Case Study
Manufacturing
Relocation projects delivered
safely to cost and schedule
Service line
Business Excellence
Duration
1.5 years
Syngroup Office
Vienna / Austria
Geography
Europe
Manufacturing
Background
Our client is a leading manufacturer of abrasive products used in cutting, grinding, drilling and sawing applications across a range of industries.

In addition, the company supplies a range of tools and machinery to the construction industry.
Our client operates 29 production sites globally
In a period of rapidly rising labour costs, our client was looking into the feasibility of relocating some of their more labour intensive operations to lower cost countries. Recognising the complexity associated with making the right decision, they called in Syngroup for support.

Objectives

The objectives were broadly three-fold:

  • Identify the decision-criteria against which different options could be evaluated and ranked. Low-cost was one of many criteria.
  • Identify and assess potential challenges and obstacles, including factory layout, local compliance and legal requirements etc.
  • Project Manage the relocation to new sites
Focus area
Development of an evaluation and decision-making framework
Conduct a research project to identify countries that meet the relocation criteria
Identify additional country-specific requirements
Develop and manage the relocation plan
Our Approach
  • Following an initial period of exploration to better understand our client’s objectives and timescales, we focussed on developing an assessment framework. This included the decision parameters against which possible relocation sites would be evaluated. Once this was signed off, we initiated a ‘desk-top’ project which looked in-depth at each country, assessing it’s suitability – strengths and weaknesses. A long list of possible global locations was narrowed down to a more manageable number. These were assessed more critically against legal and compliance challenges, amongst others.
  • Through a structured evaluation and decision-making process, the decision was taken to split the production between Asia and Eastern-Europe
  • Detailed project plans were developed to enable the relocations to run as smoothly as possible. Target sites were also evaluated to ensure they were capable of meeting layout requirements.
Outcome

The relocations were executed successfully both in Europe and Asia with both meeting their respective milestones and achieving full production according to plan.

Results
Project executed on time and to budget
Ramp-up at new sites achieved safely and to schedule
Methodologies
  • Project Management
  • Scenario Planning
  • Evaluation and Decision-making Frameworks