Cost Cutting as a Maintenance and Reliability Strategy

Cost cutting is the antithesis to improvement. I am constantly amazed that everyone I speak to realizes the inherent problems with adopting a cost cutting strategy in the midst of an economic downturn. Nevertheless that is the exact course many companies take when faced with dwindling profits, disappearing margins, and increasing expenses. Unfortunately this is how value is destroyed. In my research of companies who have adopted cost cutting as business strategy I have never found one that achieved high performance in the long run. In fact no company has ever cost cut their way to "world class" performance. Studies have shown that those companies who adopted a "process or continuous improvement" approach were the ones most likely to achieve best in class performance after the economic storms subside. It would be interesting if someone has a personal story about companies adopting cost cutting as a technique for business improvement.