schedules to offset energy costs. Glass maker Owens-Illinois Inc., for instance, is working "combustion optimization," using lower temperatures to melt glass. It's also looking for opportunities to switch to cheaper fuel sources. At one bottle plant in Latin America, the company saved $3 million a year by converting from using fuel oil to natural gas.
4	2600	2006	In industries from airlines to glass-making, companies are curbing usage, revamping machinery, and shifting production schedules to offset energy costs. Stora Enso Oyj, the Finland-based paper maker, set up a fund separate from existing mill budgets for conservation measures in its North American operations. The initiative has spent about $5 million over the past four years, but the investment should pay off as energy prices rise. Among other things, some mills have installed variable-speed motors on their dryer fans. The old system had a single speed, the amount of air needed to dry paper varies depending on its type and thickness. Changing all the fans would be too expensive, but as fans come up for overhauls, they are being shifted to variable motors.
5	0	2007	Servers are more popular and more powerful but require more power to run and cool over their lifespan. As energy costs rise, vendors are introducing new technology to manage energy usage. Hewlett-Packard created sensors that can adjust air conditioning in data centers to focus on the spots that need it most. H-P claims that customers will reduce their usage by 25% to 40%.
6	0	2004	It's the little things that add up to big savings, but can annoy customers as well as employees. Pacific Gas & Electric Co. says that turning off lights in unoccupied areas can save as much as 20% on a customer's lighting costs, and reducing the thermostat by one degree can cut 5% from the monthly heating and cooling bill. Businesses that encourage employees to use lackluster black screen savers instead of pictures of their kids and pets can also trim their energy bills.

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