Discover the tools for knowing the costs your company should cut, without impacting its ability to deliver goods and services New from Steve Bragg, this book provides the tools for determining which costs a company should cut, without impacting its ability to deliver goods and services. It explains how to use throughput analysis in order to locate bottleneck operations in a company, which in turn dictates where capital investments should (and should not) be made. Delves into process analysis, to determine where excess resources are being used in a business process Describes the total cost of ownership, showing how a single purchasing decision actually snowballs into a variety of ancillary costs Shows how to create and use a spend management system to reduce procurement costs Shows how just-in-time systems can be used to eliminate inventory costs Cost Reduction Analysis: Tools and Strategies provides examples to show how much cost can potentially be eliminated to avoid drastic action later that can imperil your corporation's direction and future.

Discover the tools for knowing the costs your company should cut, without impacting its ability to deliver goods and services New from Steve Bragg, this book provides the tools for determining which costs a company should cut, without impacting its ability to deliver goods and services. It explains how to use throughput analysis in order to locate bottleneck operations in a company, which in turn dictates where capital investments should (and should not) be made. Delves into process analysis, to determine where excess resources are being used in a business process Describes the total cost of ownership, showing how a single purchasing decision actually snowballs into a variety of ancillary costs Shows how to create and use a spend management system to reduce procurement costs Shows how just-in-time systems can be used to eliminate inventory costs Cost Reduction Analysis: Tools and Strategies provides examples to show how much cost can potentially be eliminated to avoid drastic action later that can imperil your corporation's direction and future.

Focuses on rapid implementation of practical, real-world cost reduction solutions In today's economic climate, the need to cut costs can be the difference between success and failure. Cost Reduction and Optimization for Manufacturing and Industrial Companies covers all major cost reduction areas, providing easy to read examples and advice on steps to take. It provides the roadmap for implementing recommended actions with true and tried methods by taking a modern, all-inclusive look at manufacturing processes. Based on the author's cost reduction experience gained during 30 years of senior operations and consulting engagements with hundreds of organizations, this book includes easy-to-understand and easy-to-implement cost reduction concepts organized into five general areas --labor, material, design, process, and overhead. Each chapter: Dives into a cost reduction area and starts with the bottom line first by summarizing key points Provides proven tactics for cutting costs without a lot of extraneous data Follows a qualitative and design-oriented approach Emphasizes quick implementation and measurable cost reduction Identifies who in the organization should do the work Outlines risks and suggested risk mitigation actions Contains numerous tables, graphs, and photos to show the concepts described in the book Praise for Cost Reduction and Optimization for Manufacturing and Industrial Companies "In this introductory book, Berk not only takes a modern, all-inclusive look at manufacturing processes but also provides substantial coverage of engineering materials and production systems. It follows a more qualitative and design-oriented approach than other texts in the market, helping readers gain a better understanding of important concepts. They'll also discover how micro-economic conditions relate to the process variables in a given process as well as how to perform manufacturing science and quantitative engineering analysis of manufacturing processes." —Fred Silverman, Director Engineering of Hi-Shear Technology Corporation "Joe Berk has created a unique, practical and straightforward approach to cost reduction in manufacturing. This work provides valuable insights and concrete techniques, based on real-world experiences, to any manufacturing organization undertaking change to position itself to compete successfully in the global marketplace." —Joe Carleone, President and COO of American Pacific Corporation Check out author Joseph Berk's blog at http://manufacturingtraining.wordpress.com/

The purpose of this book is to provide a base of information and analysis to assist in implementation of the policy of reducing and/or minimizing hazardous waste generation in manufacturing and more specifically in the process industries. What is the significance of reducing the generation of all process wastes? This book examines the technical nature of waste reduction and the extent to which waste reduction can likely be implemented. Also explored is the extent to which technology itself, as well as information and resources, is a barrier to waste reduction. In what ways are waste reduction decisions dependent on specific circumstances? Can the amount of feasible waste reduction be estimated? Auditing of manufacturing and unit operations and processes are particularly significant and useful in the chemical process industries (food, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, fertilizer, petrochemicals, etc.) since it is estimated that these industries account for more than half of the hazardous wastes generated. This book presents a compilation of complete information on potential sources of waste loss or generation through technical inspection. Also presented are calculation methods for determining air-waste-solid wastes material balances, informational requirements and waste reduction analysis.The reader should find the book useful in the areas of auditing and waste minimization. It is replete with useful information as well as specific case histories, which should make it a practical tool for the user.

Rising competition has been repeatedly mentioned as the reason many firms have invested in more extensive management accounting systems. I use a theoretical model to examine this link. In my model firms (1) determine how much cost data to collect and then estimate costs, (2) use the cost estimate to guide their cost reduction investments, and (3) produce and sell output in a Cournot market. Contrary to the common view, my main result shows that increasing the number of competitors leads to a decreased investment in cost reduction subsystems. The intuition is that as competition rises, each firm?s sales drop and any cost reduction investment can be recovered on fewer units. I also show that the highest cost firms need not invest the largest amounts in cost reduction. Finally I demonstrate that firm?s demand for cost data displays a U shape. As competition rises, firms first decrease, then increase their demand for cost data.