Final Customer Purchasing from an Intermediary of the Product

Maintain Steps: Maintain steps include all activities required to keep the product in working order. These steps include the costs the customer incurs to diagnose and correct product problems.

B.
Resources – Reduce resources required for the use of the product

2.
Time – Reduce the time the customer must spend with the product

A. Reduce steps the customer must use with the product
Increase the quality of the product to reduce customer time in repair

Reduce delivery errors or delays

No. SIC Year Note
1 4513 2004 FedEx controls 39% of the U.S.-China express market compared with 29% of DHL which is part of Deutsche Post. The fact that FedEx owns and operates its own fleet of cargo planes gives it a clear advantage on DHL which has to buy cargo space in the belly of passenger planes and is therefore vulnerable to capacity crunches. FedEx may have an advantage over DHL and UPS because those companies rely on state-owned Chinese parcel carrier Sinotrans for local pickups and delivery, while FedEx has an exclusive relationship with Beijing based Da Tian which began in 1999.
2 5399 2005 At Wawa store managers have the best information on store operations and improving the performance of vendors. Twice a year the managers formally assess selected vendors' delivery accuracy, customer service, and other attributes. Vendors are then given an opportunity to discuss the feedback and determine what steps should be taken to improve performance.
3 5499 2003 Casey's General Stores Inc. installed checkout scanners to eliminate errors clerks made.
4 5600 2002 The Gap recently began sewing radio frequency identification (RFID) smart tags into its apparel for about 40 cents each. The technology allowed entire cartons of products to be checked and inventoried instantly and in-store monitoring of products was boosted. Overall, Gap's sales increased as a result of better product awareness and in-demand items tracking.
5 5945 2001 Amazon and Toys 'R' Us teamed up in 2000. Amazon runs the Web site and delivers the goods. The combined store brought in $124 million in sales in past holiday season. Toys 'R' Us didn't have customers complaining about late deliveries.
6 6021 1989 The National Westminster Bank pays customers $50 if they receive slow responses to loan applications. Gives customers $5 if an employee treats them rudely.

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