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.
6. Reduce use of Purchases and Capital ICDs
Reduce Purchased ICDs: Use People or components requiring less Purchases:
Lower health care expenses
| No. | Industry SIC | Year | Notes |
| 1 | 2800 | 2004 | In a continuing effort to cut down health costs and improve the quality of care that their employees receive, a group of large corporations, including General Electric Co., Procter & Gamble Co., and Ford Motor Co., plans to expand a program that financially rewards physicians for implementing technology-based patient management systems. The program, called Bridges to Excellence, is part of a growing "pay-for-performance" trend. A central aspect of the plan involves incentives for doctors to install systems to handle electronic records and switch to electronic prescription writing. |
| 2 | 3577 | 2004 | Pitney Bowes Inc. takes a different tack to slashing healthcare costs. In 2001, Pitney decided to lower the amount that employees pay for diabetes and asthma drugs, thinking that if the drugs were more affordable, employees would take them more regularly and reduce expensive complications. Since 2001, the median medical cost for a Pitney Bowes employee with diabetes has fallen 12% from about $1000 a year. The median cost for a patient with asthma has dropped 15% from $900 annually. |
| 3 | 3674 | 2004 | In the past Intel has lead in innovations and Advanced Micro Devices has followed. Both companies have been thinking in the general direction of coming out with a dual core chip. Both companies plan to deliver products in the same time frame. Traditionally chipmakers have made their products cheaper and more powerful by shrinking the metal lines on the chips. This lets them pack more transistors onto a single chip, but having this many transistors on a single chip makes it run hot. Intel and AMD and other chipmakers are now taking a new approach of putting core chips of two separate chips in one package along with circuits for them to work as one device. Putting more than one chip core onto a processor cuts its energy use because the two cores can use the same bus to send data. A bus is a channel by which chips exchange data with the rest of the computer. Cutting energy reduces the heat the chip generates. |
<<Return to Reduce Unique ICDs in Process