“As we look forward into 2024, we remain focused on continuing to tackle inflationary costs, and we think there's substantial opportunity across both direct and indirect material as well as logistics and overhead.”

In context

“ductivity regardless of the equipment age. Joshua Rohleder: That's all really exciting, Brent. And it looks like we continue to demonstrate our commitment to the business strategy with stable through-cycle investments in innovation. To that extent, maintaining the gains in structural profitability we've achieved over the last few years requires diligent cost management across the business. We've already noted the significant effort we've put into reducing costs in 2023. But Brent, can you share how we're thinking about cost management for 2024? Brent Norwood: That's a great question, Josh. 2023 was really all about getting the low-hanging fruit. From premium freight to declining raw material costs, we did a good job at wringing out a decent amount of disruption-related inefficiencies. As we look forward into 2024, we remain focused on continuing to tackle inflationary costs, and we think there's substantial opportunity across both direct and indirect material as well as logistics and overhead. We've already begun to see these impacts show up in our financials to an extent. The fourth quarter was the first time we've seen production costs flip positive for both production and precision ag and small ag and turf, driven primarily by material and freight. Our 2024 guide implies that overall production costs will be slightly favorable for the full year. As price realization moderates to normal levels, the focus on cost becomes an increasingly more important component to maintaining and improving our structural cost position. The focus on reducing our direct and indirect materials as well as our logistics cost becomes especially acute given the continued rise in labor costs across many of our markets. Josh Jepsen: This is Josh Jepsen again. One thing to add to Brent's comments the”