Executive Summary

Client: Japanese food manufacturer

Challenge: Although the client brought solid commercial strategy expertise, they would benefit from stronger logistics insights and data‑driven analysis to support future site evaluations.

Solution: We assessed potential locations using historical shipment data and core logistics considerations such as transport costs, service performance, and market feasibility. Medium- and long-term scenarios were compared, and viable configurations recommended.

Results: Introduced a logistics-informed perspective into an executive discussion previously driven by non-logistics criteria.

Client Background

Japanese food manufacturer

The Challenge

What problem or need did the client have?

While strong in commercial strategy; the client faced challenges in evaluating future site options with logistics-based perspectives and data-driven rigor.

What were their goals?

Select optimal 5- and 10-year configurations balancing cost, service (lead time and delivery reliability), and feasibility (capacity, warehouse, labor).

Why was this challenge significant?

Misplaced facilities risk structural cost increases, extended lead times, capacity bottlenecks, lost sales, and reduced resilience.

MTS’s Solution

Approach:

Analyzed one year of shipment data to design scenarios aligned with 5- and 10-year visions. Combined shipment patterns, transport cost dynamics, service projections, and market feasibility into a structured evaluation framework.

Key Actions Taken:

• Evaluated candidate configurations to identify efficient options based on shipment characteristics.

• Benchmarked against market conditions to capture realistic cost and service implications.

• Reviewed expected delivery performance and alignment with customer requirements.

• Considered qualitative factors including capacity, infrastructure, and labor dynamics.

• Applied a structured assessment to recommend primary and alternative scenarios for 5- and 10-year horizons.

Innovations or Customizations:

Integrated a high-correlation baseline metric with market pricing and service feasibility, ensuring recommendations were both strategically sound and operationally viable.

Implementation

Timeline:
Data intake & cleansing → scenario design → quantitative analysis → service & market evaluation → composite scoring → recommendation review → executive presentation.

Obstacles & How They Were Overcome:
Consolidated fragmented data and resolved quality issues via standardization, outlier treatment, and targeted imputation; secured stakeholder alignment on criteria weighting through a stakeholder workshop (cost vs. service vs. feasibility).

Results

Quantitative Outcomes:

• Scenario-based projections of transport cost and lead time performance.

• Comparative view of capacity and feasibility risks.

Qualitative Outcomes:

• Logistics-informed, quantitative-plus-qualitative evaluation enabled clearer decisions for 5- and 10-year horizons; trade-offs were explicit, easing executive alignment.

Before & After Comparison:

• Before: Location planning driven mainly by non-logistics criteria; difficult to reach a decision.

• After: Scored, logistics-informed scenarios enabled a feasible, resilient network roadmap.

Conclusion & Key Takeaways

Summary of Success:
Delivered a structured, data-driven site selection framework that improved both the quality and speed of decision-making for 5- and 10-year planning.

Lessons Learned:

A simple baseline metric, when validated against market conditions and service feasibility, can provide a robust foundation for strategic yet executable network design.