Closer to the marketplace The production of goods in countries where companies trade or alliances with other groups can produce beneficial results. A new factory on the outskirts of Savannah, in the US state of Georgia, sums up the efforts of JCB, the UK construction equipment maker, to expand in the world's biggest market for such machines. JCB's venture into the US, with its first purpose-built factory outside Britain, underlines the pressure in much of the engineering business to make the process of globalisation work as smoothly as possible. Companies are increasingly trying to spread their activities on a worldwide basis, using a range of different strategies.
Acquisitions frequently form part of such an approach.
They have the benefit of giving companies the potential to grow quickly in a part of the world where, previously, they had little presence. This stance has spilled over to the company's project in the US, where the new plant has been modelled on the architecture of JCB's main UK factory in Rocester, Staffordshire, even down to the design of a large artificial lake at the front of the building. In particular, it has been keen to take advantage of US-style manufacturing practices. This is shown by hiring Doug Friesen, a US manager who formerly worked for General Motors and Toyota, to take charge of the Savannah factory. Mr Friesen has a brief to build up JCB's manufacturing operations in the US with the target to produce up to 10,000 construction machines a year by the middle of this decade.