In a bold move, Sony announced yesterday to reduce the number of parts it's uses from 840.000 to a mere 100.000. Sony is not the first to realise less parts can mean reduced costs, as the car industry has been reducing parts for quite sometime. The reduction in parts will have a dramatic influence on the number of suppliers, who's numbers will be reduced from 8400 to 1000.

This is part of a 3 year plan costing ¥300bn aimed at restructuring its electronics division, where the recent problems have been concentrated.

(source: financial times)