Danfoss - Global Manufacturing Footprint Case Solution And Analysis, HBR Case Study Solution & Analysis of Harvard Case Studies

The case analyzes the supply chain, managerial, and organizational challenges facing a sizable European industrial firm competing in a mature industry with strong cost pressure. The business has grown into a leading industrial group. Until the mid-1990s, Danfoss was quite Europe-focused, having the majority of production and its own sales there. This changed, however, with the coming of the creator's son, Jorgen Mads Clausen, as the new CEO of the firm. He began a procedure to change the company into a global player within all of its primary business areas. Following this procedure for internationalization, the company was facing various challenges. There were three main issues which top management was concerned about: namely, its continued international increase Danfoss's manufacturing network; and its highly engineering-based culture. The first issue came from the reality that Danfoss had followed a strategy of a single product, one plant.

This meant that all of its own plants were set up to focus on the creation of one product. This had created a situation with a whole lot of very specialized product lines and incredibly few common characteristics between them. Despite heavy investments in its manufacturing capacity in Mexico, but the business was still experiencing difficulties in the USA. In China, the business had experienced success and desired to secure long-term increase in the marketplace. The third issue was the very engineering-established culture of the company, which among other things was established in the reality that products were previously developed by Danfoss at the expense of consumer demand and preferences.

PUBLICATION DATE: May 25, 2011 PRODUCT #: W11283-PDF-ENG

This is just an excerpt. This case is about STRATEGY & EXECUTION