TriVista Advised on Establishing a New Facility Including a Multi-Region Feasibility Study

TriVista guided a large automotive manufacturing company through the process of establishing a new facility, which included a multi-region feasibility study, comprehensive project design, and a strategic implementation plan.

The Challenge

A private equity-backed $350 million automotive manufacturing company was suffering from production constraints while simultaneously facing the need to augment production operations to better serve the North American marketplace. In an effort to expand capacity and create a strategic cost advantage, Executive Management proposed the idea of establishing a manufacturing facility in Mexico. With no previous experience in this area, the company was faced with the challenge of familiarizing itself with Mexico’s labor rates, accounting & environmental laws, real estate practices, skilled labor availability, company establishment procedures, government incentives, and freight infrastructure.

With existing staff dedicated to optimizing current capacity constraints, it became clear that experienced assistance was vital, both to model the various options available in Mexico, as well as facilitate implementation to guarantee the success of the project. Although start-up and operating costs for a new plant were not yet clear, management believed that a Mexico operation had the potential to provide a quality product at a lower cost within an aggressive timeline, allowing them to capture unmet market needs. Furthermore, by using outside assistance, local management remained focused on growing the business with minimal disruptions.

Our Approach

The company retained TriVista to lead this endeavor, leveraging our robust experience successfully implementing various facility startups, both domestically and overseas. By using TriVista’s advanced Strategy Deployment Process, our team developed an approach that included a multi-region feasibility analysis, as well as a strategic implementation plan. The client was extremely pleased with the initial assessment and asked TriVista to act as Program Managers for the final facility selection, preparation, and launch. This location would become the client’s largest facility exceeding 500,000 sq. ft. and a capital investment of over $15 million.