Eastman Kodak Co. BenchmarkKodak is the world's leading imaging innovator. George Eastman put the first simple camera in the hands of a world of consumers in 1888. In doing so, he made a cumbersome and complicated process easy to use and accessible to almost everyone. Since then, the Eastman Kodak Company has led the way with an abundance of new products and processes to make photography easier, more useful, and more fun. With revenue of $13.3 billion in 2006, the company is committed to a digitally-focused growth strategy aimed at helping people better use meaningful images and information in their lives and work. (Kodak, 2007) According to Eastman Kodak director of research and development Mark Schneider, he says the plan is not just to cut direct costs. When the Outsourcing Institute asked companies to name their top three reasons for going offsite, costs appeared in 64 percent of the lists. But improving business focus, access to world-class capabilities, and free resources for other purposes were mentioned more than 40 percent of the time (Forbes.com, 2007). Often, a different goal is to minimize the time and distance between a supplier's parts bin and a retailer's cash register, reducing the amount of manufactured goods inventoried along the supply chain. Whatever the reasons, unless a company has a plan in place and a market that can absorb enough production so it can operate at optimal rates and costs, the burden of proof has shifted from why outsource? Why do it here? Eastman Kodak has realized millions in savings on transportation and inventory costs by implementing lean logistics. Kodak began developing lean logistics in 2002 by creating a cross dock to improve the flow of materials moving from suppliers to warehouses. Kodak chose three of its closest suppliers to trial lean logistics. A main truck went to the suppliers to pick up the supplies every two days and bring them back to the cross dock where they were moved to the correct department. This act has resulted in a $20 million reduction in inventory costs because there is nothing to store and shipping costs are low because they use their own trucks. KLI could try a similar approach and ask suppliers to use the just-in-time (JIT) inventory system and maintain levels high enough to run out of products, but low enough to use available remaining space.