6 Location Strategies

Operations
Management

8-1
 Federal Express

 Central hub concept

 Enables service to more locations with
fewer aircraft
 Enables matching of aircraft flights with
package loads
 Reduces mishandling and delay in
transit because there is total control of
packages from pickup to delivery

© 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall 8-2

 Location Strategy

The objective of location strategy is

to maximize the benefit of location
to the firm

© 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall 8-3

 Location Strategy
 One of the most important decisions a
firm makes
 Increasingly global in nature
 Significant impact on fixed and
variable costs
 Decisions made relatively infrequently
 The objective is to maximize the
benefit of location to the firm

© 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall 8-4

 Location and Costs
 Location decisions based on low
cost require careful consideration
 Once in place, location-related
costs are fixed in place and
difficult to reduce
 Determining optimal facility
location is a good investment

© 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall 8-5

 Location and Innovation
 Cost is not always the most important
aspect of a strategic decision
 Four key attributes when strategy is
based on innovation
 High-quality and specialized inputs
 An environment that encourages
investment and local rivalry
 A sophisticated local market
 Local presence of related and
supporting industries
© 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall 8-6
 Location Decisions

 Long-term decisions
 Decisions made infrequently
 Decision greatly affects both fixed
and variable costs
 Once committed to a location,
many resource and cost issues
are difficult to change

© 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall 8-7

 Location Decisions
Country Decision Key Success Factors
1. Political risks, government
rules, attitudes, incentives
2. Cultural and economic
issues
3. Location of markets
4. Labor talent, attitudes,
productivity, costs
5. Availability of supplies,
communications, energy
6. Exchange rates and
Figure 8.1
currency risks
© 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall 8-8
 Location Decisions
Region/ Key Success Factors
Community
Decision 1. Corporate desires
2. Attractiveness of region
MN
3. Labor availability and costs
WI 4. Costs and availability of utilities
MI 5. Environmental regulations
OH
6. Government incentives and
IL IN fiscal policies
7. Proximity to raw materials and
customers
8. Land/construction costs
Figure 8.1
© 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall 8-9
 Location Decisions
Site Decision Key Success Factors
1. Site size and cost
2. Air, rail, highway, and
waterway systems
3. Zoning restrictions
4. Proximity of services/
supplies needed
5. Environmental impact
issues

Figure 8.1
© 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall 8 - 10
 Global Competitiveness
Index of Countries
Country 2009 Rank 2005 Rank
Switzerland 1 4
USA 2 1
Japan 8 10
Canada 9 13
UK 13 9
Israel 27 23
China 29 48
Italy 48 38
India 49 22
Mexico 60 59
Russia 63 53 Table 8.1
© 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall 8 - 11
 Factors That Affect
Location Decisions
 Labor productivity
 Wage rates are not the only cost
 Lower productivity may increase total cost

Labor cost per day

= Cost per unit
Productivity (units per day)

Connecticut Juarez

$70 $25
= $1.17 per unit = $1.25 per unit
60 units 20 units

© 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall 8 - 12

 Factors That Affect
Location Decisions
 Exchange rates and currency risks
 Can have a significant impact on costs
 Rates change over time
 Costs
 Tangible - easily measured costs such as
utilities, labor, materials, taxes
 Intangible - less easy to quantify and
include education, public transportation,
community, quality-of-life

© 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall 8 - 13

 Factors That Affect
Location Decisions
 Exchange rates and currency risks
 Can have a significant impact on cost
structure Location
decisions
 Rates change over time based
 Costs on costs alone
can create
 Tangible - easily measured costs such as
difficult
utilities, labor, materials, ethical
taxes
 Intangible - less easysituations
to quantify and
include education, public transportation,
community, quality-of-life

© 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall 8 - 14

 Factors That Affect
Location Decisions
 Political risk, values, and culture
 National, state, local governments
attitudes toward private and intellectual
property, zoning, pollution, employment
stability may be in flux
 Worker attitudes towards turnover, unions,
absenteeism
 Globally cultures have different attitudes
towards punctuality, legal, and ethical
issues

© 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall 8 - 15

 Ranking Corruption
Rank Country 2011 CPI Score (out of 10)
1 New Zealand 9.5 Least
2 Demark, Finland 9.4 Corrupt
5 Singapore 9.2
6 Norway 9.0
8 Australia, Switzerland 8.8
10 Canada 8.7
12 Hong Kong 8.4
14 Germany, Japan 8.0
16 UK 7.8
24 USA 7.1
32 Taiwan 6.1
43 South Korea 5.4
60 Malaysia 4.3 Most
75 China 3.6 Corrupt
112 Vietnam 2.9
143 Russia 2.4
© 2011 Pearson Education
Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall 8 - 16
 Factors That Affect
Location Decisions
 Proximity to markets
 Very important to services
 JIT systems or high transportation costs
may make it important to manufacturers
 Proximity to suppliers
 Perishable goods, high transportation
costs, bulky products

