Video Case 9.3: Kimpton Hotels: "Our Employees Are Our Brand"

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that, because her employees come with a wide range of

experience at different locations in the hospitality industry,

sometimes it is difficult to get them to leave behind their

previous assumptions about their role as hotel workers.

“The biggest challenge with employee empowerment and

communication is that we’re all products of our past,”

Leondakis says. New employees often have to be retrained

to think outside the box, make decisions, and “rock the

boat,” as Leondakis puts it.

The results of this retraining toward empowerment

have not gone unnoticed. Kimpton Hotels consistently

win awards for service, and the group has received many

accolades for its approach to human resource management, including a recent award from the Human Rights

Campaign for “Workplace Equality Innovation.” In addition, Kimpton is regularly named to Fortune's list of “100

Best Companies to Work For.”

Recent praise from the industry publication Hospitality

Design included a statement from Kimpton CEO Michael

Depatie crediting Leondakis with much of the company’s

HR success. “Niki has an extraordinary ability to connect

with people, from guests she meets on the road to each

and every one of our employees,” said Depatie. Leondakis,

managers like Trott, and the entire staff embody their company’s assertion that “Our employees are our brand.”



Questions for Critical Thinking

1. Give three specific reasons why empowerment is

key to the success of a firm like Kimpton Hotels.

How might this distinguish it from other hotel

companies?

2. Select the concept of either a problem-solving

team or a self-managed team. How might this

team function at a Kimpton hotel? Who might

be on the team, and what role might it play in

the running of the hotel?

3. Give an example of a situation in which informal communication would function well among

empowered employees at a Kimpton hotel.

4. Currently all Kimpton hotels are located in the

U.S., which is a low-context culture. If the firm

decided to open a hotel in a high-context culture such as Japan, how might communication

between staff and guests differ?

Sources: Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants Web site, http://www

.kimptonhotels.com, accessed March 20, 2012; “Why Work for

Kimpton?” http://www.imkimpton.com, accessed March 20, 2012; Sam

Guidino, Mike Desimone, Jeff Jenssen, and Lynn Alley, “Kimpton Takes

Philly,” Wine Spectator, http://www.winespectator.com, accessed March 20,

2012; “Kimpton Hotels Aim for 100 Percent Green Seal Certification,”

GreenBiz.com, http://www.greenbiz.com, accessed March 20, 2012.



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Learning Objectives

1 Explain the strategic importance of production.

2 Identify and describe the production processes.



Chapter



10



3 Explain the role of technology in the production process.

4 Identify the factors involved in a location decision.

5 Explain the job of production managers.

6 Discuss controlling the production process.

7 Determine the importance of quality.



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Production and Operations

Management



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Intel’s “Fab” New Manufacturing

Facility



W



hat’s it like inside one of Intel’s secure microprocessor

chip-fabricating facilities? If you’re lucky enough to visit a “fab”

plant—and few people are—you’ll enter dressed in a white

jumpsuit, double-layered gloves, and special shoes, hair net,

and goggles. All that gear is to protect the chips, by the way,

not you.

Intel supplies chips for about 80 percent of all laptops, its core

market, but with the rapid growth of smart phones and tablets, which require different, smaller microprocessors, the firm

is investing $9 billion to increase its production capacity and

stay ahead of demand for the new 22-nanometer technology.

“By continuing to push our manufacturing leadership,” says

an industry observer, “Intel has a great opportunity to be a

significant force in markets where it hasn’t traditionally been

a factor.”

Intel’s latest factory, the 1-million-square-foot Fab 42 now

under construction in Arizona, will consume about $5 billion

of the firm’s production investment on its way to becoming



the most advanced high-volume semiconductor manufacturing

plant in the world. Fab 42 will require 11 million skilled-labor

hours, the efforts of 2,000 to 3,000 construction workers,

almost 600 miles of wiring, 86,000 cubic yards of concrete,

more than 130 miles of mechanical piping, and 21,000 tons

of structural steel. To lift 300-ton roof trusses into place, Intel

also needed the largest land-based crane in the world, which

was assembled on the site from pieces that filled 250 trucks.

