How International Relocations Help Manufacturing Issues

When you think of manufacturing, you think of buildings and equipment … processes with little physical flexibility. Several issues have impacted manufacturing recently:

• Supply chain disruptions – from the post-pandemic environment to the Ukrainian war and natural disasters … the availability of materials and longer delivery times affect manufacturing organisations greatly.
• Brexit – depending on your geographical operation, Brexit adds delays to order fulfilment. This impacts the manufacturing sector particularly hard as it is one of the most heavily reliant on international trade.
• Labour shortages - industry body Make UK reveals there are 74,000 unfilled vacancies in the sector (July 2023). It’s now harder to find the right person for the job and more expensive to hire them once you’ve found them.
• Rising interest rates – especially important if plant and/or premises have been funded by borrowing.

How do international relocations help?

The above issues have created an interesting dilemma for manufacturing organisations:

• the opportunity to relocate production to a more viable location, and
• the need to prevent the next supply chain crisis, versus
• the huge financial cost involved with relocating physical processes.

Apple, Samsung and Hasbro have already decided that relocating is best, moving their manufacturing way from China. Vietnam was the preferred location for each of these moves, with Hasbro also relocating some production to India. Volvo has Chinese owners, however its new factory was built in Slovakia.

Talent mobility helps organisations become productive and efficient as quickly as possible when relocating to a new country. Localised skills shortages plus recruitment timescales and costs make international relocations a faster and more cost-effective option compared to external recruitment.

International relocations enable manufacturing organisations to:

1. Leverage cost savings as quickly as possible, avoiding lengthy recruitment campaigns and subsequent training regarding the organisation’s culture and process requirements.
2. Optimise productivity by applying operational processes without a training requirement. Once ‘up and running’ the new location can improve delivery times and customer experience.
3. Increase resilience through a proven talent mobility programme, enabling skills to be relocated throughout the organisation via a proven workforce mobility policy and trusted relocation provider. An essential element of this policy is the wellbeing of relocation employees and their families. This optimises the success of each relocation.

‘Relocating your manufacturing operation to a new country is a huge step,’ says Barrie Gilmour, BTR International’s Director Client Experience. ‘Accessing the right operational skills and knowledge of your organisation’s production processes as quickly as possible reduces the cost and timescale involved.’

Are you managing your company’s international relocations?

Is your manufacturing organisation considering the opportunity of relocating to a new country?        

Talk to Barrie direct on +44 (0)7957 625 406. Enjoy an initial discussion without obligation.