Reducing cost requires action with potential risk, whose objective is often viewed as compromise. However, the need for constantly improving product value is not going to go away. Here are three ways to address cost reduction.
Jeffrey R. Immelt, chairman and CEO of General Electric, now believes that his company must rely more on manufacturing and less on financial services. We could not agree more.
After frequent appearances on home decorating TV
shows, stainless steel refrigerators with French doors became the hottest item
in home décor. Needing to meet this new market demand, appliance manufacturers
scrambled to get new models into stores. Among these was General Electric, one of the world’s largest appliance makers.
With principal operations in Hangzhou, China,
H3C Technologies Co. Ltd. has become a leading global supplier of
IP-based networking products, primarily through its creation of IToIP architecture
to meet the industry trend of “open and convergence.” In 2004, company growth led H3C to install a new production line based
on the Genesis GC-60D and GI-14D platforms.
TI Automotive’s manufacturing facility in Fuldabrück, Germany, specializes in
making prototypes of plastic fuel pipes that must be processed
by thermal forming. In the past, these measurements were conducted with the help of gauges and
other mechanical inspection tools. Now they're done with TubeInspect, an optical tube measuring system.
In May 2005, Microsoft announced its latest
innovation for digital entertainment and gaming, the Xbox 360, along with a new
line of Xbox 360 wired and wireless controllers. The Xbox 360 controller-functional test system needed to perform tests similar
to those of the original Xbox controller test system, but demanded
higher-performance signal capture to ensure a high-quality user experience.
Modine
Manufacturing Co., a developer of heat transfer cooling systems for vehicles,
has placed a high priority on flexibility since its founding in 1916. To
maintain this tradition, the company operates several “focused factories,”
including one in Pontevico,
Italy.
Every corporation wants to be innovative. But, being innovative is not a behavior. It’s not something on your to-do list between picking up dry cleaning and writing performance reviews. Innovation is the by-product of plans, processes, people and behaviors.
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