Jean Chalvidant

A PRACTICAL GUIDE ON COST REDUCTION

Authors : Jean Chalvidant, Emmanuel Le Gouguec, Olivier Brongniart

Introduction by Jean-Marie Descarpentries

240 pages, 30 euros
Editions Demos, collection Management
ISBN : 2-910157-87-3

How to reduce the procurement, production, design and structural costs without laying off personnel or moving to cheaper places ? How is cost reduction understood ? A necessary evil ? Or a new way of undertaking ? A deep misappreciation of the matter is apparently at the origin of the feeling of a looming threat at the mere mention of the words "cost reduction" If it is most of the time considered negatively (staff reduction and laying off, lowering of the quality, technological recession, pressures on vendors, lower performance level), it is rarely controled adequately because its nature is both technical and economical.

When one uses a down-to-earth approach to the basics of the cost reduction tools, it is indeed a highly pragmatic step towards progress, which may apply to almost all economical environments. The intentional practical approach of the book consists in acting in such a way that all those involved with the company (design office, buyer, methods office, manufacturing, quality control, marketing, management) on one hand, and the suppliers on the other hand, are going to share the economical objectives of the company. For their purpose, the authors have used an original approach to fashion their guide :

- a guideline to navigate through the financial assets of the company and to carry out a relevant diagnosis about the scheduled actions to be undertaken
- for each tool, a specific layout of its operation, limits and benefits.
- case studies to allow for a concrete approach of the situation, in which the cost reductions project actors have to react.

What the press said :
L'Usine nouvelle,Management, la Tribune, Centraliens, Décision achat, Les Echos.