© 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall 8 - 17

 Factors That Affect
Location Decisions
 Proximity to competitors
 Called clustering
 Often driven by resources such as natural,
information, capital, talent
 Found in both manufacturing and service
industries

© 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall 8 - 18

 Clustering of Companies
Industry Locations Reason for clustering
Wine making Napa Valley (US) Natural resources of
Bordeaux region land and climate
(France)
Software firms Silicon Valley, Talent resources of
Boston, Bangalore bright graduates in
(India) scientific/technical
areas, venture
capitalists nearby
Race car Huntington/North Critical mass of talent
builders Hampton region and information
(England)

© 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall Table 8.3 8 - 19

 Clustering of Companies
Industry Locations Reason for clustering
Theme parks Orlando, Florida A hot spot for
(Disney World, entertainment, warm
Universal weather, tourists, and
Studios) inexpensive labor
Electronics Northern Mexico NAFTA, duty free
firms export to US

Computer Singapore, Taiwan High technological

hardware penetration rate and
manufacturers per capita GDP,
skilled/educated
workforce with large
pool of engineers

© 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall Table 8.3 8 - 20

 Clustering of Companies
Industry Locations Reason for clustering
Fast food Sites within 1 mile Stimulate food sales,
chains of each other high traffic flows
(Wendy’s,
McDonald’s,
Burger King,
and Pizza Hut)
General Wichita, Kansas Mass of aviation skills
aviation aircraft
(Cessna,
Learjet, Boeing)
Orthopedic Warsaw, Indiana Ready supply of skilled
device workers, strong U.S.
manufacturing market

© 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall Table 8.3 8 - 21

 Factor-Rating Method
 Popular because a wide variety of factors
can be included in the analysis
 Six steps in the method
1. Develop a list of relevant factors called key
success factors
2. Assign a weight to each factor
3. Develop a scale for each factor
4. Score each location for each factor
5. Multiply score by weights for each factor for
each location
6. Recommend the location with the highest
point score
© 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall 8 - 22
 Factor-Rating Example
Key Scores
Success (out of 100) Weighted Scores
Factor Weight France Denmark France Denmark
Labor
availability
and attitude .25 70 60 (.25)(70) = 17.5 (.25)(60) = 15.0
People-to-
car ratio .05 50 60 (.05)(50) = 2.5 (.05)(60) = 3.0
Per capita
income .10 85 80 (.10)(85) = 8.5 (.10)(80) = 8.0
Tax structure .39 75 70 (.39)(75) = 29.3 (.39)(70) = 27.3
Education
and health .21 60 70 (.21)(60) = 12.6 (.21)(70) = 14.7
Totals 1.00 70.4 68.0

Table 8.4
© 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall 8 - 23
 Locational
Break-Even Analysis
 Method of cost-volume analysis used for
industrial locations
 Three steps in the method
1. Determine fixed and variable costs for
each location
2. Plot the cost for each location
3. Select location with lowest total cost for
expected production volume

© 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall 8 - 24

 Locational Break-Even
Analysis Example
Three locations:
Selling price = $120
Expected volume = 2,000 units
Fixed Variable Total
City Cost Cost Cost
Akron $30,000 $75 $180,000
Bowling Green $60,000 $45 $150,000
Chicago $110,000 $25 $160,000

Total Cost = Fixed Cost + (Variable Cost x Volume)

© 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall 8 - 25

 Locational Break-Even
Analysis Example
–
$180,000 –
–
$160,000 –
$150,000 –
e
– st curv
o
$130,000 –
i c a go c
– Ch
Annual cost

$110,000 – n
r ee
– g G rve
– w t cu
l i n
o
$80,000 – B cos t
– s
co
$60,000 –
ron rve
– Ak cu
–
$30,000 – Akron Chicago
Bowling Green
lowest lowest
– lowest cost
cost cost
$10,000 –
| | | | | | |
–
Figure 8.2 0 500 1,000 1,500 2,000 2,500 3,000
Volume
© 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall 8 - 26
 Center-of-Gravity Method
 Finds location of distribution
center that minimizes distribution
costs
 Considers
 Location of markets
 Volume of goods shipped to those
markets
 Shipping cost (or distance)

© 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall 8 - 27

 Center-of-Gravity Method
 Place existing locations on a
coordinate grid
 Grid origin and scale is arbitrary
 Maintain relative distances
 Calculate X and Y coordinates for
‘center of gravity’
 Assumes cost is directly
proportional to distance and
volume shipped
© 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall 8 - 28
 Center-of-Gravity Method
∑dixQi
i
x - coordinate =
∑Q
i i

