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.

C. Improve the accuracy of the demand forecast.

A more accurate forecast of demand would enable the company to plan its capacity more precisely to meet that demand, creating the opportunity to eliminate some unused capacity.

Add new information to the forecast

No.	Industry SIC	Year	Notes
1	0	1989	Author advises that engineers should be organized around products or customers, and reporting levels should be reduced to three.
2	0	2007	As energy costs rise, many industries have been forced to make gains in efficiency. However, the process is complicated by the fact that companies are often reluctant to make big investments in energy savings. The lifecycle of information-technology equipment represents a significant source of carbon-dioxide emissions. HSBC Holdings worked to make its worldwide offices more efficient, reducing usage by 7%. Software would turn off desktop computers when they are idle and old monitors were replaced with newer, more efficient models.
3	2670	1992	Minnesota Mining & Manufacturing (3M) has a quarter of its research facilities abroad.
4	3220	1986	Corning cut costs on inventory because customers like AT&T, rather than just placing their orders out of the blue, now share with Corning their detailed forecasts of what they will need.
5	3861	1992	Demand management teams at Xerox use an interactive modeling system that graphically displays historical and projected customer demand, production output, and inventory levels. This has shaved weeks and even months off production planning times.
6	4513	1997	FedEx and UPS have electronic tracking systems with bar codes to determine the most efficient routes for packages.
7	4800	2007	Some companies are using software to get a more timely and accurate view of its field force, allowing managers to make decisions as events unfold. Software allowed a company who installed home theatre programs and PCs to find that during certain periods, like back-to-school at a local university, demand increased. They could therefore shift technicians across zones to balance the work loads.
8	5200	2003	A big part of Home Depot's success story has been the energy its managers customarily invested in taking command of their stores, ordering as many hammers and faucets as they thought their customers expected.
9	5331	2007	Software is allowing large retailers to implement more logical scheduling and reduce costs. Wal-Mart employed a new computerized system to assign employees to shifts based on store traffic. This move was designed to improve productivity, reduce costs and boost customer satisfaction but employees claim the schedules are unpredictable and inconvenient. The system helps retailers conform to federal wage-and-hour laws and state variations. It may also alert management when a worker is approaching full-time status or overtime, which would require higher wages and benefits.
10	5411	2004	Fixing the stock-out problem requires new IT solutions and systemic changes that cut across the functional boundaries within and between retailers, in the supply chain, and among suppliers. U.S. food retailer H.E. Butt Grocery and UK grocer, Sainsbury, for example, have recently implemented improved IT systems that can more accurately calculate stock-outs based on point-false data, or the lack there of, that is by recognizing when an item should have been sold but wasn't.
11	5521	2001	In the fiscal year ended Feb. 28, CarMax earned 43 cents a share vs. 1 cent in fiscal 2000. Sales climbed 24% to $ 2.5 billion. The key is targeting inventory market by market.
12	5700	1996	Bed Bath & Beyond's head office leaves stock selection and display to store managers.
13	7372	2001	MapInfo develops software that allows companies to make strategic decisions by mapping the locations of their customers. It has excelled because of a focused strategy and excellent management.
14	7372	2004	Many salespeople now use laptops to make tricky estimates of individual transaction costs as well as to use engineering, finance, or accounting resources. This development allows them to generate transaction-level cost and revenue figures, which they can use to calculate their return on investments in sales. McKinsey has seen bottom-line improvements of up to 15% and top-line sales growth of 30%-60%, suggesting that it pays to bring a little more science to sales.
15	7372	2004	In order to test a market, Sony would produce a small batch of 5,000 copies and test it in the market because they had the ability to manufacture in small batches and ramp up this manufacturing should it be necessary to do so. This was important since some hits in Japan would fail in the US or Europe and vice versa. A successful title could sell two million copies at $50 each so the cost of testing was small compared to the same cost in cartridge technology. This CD approach allowed Sony to have a more intelligent estimate of demand and shipping requirements.
16	7372	2004	Product life-cycle management (PLM) software is being embraced as a way of using software to manage a product from dawn to dusk of its life: from creation through development, manufacturing, testing, and then maintenance in the field. In the high-tech industry, where Motorola, Palm, Microsoft, and others have lost sales due to poor manufacturing and supply readiness for a new product launch, PLM allows a "perfect product launch." PLM ensures that cross-functional elements are all in sync: that manufacturing and supplier tooling and processes have been proven out, field-service documentation prepared, and marketing promotions put in place.
17	7841	2007	Netflix offered a prize for anyone who could improve the program to predict which films customers will like. While no one has achieved a 10% improvement. The system shows potential for any area where consumers might have preferences.
18	8011	1997	The new company will also have access to outcomes and cost data across the entire spectrum of workers' compensation managed care, which should enable it to better foresee trends and opportunities.
19	8062	2001	A low-cost way to reduce variability for hospitals is to look for patterns in what seem to be random fluctuations. By studying what time of day patients come into the ER over a period of several months, a pattern can be identified and staff levels can be adjusted to match the expected demand over the course of the day.

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