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Some non traditional cost cutting measures in manufacturing facilities

fixed costs variable costs
Recent activity on Apr 04, 2018
3 Answers
2.8 k Views
Anonymous A asked on Apr 02, 2018

Dear Experts ,

Can you list some non traditional Cost cutting measures specifically in manufacturing facilities ( apart from the traditional rent negotiations/ reducing labor etc. )

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Retired
Expert
replied on Apr 02, 2018
Former BCG interviewer

Some ideas below:

1) Assess factory floor layout and redesign according to lean principles (this can be done at different levels of cost) to increase yield, reduce switching costs

2) Manufacture during low electricity cost hours (if they do not have a flat tariff)

3) Re-distribute production across different factories according to relative production efficiency

Hope it helps,

Andrea

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Vlad
Expert
replied on Apr 02, 2018
McKinsey / Accenture Alum / Got all BIG3 offers / Harvard Business School

Hi,

A lot of areas with different initiatives inside:

  • Outsourcing the support functions
  • Purchasing optimization
  • Capex optimization
  • Shared services for sg&a
  • Lean production (Although it's a lot about labor)
  • Defect rate optimization
  • Maintenance optimization
  • Transportation
  • Utilities optimization

Best

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Carlos replied on Apr 04, 2018

I propose the following structure:

1. Labour cost

  • Reduce number of employees: improve automation, training.
  • Reduce cost/employee: reduce salaries, overtime, contribution of company to health insurance

2. Equipment cost

  • Reduce number of equipment: reduce idle time, increase utilization rate.
  • Reduce cost/equipment: reduce depreciation, maintenance, economies of scale.

3. Raw material

  • Reduce number of raw material units: reduce waste.
  • Reduce cost/raw material unit: reduce inventory, renegotiate with suppliers.

4. Energy consumption

  • Reduce number of energy units: introduce measurements to reduce energy consumption, renew equipment, improve maintenance.
  • Reduce cost/energy unit: renegotiate with energy suppliers, increase energy consumption during valley period, self-production.
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