In a past life I attended a couple of days training on reliability and process improvement given by a former Pharmaceutical Reliability Engineer turned consultant.
In heavy industry, the drivers behind improved reliability are most often driven by reduction in product/production costs. During this training, it became evident the drivers behind Big Pharma were time to market and product availability.
The focus was on getting to market first and keeping up with demand so no one had a reason to look at another option. Product/production cost was not a top line consideration.
It would be more closely related to NASCAR than to commodity production like petro/chem, steel, etc.
Caterpillar once told Ward Burton that they were pleased he could run up front and consistently finish in the top 20. Then they asked his team how far into the top 10 they thought he could finish. Ward's answer was simple, "How much money do you want to spend?"
It's not about keeping the cost low in the US, it's about winning the race. And paying the bill for all of the races they don't finish.
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