3 reasons why cost efficiency is a responsibility of the R&D manager
In any profitable company, the key element to remaining so is keeping an eye on cost efficiency. This is an area which can always be improved but watching your spending doesn’t mean you need to be cutting down on the quality coming from your team.
If you keep in mind that a happy and well-suited worker on your team will be more productive than someone who is working on something they hate, it’s easy to understand why cost efficiency should always be one of the main priorities for an R&D manager.
1. Save your funds by wasting less time
When structuring a project, it’s important to account for whose strengths lie where. If you’ve got a software engineer who has spent years in college learning to be an active and innovative coder, writing scripts that work efficiently and without hiccups - you should probably put that person on coding for the upcoming new product. It makes no sense to have a software engineer writing the manual for the consumer of the software because not only will he hate working on something he’s not good at, but he will waste countless hours writing this manual and doing research trying to make it the best it can be. Not only is it a waste of resources to assign someone to something that lies outside their area of interest and strengths, but you’ll get a lower quality product from that person. Keep the costs in check by keeping your workers focused on work they enjoy and are good at. Their work will be better, they’ll work more efficiently, and their sense of job satisfaction will remain high. A happy worker not only produces higher quality work, but they’ll be more likely to stay with a company in a role that provides them with job satisfaction on a daily basis.
2. Innovate with new technology to create competitive products, and save on costs
The transformation of the industry under the reign of new technologies such as additive manufacturing is the opportunity to quickly and accurately produce and test new parts and products. Not only does this cut down cycle time for each new product’s production cycle, which allows for more time to be spent on innovating new products, but it also allows for more cost effective testing and production.
3. Cost and time efficiency = higher quality products through improved focus
As an R&D manager, and as a company it makes the most sense to think long-term and protect the financial health of your company by increasing cost efficiency and producing high quality, innovative products. By developing a quality product rather than a cheap one, the team and company become a recognisable force to be reckoned with in an industry that is constantly swelling with new competitors.
In order to build the best product on the market, your team must be kept focused to keep them on task and working on what they’re best at. Maintaining focus is key to running a cost effective team.