问题描述：
英语翻译
Recessionary environments of the late 1970s and early 1990s have given birth to cost reduction programs described in business articles by phrases such as "cutting and slicing," "repositioning," "retrenching," "restructuring," "demassing," "downsizing" and "rightsizing." In simple words,these phrases mean several million U.S.managers and workers had to accept pay cuts or lose their jobs because of cost reduction programs.But these cost reduction programs can provide only short-term cost competitiveness because valuable trained managers and workers are lost.The long-term success of these firms is highly debatable,though there is no systematic empirical evidence.The point is that U.S.firms,by reducing their workforces,failed to adopt a long-term perspective to strategic business planning.The focus of this article is to describe and discuss the cost reduction techniques employed by U.S.firms during the last two decades,and to introduce the concept of total cost management as a strategic business practice for effective long-term cost reduction.A comprehensive framework to implement total cost management (TCM) is also proposed.This research discusses total cost management as an analogous paradigm to total quality management (TQM).U.S.firms need to adopt principles of total cost management in order to be competitive in local and global markets in the long-run.
Traditional cost reduction program
Typically,a traditional cost reduction program is a distress tactic targeted at all employees.It is triggered in reaction to an immediate threat,such as:
* Poor financial performance;
* A sudden loss of important clients or big contracts; or
* Price reductions or price war with smaller companies.(For example,Compaq initiated layoffs after failing to compete with low-cost manufacturers in the PC market).
Recessionary environments of the late 1970s and early 1990s have given birth to cost reduction programs described in business articles by phrases such as "cutting and slicing," "repositioning," "retrenching," "restructuring," "demassing," "downsizing" and "rightsizing." In simple words,these phrases mean several million U.S.managers and workers had to accept pay cuts or lose their jobs because of cost reduction programs.But these cost reduction programs can provide only short-term cost competitiveness because valuable trained managers and workers are lost.The long-term success of these firms is highly debatable,though there is no systematic empirical evidence.The point is that U.S.firms,by reducing their workforces,failed to adopt a long-term perspective to strategic business planning.The focus of this article is to describe and discuss the cost reduction techniques employed by U.S.firms during the last two decades,and to introduce the concept of total cost management as a strategic business practice for effective long-term cost reduction.A comprehensive framework to implement total cost management (TCM) is also proposed.This research discusses total cost management as an analogous paradigm to total quality management (TQM).U.S.firms need to adopt principles of total cost management in order to be competitive in local and global markets in the long-run.
Traditional cost reduction program
Typically,a traditional cost reduction program is a distress tactic targeted at all employees.It is triggered in reaction to an immediate threat,such as:
* Poor financial performance;
* A sudden loss of important clients or big contracts; or
* Price reductions or price war with smaller companies.(For example,Compaq initiated layoffs after failing to compete with low-cost manufacturers in the PC market).
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