The industry$-$low, industry$-$average, and industry$-$high benchmarks for the costs per branded pair sold in each geographic regionThe installation of production improvement option D which boosts worker productivity by $50\%$ by using robots to assist in

producing footwear

reduces labor costs per pair produced by the greatest dollar amount at company production facilities in any region producing

$200$ or more models$/$styles of branded footwear with an S$/$Q rating of $5-$stars or higher.

will reduce labor costs per pair produced by the greatest amount at a newly established production facility in Latin America, as

compared to the per pair reduction that can be achieved at a production facility in North America.

will typically result in a bigger dollar$-$amount reduction in labor costs per pair produced at a recently established production

facility in Latin America than a production facility in North America because both compensation of workers and worker

productivity in Latin America are so much lower than in North America.

is a very economically attractive means for reducing labor costs per pair at a production facility in the Asia$-$Pacific.

is a more economically attractive means for reducing labor costs per pair produced at production facilities in North America than

for a production facility in the Asia$-$Pacific because compensation costs for workers in North America are so much higher than in

the Asia$-$Pacific.

$($including production costs, shipping, import tariffs, and exchange rate adjustments$),$ distribution and warehouse expenses per

branded pair sold, and marketing expenses per branded pair sold that appear on p$.7$ of each issue of the Footwear Industry Report

are of the most value to the managers of companies with subpar stock prices and credit ratings.

are of little value because the benchmarking data do not identify which companies have the lowest$/$highest costs for any of

these three benchmarked cost categories.

are worth careful scrutiny by the managers of all companies because when the benchmarking data signals that a company's

branded costs or operating profitability for one or more of the benchmarks are out$-$of$-$line, managers are well advised to take

corrective action in the next decision round.

have the greatest value to the managers of companies that have negative operating profit per pair sold in one of more

geographic regions and$/$or whose marketing expenses per pair sold are above the industry average.

are most valuable to the managers of companies whose marketing expense benchmarks are below the industry average and$/$or

who are looking for evidence to confirm the need to substantially increase their company's marketing expenses in the upcoming

decision round.