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Spread knowledge of how to achieve cost breakthroughs and you'll be amazed at how much better you do. Just when you think you've found all of the best ways to reduce costs, think again. You've missed most of them! You can expand the rate of cost reductions by making learning about breakthrough solution cost reductions a required part of becoming a more senior level manager in your organization. By repeating the breakthrough cost-reduction process, you can double the size of the benefits you gain. Slow development and large expense in cutting costs are usually signs of limited opportunity. Seek the fast-developing and low expense opportunities for cost reduction instead. It's easy to overlook cost-reduction opportunities. By repeating your cost-reduction reviews, you'll find opportunities you missed in the past. Customers' needs and wants change. If you are flexible in serving those needs, you'll do better. Creating a process that flourishes with flexibility is a key ingredient in that success. Pick one route to cut costs, and you are in trouble if that route doesn't work. Instead, look into several promising directions to be sure that at least one is likely to work well for you. Limits mainly exist in the mind. Set goals that go beyond what you can conceive and you are likely to achieve the cost-reduction goals. While your competitor is trying to take 5 percent out of costs, you should be working on a cost breakthrough. Expecting your organization to find all of the breakthrough methods that you could use is unrealistic. Expand your search and you'll enjoy more breakthroughs. Reduce the cost of something unimportant, and you won't make much progress. Focus first on what will make the most difference in setting large cost reduction targets. Doing things for yourself can be fun . . . or it can be threatening. Those who want to reduce costs should focus on providing the fun. Outsourcing can be an expensive alternative that doesn't improve competitive position. Eliminate outsourcing when that's the case. Extensive trials with offerings in everyday situations can spot and help you eliminate harmful costs. Do fewer things in your organization, and you can eliminate a lot of costs while expanding profits. Everyone has had the experience of being waited on by a ham-handed person who made things worse. At such moments, most people have yearned to do it themselves. Many people stop when they think they've found a cheaper way to do things. But their "great" solution may not match what an outsourcer can do better at lower cost. Outsourcing can be very helpful if you pick the right areas to look and locate the best suppliers. Otherwise, you make things worse by spending time on outsourcing. Outsourcing can be a tactical decision to gain strategic advantages, such as when you need to learn how to do something. 1 2 3 4 5 6 | ||
