But the fact is, they ain't saving a Penny.
My last job ditched their print department. saved millions. no different here. also think, no manuals, no need for the 2 dollar fake leather folder to hold them (count the number of cars made and take it x 2...)
ditching the print department axed at least 5-10 people and got rid of a printing press and all of its associated expenses, maintenance and upkeep and supplies, plus freed up a few thousand square feet of office space. it was a no brainer.
Each Service Engineer did their own authoring... corrections... updates. You check it out... fix it... check it back in. Corrections would be visible internally within seconds. Web based replicated version would be updated overnight and visible to whoever Joe Public had paid for the subscription. They even had us creating our own artwork in 3D math modeling too. There went nearly the entire art department. It is so much more efficient and a better product in the end.
As to what they did with the money? I'm sure the executives got a handsome bonus. Also with mandates on alternative fuel vehicles most all savings were earmarked for future product. You're probably seeing some of it already.
^^this.
They did not hire or spin up a new team just for manual distribution, they loaded existing employees with the task of doing this. basically all they need is a simple script that a high school student can write to take the files and send them where they need to go (website, registered owners by pulling email address or account info from their database). literally a 5 minute to a half hour job each time they run the process. theoretically, just once a year. any revisions to the manual would be a simple replace manual.pdf with manual_rev2.pdf. I would imagine that there are only a few revisions a year in the manuals. and I would also wager that the manuals do not change much from year to year either as most manufactures use the same bodystyle with a few minor mechanical and cosmetics through the run. 93 through 97 Rangers probably don't have but a few pages that are different. Huge savings there, they can insert and delete pages very easily to update to the next years model.
I'm sure they save millions annually.
Yep.