It is becoming much harder to compete in the worldwide marketplace that we all live in. Whether you are building baseball bats or widgets, there is someone out there trying to produce them less expensively and quicker than you. But the question is if they are making a better product? For some consumers, it doesn’t matter, cheaper is better even if the product doesn’t last as long. It is strange and regrettable, but cheaper has become the motto and the word of choice for many people and organizations. Yes, cheaper is better, but cheaper doesn’t always work out for the best. So the object is to produce a superior, high quality part and to make it of high worth to your clients. The producers of the items do not establish what they makes’ value; the buyer does. What is the buyer ready to pay for your service and how much of a demand for your part is there? There are different ways to increase your earnings for your product.
You can always increase the price and pass it off to the buyer. But there is a better way, a more long term way that can boost earnings and keep your organization running lean and efficient. It all starts with eliminating unnecessary waste in all parts of your company. Waste comes inlots of forms and it costs every business more money than they would care to confess. Waste is when workers are just standing around, but that does not mean that there aren’t orders to be filled. It mightmerely mean that they are waiting for parts to be finished in the assembly department or it could mean that they are waiting for product from a vendor. These are process problems that can directly influence the end product and how many you can make. When employees are hanging around, idle and waiting for the work to come to their station, they are not producing. They are under used and are in effect simply wasting money and time. It is the same when you have machines sitting quiet. What is the point of having a expensive mechanized machine if it is not in use for hours a day? Would it be more efficient to do the job by hand, sell the robot and buy a piece of equipment that will be more productive? What about the space that the machine is taking up, could another work station be put there and more work actually be done without the equipment? You can’t say that you don’t want to get rid of something because you might want it. If you are not using it or it is old, then it is taking up room and not contributing to the expansion and profit of thefirm. It can be uncomfortable to admit that getting that robot was a bad idea, but if it doesn’t work and doesn’t assit grow the business, then it is time to move on and find something that does. It is named adapting and pushing ahead.