It is becoming more and more difficult 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 quicker than you. But the question is if they are producing a better part? For some buyers, it doesn’t matter, cheaper is better even if the item doesn’t last as long. It is strange and unfortunate, but cheaper has become the motto and the word of choice for many people and businesses. Yes, cheaper is better, but less expensive doesn’t always work out for the best. So the goal is to make a good, high value product and to make it of high worth to your buyers. The producers of the items do not decide what they makes’ worth; the consumer does. What is the consumer prepared to pay for your item and how much of a demand for your part is there? There are different ways to raise your profit for your product.
You can always increase the price and pass it off to the customer. But there is a better way, a more long term way that can raise revenue and keep your business running lean and efficient. It all starts with removing unnecessary waste in all areas of your organization. Waste comes inlots of forms and it costs every company more money than they would care to confess. Waste is when workers are just hanging 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 electrical department or it could mean that they are waiting for parts from a supplier. These are method issues that can directly have an effect on the end product and how many you can produce. When workers are sitting around, inactive and waiting for the work to come to their station, they are not useful. They are under used and are in effect merely wasting cash and time. It is the same when you have machines being quiet. What is the point of having a fancy mechanized machine if it is not being used for hours a day? Would it be more cost effective to do the process by hand, sell the machine and buy a piece of machinery that will be more industrious? What about the area that the equipment is filling, could another work station be put there and more jobs actually be completed without the robot? You can’t say that you don’t want to get rid of tools because you might need it. If you are not using it or it is old, then it is taking up valuable space and not contributing to the development and profit of theorganization. It can be hard to admit that purchasing that robot was a bad idea, but if it does not and doesn’t assit grow the company, then it is time to push forward and find something that does. It is called adapting and moving forward.