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.

F. Speed the Process

4.
Specialize teams for the task

No.	Industry SIC	Year	Notes
1	2678	1993	Before reengineering, it took Hallmark 2-3 years to get a line of cards from concept to market. It discovered that during 90% of that time, work sat in someone's in- or out-basket. Work was handed off 25 times along the way. When regrouped along product product lines, integrated teams had new lines out within a year.
2	3334	1996	The aluminum-minimill process will be taken one step further when Kaiser Aluminum & Chemical Corp. builds a micromill. The plant will use a narrow-width sheet for beverage cans, which can stock using an in-line process with fewer steps than at minimills.
3	3550	2002	So far, the plants in Jackson, the biggest at over 460,000 square feet, have gotten the most attention, introducing cell production, kaizen events, kanban methods to control work in progress, and subfactories dedicated to single product groups so production flows in as straight a line as possible from receiving to shipping.
4	7500	1987	Car repair specialists have the cost advantage of focusing on just one type of repair.
5	8062	2007	As the financial and human costs of medical errors become apparent, some hospitals are working to improve their system and reduce costs. Cincinnati Children's assigned a surgeon of the week to clear his calendar to handle urgent appendectomies and bone-setting. Surgeons complained at first but found that they were able to go home on time and carry out more surgeries. Other doctors followed suit.

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