Costco's Artful Discounts
Tons of gold nuggets in there. The one below really stuck out.
Costco has even gotten vendors to redesign product packages to fit more items on a pallet, the wooden platforms it uses to ship and display its goods. Putting cashews into square containers instead of round ones will decrease the number of pallets shipped by 24,000 this year, cutting the number of trucks by 600. By reshaping everything from laundry detergent buckets to milk jugs, Costco has needed 200,000 fewer pallets a year overall.[Ed: Bold added]
Some quick math indicates that is [24000 / 600 =] 40 pallets per truck.
How much fuel and a labor cost is saved from not making these 600 truck trips? Just thinking about it, you know the savings are significant. All that from redesigning the package for one item.
Questions:
- Are you open to rethinking your processes, products and services?
- How are you redesigning [AKA: Thinkovating] to increase productivity?
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