What are Operating Costs?
Operating Costs are the costs that rise and fall with the volume of work you do. They include Production Costs and the Cost of the Goods you buy for resale (COGS). Reduce these by improving productivity as discovered by Henry Ford and later improved by Toyota.
All Businesses Have a Production or Operations Element
It is crucial for your business to learn skills to prioritise tasks, motivate staff, reduce waste, manage inventory to create operational efficiency. Note that all improvements here go straight to Profit.
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Choices to Reduce Operating Costs and Improve Productivity
Manage Inventory and Reduce Cost of Goods Sold
Learn about the best inventory management tools; monitor Inventory performance; the sensitivity of Profit to change in Inventory price. Then manage your business Inventory and Work in Progress (WIP).
Productivity and Cost of Goods Sold
Improve costs and productivity and these improvements will go directly to your Profit. Now learn how Toyota improved its operational efficiency. Then work on labour efficiency, waste reduction and variable costs amongst others.
Powerful Gross Margin Analysis
The Gross Margin ratio is a window into one of the most common reasons businesses experience a fall in profit. Learn more about why your Gross Margin% needs your attention and how to find and fix problems.
Reduce Production Waste – 8 Types
Learn how to reduce production waste and increase Profit. Furthermore, waste applies to all industries, even offices and service. This covers Lean Management; Kaizen; capturing waste in the wild; prioritising waste removal; waste reduction (Muda) as Toyota identified.
Staff Motivation and Productivity
Manage yourself, staff, suppliers and others. This is crucial to your business. Covers all areas related to staff management; organisational charts; Peter Principle; Parkinson’s Law to name a few. Learn about constructive dismissal and redundancy. Having trouble motivating your staff? That’s covered. Direct link to Skills Modules are available at this link.
Monitor Operational Efficiency Cost of Goods Sold
Where do you start? After all, monitoring operational efficiency does not only relate to Cost of Goods Sold. It also relates to Revenue creation; business finances; Inventory management; cash flow and liquidity. Click this heading to find out more. Direct link to Tools are available at this link.
Focus on the Most Important Issues
How do you determine what are the most important issues? Here, you will find the tools for brainstorming, business planning and problem solving. Also, learn about the 80/20 Rule, 5 whys problem solving technique, weights and scores amongst others. Direct link to Courses and Skills Modules are available at this link.
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Find business problem solutions with other Diagnostic Tools
Business Symptoms of Unknown Cause
The reasons behind the problems concerning you may not be clear cut. This Tool helps to narrow down the underlying reason for your problem and sets you on the path to solutions.
How to Increase Business Revenue
Investigate Sales, Marketing, Pricing, Customer Retention, Product Range, Distribution Systems symptoms and then eliminate inefficiencies to increase Revenue
See how to Reduce Operating Costs
Reduce Cost of Goods Sold, Production Costs and Operating Costs by improving productivity as discovered by Henry Ford and later improved by Toyota.
Ways to Reduce Overhead Costs
Overhead Costs or Fixed Costs like rent, permanent labour and other costs that do not fluctuate with your day-to-day production levels directly impact on your Operating Profit
Issues with Business Information Systems
Finance, accounting, IT and legals are information systems a business needs. Find solutions to common issues here.
Managing Staff and Your own Productivty
Managing staff and your own productivity are critical issues because people make your business work. Learn more on problem resolution
Business Planning and Business Decision Making Techniques
Planning need not be complex. We show simple solutions with proven effectiveness. Along the way, we introduce some decision making tools to simplify hard decisions.