Reduce the Rate of Cost for the Input Used to Produce the Output

Use the same type of input and the same activities, but pay less for the unit of input employed in producing the output. A reduction in rate is equivalent to a reduction in the number of inputs for the same ICD. For example, if a person who makes $10 per hour could produce the same amount of output as a person making $20 an hour, the substitution of the $10 person for the $20 person in the process would be equivalent to cutting the number of people required to do the work by 50%.

C. Change the components of the rate of costs to reach a lower total rate:

Sometimes it is possible to break the price of a purchase into its component parts. Then the company may seek to substitute a less expensive component for a more expensive component to reduce the effective rate the company pays on its purchases.

Optional components of the rate paid: Penalty/bonus, including equity and profit sharing:
Add bonus/penalty for performance

No.	Industry SIC	Year	Notes
1	2820	1988	DuPont's new incentive plan will tie pay to profits. Hopes to raise efficiency by making workers feel more involved. Won't require pay cut; instead, workers will be earning less at end of 5 years due to not receiving raises. Will collect the 6% difference if meet profit goal, and will earn more if exceed goal.
2	2844	1995	Colgate-Palmolive consolidated its ad spending to work just with Young & Rubicam. But Y&R will now be paid based in part on how well its ads work. Performance measures include a subjective evaluation of creativity, sales results based on market-share growth, and the mileage it gets from the worldwide ad budget.
3	3312	2006	Nucor Corp., a major U.S. steel company, has forged a winning work force using motivation. The company pays for performance, something other companies are reluctant and find hard to do. On average, two-thirds of a Nucor steelworker's pay is based on a production bonus, with profit-sharing layered on top of that. It can be a lucrative formula, but the risks are real. In 2005, the typical worker received $91,293; three years earlier, a steel slump left workers with $58,931. CEO and executive pay is similarly tied to performance targets.
4	3711	2005	Toyota has created its own new economy-class drug plan. For medications taken on a regular basis, employees can save by using the company pharmacy or a mail-order service. Toyota will try to get employees to buy higher doses of medications and ask them to split the tablets. And the company will pay for the entire cost of some medicines if the employee uses a generic instead of a brand-name drug, in which case the employee may have a co-pay as high as 20%.
5	5311	1990	Nordstrom's offers sales clerks commissions, bonuses, and perks as sales incentives.
6	6300	2004	Progressive is very careful in its disclosure practice. It does not pad reserves when times are good and draw them down when earnings are lean. The company tries to give financial statement users the most accurate estimate of loss reserves humanly possible, and it rewards its actuaries based on how accurate their loss estimates turn out to be.
7	7372	2004	MicroStrategy, after watching its stock crash and its shareholders file a class-action suit, had to turn the business around quickly. One way was to tie sales personnel's compensation to customer satisfaction ratings.

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