∑diyQi
i
y - coordinate =
∑Q
i i

where dix = x-coordinate of

location i
diy = y-coordinate of
location i
Qi = Quantity of goods
© 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall 8 - 29
 Center-of-Gravity Method
North-South
New York (130, 130)
Chicago (30, 120)
120 –
Pittsburgh (90, 110)

90 –

60 –

30 – Atlanta (60, 40)

| | | | | |
– East-West
30 60 90 120 150
Arbitrary
origin
Figure 8.3
© 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall 8 - 30
 Center-of-Gravity Method
Number of Containers
Store Location Shipped per Month
Chicago (30, 120) 2,000
Pittsburgh (90, 110) 1,000
New York (130, 130) 1,000
Atlanta (60, 40) 2,000

(30)(2000) + (90)(1000) + (130)(1000) + (60)(2000)

x-coordinate =
2000 + 1000 + 1000 + 2000
= 66.7
(120)(2000) + (110)(1000) + (130)(1000) + (40)(2000)
y-coordinate =
2000 + 1000 + 1000 + 2000
= 93.3
© 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall 8 - 31
 Center-of-Gravity Method
North-South
New York (130, 130)
Chicago (30, 120)
120 –
Pittsburgh (90, 110)

90 – + Center of gravity (66.7, 93.3)

60 –

30 – Atlanta (60, 40)

| | | | | |
– East-West
30 60 90 120 150
Arbitrary
origin
Figure 8.3
© 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall 8 - 32
 Transportation Model

 Finds amount to be shipped from

several points of supply to several
points of demand
 Solution will minimize total
production and shipping costs
 A special class of linear
programming problems

© 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall 8 - 33

 Worldwide Distribution of
Volkswagens and Parts

Figure 8.4
© 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall 8 - 34
 Service Location Strategy
1. Purchasing power of customer-drawing area
2. Service and image compatibility with
demographics of the customer-drawing area
3. Competition in the area
4. Quality of the competition
5. Uniqueness of the firm’s and competitors’
locations
6. Physical qualities of facilities and neighboring
businesses
7. Operating policies of the firm
8. Quality of management

© 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall 8 - 35

 Location Strategies
Service/Retail/Professional Location Goods-Producing Location
Revenue Focus Cost Focus
Volume/revenue Tangible costs
Drawing area; purchasing power Transportation cost of raw
Competition; advertising/pricing material
Shipment cost of finished goods
Physical quality Energy and utility cost; labor; raw
material; taxes, and so on
Parking/access; security/lighting;
appearance/image
Intangible and future costs
Cost determinants Attitude toward union
Rent Quality of life
Management caliber Education expenditures by state
Operations policies (hours, wage Quality of state and local
rates) government

Table 8.6
© 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall 8 - 36
 Location Strategies

Service/Retail/Professional Location Goods-Producing Location

Techniques Techniques
Regression models to determine Transportation method
importance of various factors Factor-rating method
Factor-rating method Locational break-even analysis
Traffic counts Crossover charts
Demographic analysis of drawing area
Purchasing power analysis of area
Center-of-gravity method
Geographic information systems

Table 8.6
© 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall 8 - 37
 Location Strategies

Service/Retail/Professional Location Goods-Producing Location

Assumptions Assumptions
Location is a major determinant of Location is a major determinant of
revenue cost
High customer-contact issues are Most major costs can be identified
critical explicitly for each site
Costs are relatively constant for a Low customer contact allows focus
given area; therefore, the revenue on the identifiable costs
function is critical Intangible costs can be evaluated

Table 8.6
© 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall 8 - 38
 How Hotel Chains Select Sites
 Location is a strategically important
decision in the hospitality industry
 La Quinta started with 35 independent
variables and worked to refine a
regression model to predict profitability
 The final model had only four variables
 Price of the inn r2 = .51
 Median income levels 51% of the
profitability is
 State population per inn predicted by
 Location of nearby colleges just these four
variables!
© 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall 8 - 39
 The Call Center Industry
 Requires neither face-to-face
contact nor movement of materials
 Has very broad location options
 Traditional variables are no longer
relevant
 Cost and availability of labor may
drive location decisions

© 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall 8 - 40

 Geographic Information
Systems (GIS)
 Important tool to help in location analysis
 Enables more complex demographic
analysis
 Available data bases include
 Detailed census data
 Detailed maps
 Utilities
 Geographic features
 Locations of major services

© 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall 8 - 41

 Geographic Information
Systems (GIS)

© 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall 8 - 42