Unleashing the Power of 3P

40  ◾  Unleashing the Power of 3P: The Key to Breakthrough Improvement

our manufacturing engineers together toward a different philosophy. First,

I looked back over the past three years and saw that we’ve been spending

about $3 million a year on plant and equipment.”

Pete interrupted, “Tell me about it. It’s getting more and more difficult to get

approval for such investments, and frankly I’m not sure that we are getting a

good return on them.”

Dave continued, “I’m confident we can cut these costs by 40–50% over the

next few years, maybe more, so we could save a million to a million and a

half in capital expenditures.”

“That would be terrific!” Pete said.

“We also have way too much automation and complex machinery. Our Overall

Equipment Effectiv