It is getting much harder to compete in the worldwide marketplace that we all dwell in. Whether you are making hair dryers or widgets, there is someone out there trying to build them less expensively and faster than you. But the question is if they are building a superior part? For some buyers, it doesn’t matter, cheaper is good enough even if the product doesn’t last as long. It is strange and unfortunate, but cheaper has become the motto and the word of choice for many consumers and organizations. Yes, cheaper is better, but cheaper doesn’t always work out for the best. So the objective is to make a superior, high value part and to make it of high worth to your potential customers. The producers of the items do not determine what they makes’ value; the consumer does. What is the consumer prepared to pay for your item and how big of a demand for your item is there? There are different ways to increase your profit for your product.
You can always raise the price and pass it off to the consumer. But there is a better way, a longer term method that can raise revenue and keep your company operating lean and efficiently. It all starts with eliminating unnecessary waste in all aspects of your business. Waste comes inlots of forms and it costs every company more cash than they would care to disclose. Waste is when employees are just standing around, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t orders to be built. It mightsimply mean that they are waiting for parts to be finished in the electrical department or it could mean that they are waiting for product from a vendor. These are procedure problems that can directly have an effect on the end product and the quantity that you can produce. When workers are loafing around, idle and waiting for the job to come to their station, they are not useful. They are under used and are in effect just wasting money and time. It is the same when you have machines standing idle. What is the point of having a fancy automatic machine if it is not in use for hours a day? Would it be more cost effective to do the job by hand, sell the robot and buy a piece of machinery that will be more productive? What about the space that the equipment is filling, could another work station be put there and more jobs actually be completed without the machine? You can’t say that you don’t want to get rid of equipment because you might want it. If you are not using it or it is obsolete, then it is taking up room and not contributing to the growth and profit of theorganization. It can be tricky to admit that purchasing that machine was a bad idea, but if it does not and doesn’t help grow the business, then it is time to push forward and discover something that does. It is named adapting and going ahead.