Reduce Unique ICDs by Redesigning the Product or the Process

The objective of this activity is to reduce the number of ICDs by reducing the occurrence of an ICD in producing a unit of Output, or by reducing the number of separate ICDs used in the Output. A unique ICD is one of the key activities in the work center's contribution to the final product (O). It is separate and distinct from any other activity in the work center. For example, the fastening of a part onto a subassembly and a quality control check of the subassembly would be unique ICDs.

B. Redesign the process of producing the ICD or Output

Change the process used to produce the ICD or Output to eliminate activities.

4. Reduce movement of an Input (People, Purchases or Capital)

Reduce movement of ICDs: Reduce loading and unloading:
Customize shipping process

No. Industry SIC Year Notes
1 4221 2001 By loading an entire 110-car grain train at a single facility such as Alton's the railroad can operate the train intact from origin to destination without the costs and delays of switching cars.
2 4412 2006 The Box is a book about "how the shipping container made the world smaller and the world economy bigger." For the longest time, a hodge-podge of movable packages, together with the muscle of stevedores and other heavy-lifters, made cargo shipping expensive and slow. Life changed with the advent of the standardized shipping container, which could be moved from one means of transport to another by machine or crane. The box was invented by McClean Sea-Land Service. Its delivery of Ballantinne Beer from Newark, NJ to Miami cost $4 a ton the old-fashioned way – load truck, drive truck to shipping site, unload, store freight, wrap freight in netting, hoist freight aboard ship. But the container alternative – loading the beer at the brewery and then lifting the container aboard a specially designed ship – was 94% cheaper when all the costs were figured in.

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