Dell computer corporation recently launched a site called “Idea Storm” to get feedback from customers on improvements they can make to products and company interactions.

So far most of the issues can be summarized as customers just want ways to simplify their purchase and use experiences, reduce costs, and get more performance out of the hardware they are purchasing.

Dell has advertised how they use Lean Manufacturing concepts in their factories. Pictures and videos I have seen from their factories indicate they understand the concepts (some more opportunities though, my team and I would be very willing to assist, see the contacts page to get in touch). So Dell just needs to translate these concepts from the factory floor to the office and customer facing interfaces.

Dell is also in the midsts of figuring out how to improve profitability and sales penetration. An early method they should begin with is the old 80/20 rule and simplifying their product line. There are a huge number of product platforms and options available – all in the spirit of offering the customer a “customized experience”. Many consumers view computers as a commodity, an appliance, to use to get things done. I grew up in the automotive industry and while there are the passionate owners, there are many who just look at a car as transportation, and they make buying decisions from that perspective. The 80/20 principle will point out which 20% of the products generate 80% of the sales and profits. Everything else is extra overhead and complexity for a company that drags them down – it’s a real phenomenon, there have been several studies of increasing platform and product complexity rapidly drags down profits. Oh, marketing departments will tell you the company has to compete in every market and price point and “we need all of this” – sometimes just to keep the marketing group busy as there would be too much redundancy if they only had a couple of products instead of hundreds to market – where’s the career in that?

Why confuse buyers with duplicates of similar products (the separate corporate and consumer brands)? With the rapid pace of technology shift it would be better to select one platform and provide that to both categories. Think the consumers would like to get the pricing the corporate version offers (typically less trim and chrome and shiny sparkles and covers used to “dress up” the consumer version)? Think the corporations would like to get lower prices because much of the hardware fixed/overhead costs have been spread into the consumer market?

As I’ve explained in my prior posts here, I do some computer refurbishing for a hobby, so I’ve seen the good, bad, and ugly hardware designs from all the manufacturers – and because of my background I know what problems those designs cause in the manufacturing realm. Make hardware repair easy, make getting service documentation from the web site easy.

Then work on the software end – many consumers correctly dislike the advertising and “free” software pre-installed on their hard drive. Just like grocery stores, many computer manufacturers take the equivalent of “slotting fees” to place product on their “shelf”. Dell has been investigated or are at least suspect about Intel, Microsoft, AOL, and etc possible “fees” that “reduce the price to the consumer”. But they do not reduce anything, departments have to manage all the various projects to collect and maintain them, consumers get slower performance, and the call centers have to add more support people (often in other countries “to reduce costs”). Seems a bit expensive, doesn’t it?..

Go back to the Lean tenants and remove waste from your system. It doesn’t matter if you make cars, computers, or crayons – you need to simplify all of your processes and products and remove costs in doing business. Sometimes it is useful to “Lean” on outside expertise to offer an objective perspective on the exact methods and tools for getting there, which is where we can assist you – and you don’t have to create “Waste” by keeping an in-house staff for this either – just give us a call.

Cheers!