Case Study - Transition to Offshore Printing & Distribution
Project Background
A senior manager within a major global publishing company, with extensive international operations, identified the possibility of significant cost savings by moving their printing and distribution operation offshore. After some initial modelling to estimate the potential benefits a project was set in motion to pilot the approach. The objectives were to:
- See if it could work in practice
- Confirm that the business benefits truly were of the estimated magnitude
- Uncover and assess any risks to the business
- Gather experience and data from which a more comprehensive assessment of the business opportunity could be made
- Propose how the operation could be scaled up
With their own staff already involved in other projects, the publishing company asked Brook Project Management to manage the project on their behalf.
The Project Team
A steering group of two directors and two line managers was set up to work with the project manager. Their first task was to put together a detailed but flexible project plan; one that would evolve as the pilot progressed. They were also to monitor progress, keep the publishing company management team informed and had the authority to take necessary actions.
As well as his day-to-day project role the project manager was responsible for running the progress meetings and ensuring that all actions that were planned were understood, agreed and done on time.
Planning the Project
Before the pilot could begin the offshore suppliers, printers and distributors were identified and selected through a formal tendering process and their involvement in a six month pilot project was agreed.
The project was set up using a realistic subset of the publishers' titles, but one that was also straightforward and of low risk to the business overall.
Next the project moved to defining the business procedures and technical processes to be used for communicating instructions and transferring data between the participating companies. This had a significant practical impact because of the eight hours difference in time zones that gave very little overlap of working days to resolve any operational issues.
Running the Project
With the processes defined, the users from all parties were then trained and briefed on the project. It started on time and ran very successfully with few problems.
The ongoing data capture during the pilot was done on a monthly basis and put into the evaluation model which showed positive results. As the pilot progressed the demands on the suppliers were increased to ensure they could meet the more complex business requirements of the publisher.
A Successful Outcome
This project was successful with Brook Project Management delivering:
- A decision paper supported by extensive data analysis of the pilot and its performance
- Business and system process definitions
- A scale up plan
The scale up took place over a two year period and when finished delivered a final saving to the publisher equal to 40% of its previous print costs.
The main issues to arise were:
- Understanding and learning to work within different cultural practices
- The legal and practice differences in international business
- The affect of time zone differences on communications and problem solving
- The affect of distance in getting things done
If we can help with your move to offshore printing and distribution, please contact us.