FRAMEWORK FOR EVALUATING AND UPGRADING THE STRATEGIC PLANT ROLE. CASE STUDY WITHIN A GLOBAL OPERATIONS NETWORK.

Abstract

The current international business environment demands to industrial companies to adapt their operations to an ever more increasing global playground. The sourcing, manufacturing and supplying should therefore evolve from a traditional vertically integrated supply chain to a worldwide spread network, which is able to efficiently respond to markets. However, companies face difficulties with finding a structured approach for designing or restructuring their operations networks. This article shows one of the first case studies in a global multiplant and multiproduct operations network, where it will be tested the goodness of a framework that systematically assess the strategic factory role of within its a global operations network. The framework evaluates the current status regarding the strengths and weaknesses, as well as the strategic plant role. These are the basis for deploying an improvement roadmap to push the plant competences, depending on the targeted new plant strategic role, either by the plant itself or by the product area/company.The applicability of the model will be checked via a case study, providing additionally if the application of this framework can support a better competitive performance in a plant.