It is getting much more difficult to compete in the global marketplace that we all live in. Whether you are building baseball bats or widgets, there is somebody out there trying to make them less expensively and quicker than you. But the question is if they are producing a superior part? For some buyers, it doesn’t matter, cheaper is good enough even if the part doesn’t last as long. It is bizarre and regrettable, but cheaper has become the catchphrase and the word of choice for many people and organizations. Yes, less expensive is better, but less expensive doesn’t necessarily work out for the best. So the object is to build a good, high quality part and to make it of high worth to your customers. The makers of the product do not decide what they makes’ value; the customer does. What is the buyer prepared to pay for your service and how much of a demand for your item is there? There are different ways to raise your earnings for your product.
You can always elevate the price and pass it off to the customer. But there is a better way, a more long term approach that can increase earnings and keep your business working lean and efficiently. It all starts with eliminating unnecessary waste in all parts of your company. Waste comes inlots of forms and it costs every business more revenue than they would care to disclose. Waste is when workers are just standing around, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t orders to be built. It mightmerely mean that they are waiting for parts to be finished in the assembly department or it might mean that they are waiting for product from a supplier. These are procedure issues that can directly have an effect on the end product and how many you can produce. When workers are sitting around, idle and waiting for the work to come to their station, they are not producing. They are unused and are in essence merely wasting cash and time. It is the same when you have machines sitting unused. What is the point of having a expensive automated machine if it is not being run for hours a day? Would it be more efficient to do the process by hand, sell the machine and buy a piece of equipment that will be more productive? What about the room that the machine is taking up, could another work station be put there and more jobs actually be done without the machine? You can’t say that you don’t want to get rid of something because you might want it. If you are not making use of it or it is outdated, then it is taking up room and not contributing to the expansion and profit of theorganization. It can be tricky to admit that purchasing that robot was a bad idea, but if it doesn’t work and doesn’t assit grow the business, then it is time to push forward and discover something that does. It is called adapting and pushing forward.