Analyzing the global corporate trends during the last decades, the relentless pursuit for process efficiency and the reduction of costs can be regarded among the most outstanding. In many industries these elements determine the business competitiveness, are indicative factors of the companies capability to fulfill their social objectives or necessity for precipitated closure of its activities, due to bankruptcy. Nowadays, it is more difficult to find new opportunities for cost reduction, so long after the beginning of implementation of policies such as "lean manufacturing" and "downsizing" that optimized the productivity of businesses. Henceforth, business managers must be more sophisticated to cut unnecessary expenditure.
This has been excerpted from an 18 July 2014 article by Alexandre Lira de Oliveira of Lira & Associados and is available in its entirety at:
http://www.liraa.com.br/conteudo/2608/fostering-competitiveness-on-the-brazilian-operations-through-customs-knowledge