Atlantis Plastics Outsources Part of Production to China

Case Type: reduce costs; operations strategy, outsourcing.
Consulting Firm: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) first round full time job interview.
Industry Coverage: manufacturing; consumer products.

Case Interview Question #00912: The client Atlantis Plastics is a national manufacturer of plastic consumer products headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. The company has three main product lines — (1) freezer bags, (2) plastic plates and utensils, and (3) specialty plates and utensils. Their products are sold in a variety of retail formats, including supermarkets, discounters, club stores, and dollar stores.

The CEO of Atlantis Plastics has been reading for some time about American companies outsourcing their production overseas to low-cost countries such as China, India, Mexico. She wonders whether this makes sense for her company as well. It worries her that none of her main competitors have established foreign production capabilities; on the other hand, this could be a tremendous opportunity to gain a competitive advantage.

We have been asked to help the client understand the benefits and risks of moving its production capabilities to China and to provide a recommendation. What would you recommend?

Additional Information: to share with interviewee upon request

1. Current client production capabilities

* All products are made in a single factory in Ohio.
* The factory is at capacity and the company is considering building or acquiring a nearby facility.

2. Chinese production options

* Client has no previous experience in building and managing a factory overseas.
* Client has met with several Chinese manufacturing partners and has done initial product testing.
- Cost
* all three product lines have similar cost structures and savings
* give interviewee Exhibit 1
- Quality
* lower quality on freezer bags
* equal quality on plastic plates and utensils (both regular and specialty)
- Lead time
* need 3-4 weeks of additional lead time for each product line for transportation from China to U.S. distribution center.

3. Chinese market, and current client presence

* All three categories are relatively underdeveloped but growing, dominated by local manufacturers.
* Client does not currently have any sales in China, although a few of their U.S. customers (e.g., Wal-Mart) do have presence there.

Exhibit 1. Costs of production in U.S. vs. China

** Ask the candidate to calculate Costs in China ($/lb.)

Possible Answer:

1. Main question to address: Should plastics manufacturer move production to China?

2. Key areas to explore

A. Cost savings

Costs in US = $1.00/lb.

Costs in China = (labor) $0.30 * 8%/80% + (plastic resin) $0.30 * 80% + (other material) $0.20 * 75% + (variable overhead) $0.05 * 140% + (fixed overhead) $0.10 * 60% + (transportation) $6,000/40,000 + $0.05 = $0.03 + $0.24 + $0.15 + $0.07 + $0.06 + $0.15 + $0.05 = $0.75/lb.

* Would save $0.25/lb. (25% of current costs)
* At current production levels, would save:
- $0.25 * 200M = $50M in freezer bags
- $0.25 * 300M = $75M in plastic plates and utensils
- $0.25 * 100M = $25M in specialty plates and utensils

B. Consumer behavior and purchase criteria

* Quality is top purchase criteria for freezer bags – lower quality from China
* Price is top criteria for plastic plates and utensils
* Style is top criteria for specialty plates and utensils – highly variable demand requires short lead times

C. Effect on current production capabilities

* Current plant is at capacity – outsourcing would eliminate need to build additional capacity
* Plastic plates and utensils are 50% of total production – outsourcing may create too much extra capacity

3. Recommendation

* Outsource plastic plates and utensils to China.
* Do not outsource specialty plates and utensils.
* Do not outsource freezer bags (although further analysis may be warranted).

4. Other factors

* To compensate for extra capacity that would be created in current plant, the client could produce new product line, rent out spare capacity, or move to smaller facility.

5. Detailed Analysis

The interviewee should start with a brief overview of the potential benefits and risks of outsourcing to China. The main benefit is lower costs, mostly driven by inexpensive labor. A secondary benefit is a possible springboard into the emerging Chinese (and other Asian) market. Risks include lower labor productivity, possible quality issues, longer lead times, additional transportation costs, and potential communication/coordination issues. Ask the interviewee about the ramifications of longer lead times — they include greater carrying costs, higher cycle and safety stock, greater forecast error, and less responsiveness to demand.

There are three main questions that the interviewee needs to answer:

* How much cheaper is producing in China?
* What do consumers value and how would outsourcing affect those criteria?
* What are the client’s current production capabilities and how would outsourcing part/all of their production affect the remainder?

First, the interviewee should size the opportunity — is this a $5 million or $500 million opportunity? By solving for the last column in Exhibit 1, the interviewee will find that the client would save $0.25/lb. (25% of current costs) by outsourcing to China. Given current production levels, the client would save $50 million by outsourcing freezer bags, $75 million by outsourcing plastic plates and utensils, and $25 million by outsourcing specialty plates and utensils. Two notes: (1) costs may increase if the Chinese Yuan rises versus the dollar and (2) these estimates do not include a profit margin for the Chinese outsourcing partner.

The interviewee must recognize, however, that cost savings alone are not sufficient to make a decision. It is important to understand how an outsourced product will affect sales. The interviewee should suggest market research to understand consumer behavior.

Freezer bags: since customers’ top purchase criteria is quality and outsourcing would produce lower quality bags, the interviewee should raise a red flag here. A more sophisticated recommendation would be to conduct market research to see the impact on sales of the lower quality bag at lower prices — even though quality is more important than price, the magnitude of a price change may override the drop in product quality.

Plastic plates and utensils: the top purchase criteria here is price, which makes this product line an attractive outsourcing opportunity. Ask the interviewee what the client should do with the cost savings — potential recommendations include dropping price to steal share, investing to defend its position in case competitors begin outsourcing (e.g., brand, innovation, customer service), and milking the product line as a cash cow.

Specialty plates and utensils: the highly variable and unpredictable demand for these products means that shorter lead times are critical in order to adjust production quickly. Longer lead times will result in greater forecast errors, higher safety/cycle stock, and more unsold inventory and/or out-of-stocks. Therefore, specialty plates and utensils should not be outsourced.

An analysis of customer purchase behavior indicates that plastic plates and utensils should be outsourced, specialty plates and utensils should not be, and freezer bags probably should not be. The final step is to understand the impact of outsourcing on the client’s current production capabilities. For example, will it lead to plant closings (resulting in closing costs and possible negative publicity)? Will it lead to underutilization of current facilities?

Since the current plant is already near capacity, moving plastic plates and utensils offshore would actually save the client from investing in new facilities. However, since that product line makes up 50% of total production (in terms of lbs.), removing it may create too much extra capacity in the current plant for the two remaining lines. To compensate, the client could produce a new product line, rent out the extra capacity, or move to a smaller plant.