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Essay / Evaluating Dell's Resolution to Increase Efficiency and Reduce Production Costs
Cost leadership is a strategy used by businesses to create a low cost of operation in their niche. The main purpose of using this strategy is to gain an advantage over competitors by reducing operating costs below those of other players in the same industry. Mass customization is a marketing and manufacturing technique that combines the flexibility and customization of bespoke products with the low unit costs associated with mass production. Say no to plagiarism. Get a Tailored Essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get an Original EssayUsually, the most successful companies with innovative products are those that offer great variety and customization, because all the needs of consumers are satisfied and so that the product can be available to more consumers. As Dell, in the innovative PC market, focuses on cost leadership and therefore reduces its customization range, they may experience some loss of demand as more customer needs go unmet and some customers may have purchased a choice that is no longer available. Additionally, as many competitors have also reduced their product/customization lineup, some customers may feel like Dell has a USP and that their PCs are the only ones offering a real variety of customization choices, which could hurt even more to the future demand of the company. . Therefore, focusing on cost leadership would leave Dell in a bad situation of declining demand. However, Dell's data showed that only a small percentage of combinations are sought after by customers and so reducing variety would only marginally affect demand. This means that the drop in demand might be almost imperceptible and therefore Dell would be right to focus on cost leadership. Most companies want to de-risk a constant production flow, which would make the supply chain less complicated, to minimize the risk of production disruptions. For Dell, in the PC market there is very rarely a company that produces all computer parts and therefore must source parts from elsewhere, not focusing on cost leadership. Dell had a big problem with customization because they had to source many more different parts from many different places in order to accommodate consumer customization. This would have made it difficult to manage all the different suppliers and as there were so many different parties in the chain there was more room for errors, this could have been a delay or interruption in production, in all In this case, stopping production would have significantly increased the total. and unit production costs. By focusing on cost containment and reducing customization, they could have reduced this risk by removing parts of the chain and thereby reducing unit costs. So it was right to focus on this point. Despite this, the number of dissatisfied customers and the risk of supply chain issues likely remained, as the company wants to source materials globally in order to get a lower price. This could therefore have increased the risk of production disruption due to global transportation methods being sensitive to bad weather. Therefore,..