The bottom line is always on the minds of those in top management roles in the manufacturing industry. Whether you represent a small business or a large conglomerate, saving money and being fiscally responsible is critically important to your success. If you have found your business struggling as of late, there are several ways to reduce or eliminate unnecessary expenses. You might feel that the expenses are necessary at the time, but with some strategic moves, you will see that you can do without them.
6 Ways to Reduce or Eliminate Unnecessary Expenses
1. Update the technological resources you use.
It seems technology is changing daily. Are you keeping up with it? Or at least trying? If so, you will find ways to communicate with your partners, employees, and clients or customers faster and more efficiently.
Along those lines, do you need to improve your marketing efforts? You can save money by eliminating outdated advertising methods and implement modern, online marketing techniques.
Enhancing your marketing efforts, by the way, is another way to improve your bottom line.
2. Consider reducing the size of your building if possible.
Most manufacturing industries need the space in their buildings for equipment, but do you need so much office space? When you eliminate office space – or, if possible, overall space – you may be able to sell or lease the leftover space to another business. That way, you could save and make money at the same time.
Even greater, does your business have multiple buildings? Can you merge into fewer buildings?
3. Identify and eliminate waste.
Are employees so used to doing things the same old way that their processes are unnecessary?
Normally micro-managing isn’t favorable, but you might need to watch employees closely in order to get your business back on solid ground. Although they may have good intentions, are the employees maybe taking extra steps in order to complete a task at hand? Especially if they are paid hourly, that means more expenses for you.
Watch employees to make sure they are working efficiently, as they might not even realize that there is a better way. If you do see how they can work better, communicate that to them.
4. Make sure you are creating great products.
That seems obvious, but really, how often does something have to be rebuilt or redone? How often is a customer unsatisfied? If you’re finding these problems arising too often, think about how you can improve. If you make sure your products or services are up to par the first time, you won’t have to worry about redoing them. That’s expensive both in terms of employees’ time and the cost of the products.
You may also want to check if your organization has developed a hidden factory in the form of acceptable rework or loss (e.g., scrap, warranty repairs, etc.).
5. Combine departments or merge employees’ responsibilities.
No one wants to lay people off, but sometimes the hard choices need to be made.
Do you need a receptionist, for example, or can you handle the calls yourself?
Also think about what people in different departments do every day. Let’s say it takes two departments to complete one task, but maybe that means extra time and resources going from point A to point B. Can that task be completed faster and smoother if only one person or department takes care of it? There’s a good chance that the answer to that is a clear “yes.” If so, you can eliminate some positions or send employees to other departments instead of hiring additional employees.
6. Look at the basic, everyday expenses.
One of the simplest ways to reduce or eliminate unnecessary expenses is to look at the basics of everyday living in your work space. Ideas might be right under your nose.
Do you need that old fax machine? Probably not, as faxes can be sent to your email these days.
Do you need as many office phones? Can you route some of those calls to cellphones, thereby reducing the phone bill?
If feasible and financially prudent, are you shutting off energy-guzzling equipment when it’s not in use?
Even simpler, are you shutting off the lights when you’re not in the room? Have you switched to LED lighting, both to save money and help protect the environment?
There are many ways to reduce or eliminate unnecessary expenses when you consider everyday energy bills. Think about how you would save money in your home. Many of the same money-saving ideas are possible at work.
Contact Trident QMS for more Money-Saving Ideas
If your business is struggling with its finances, you need help – and fast. Your situation can snowball and spiral out of control faster than you know. Contact us at Trident QMS through our website or by phone at 520-314-4343. We’ll help you identify additional ways to reduce or eliminate expenses in your particular business, and we’ll also go through your quality management processes to uncover the best resources for your business to use to improve its bottom line.