Building the new facility, set to employ about 1,000 people

when it opens, is “a very large, complex construction process,”

says the company’s head of manufacturing.

The rest of Intel’s investment in production will help upgrade its

existing facilities. At Fab 32, for instance, 30 quality-control specialists monitor the automated manufacturing processes 24/7,

speedily shutting equipment down in the rare case of a defect.

The facility can test for 1,500 different defects in silicon wafers

the width of a human hair.

Fab 42 will doubtless do likewise and more. “We think Fab 42

will lead us into the future,” says Intel’s head of manufacturing.1



Overview

By producing and marketing the goods

and services that people want, businesses satisfy their commitment to society as a whole.

They create what economists call utility—the

want-satisfying power of a good or service.

Businesses can create or enhance four basic

kinds of utility: time, place, ownership, and

form. A firm’s marketing operation generates

time, place, and ownership utility by offering

products to customers at a time and place

that is convenient for purchase.

Production creates form utility by converting raw materials and other inputs into

finished products, such as Intel’s microprocessor chips. Production uses resources,

including workers and machinery, to convert

materials into finished goods and services.

This conversion process may make major



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changes in raw materials or simply combine

already finished parts into new products.

The task of production and operations

management in a firm is to oversee the

production process by managing people

and machinery in converting materials and

resources into finished goods and services,

which is illustrated by Figure 10.1.

People sometimes use the terms production and manufacturing interchangeably, but

the two are actually different. Production

spans both manufacturing and nonmanufacturing industries. For instance, companies

that engage in fishing or mining engage in

production, as do firms that provide package

deliveries or lodging. Figure 10.2 lists five

examples of production systems for a variety

of goods and services.



production and

operations management oversee the production process by managing

people and machinery in

converting materials and

resources into finished

goods and services.



production use of

resources, such as workers

and machinery, to convert

materials into finished

goods and services.



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FIGURE



10.1



The Production Process: Converting Inputs to Outputs



CONVERSION

PROCESS



INPUTS

• Resources

• Raw Materials



OUTPUTS

• Goods

• Services



• Add Value



But whether the production process

results in a tangible good such as a car or

an intangible service such as cable television, it always converts inputs into outputs.

A cabinetmaker combines wood, tools, and

skill to create finished kitchen cabinets for a

new home. A transit system combines buses,

trains, and employees to create its output:

passenger transportation. Both of these

production processes create utility.



This chapter describes the process of

producing goods and services. It looks at

the importance of production and operations management and discusses the new

technologies that are transforming the

production function. It then discusses the

tasks of the production and operations

manager, the importance of quality, and

the methods businesses use to ensure

high quality.



FIGURE



10.2



Typical Production Systems

Example



Computer Factory



Trucking Firm



Retail Store



Automobile Body Shop



County Sheriff’s Department



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Primary Inputs



Transformation



Outputs



Hard drives, computer memory,

computer chips, keyboards,

cases, power supply, DVD

drives, central circuit board,

boards for network and

Internet access and graphics,

monitors, and software



Assembles components to meet customer

orders, including

specialized orders for

hardware and software



Desktop or laptop

computers



Trucks, personnel, buildings,

fuel, goods to be shipped,

packaging supplies, truck

parts, utilities



Packages and

transports goods from

sources to

destinations



Delivered goods



Buildings, displays, scanners,

merchandise, personnel,

supplies, utilities



Attracts customers,

stores goods, sells

products



Merchandise sold



Damaged autos, paints,

supplies, machines, tools,

buildings, personnel, utilities



Transforms damaged

auto bodies into

facsimiles of the

originals



Repaired automobile

bodies



Personnel, police equipment,

automobiles, office furniture,

buildings, utilities



Detects crimes

and brings criminals

to justice



Lower crime rates and

peaceful communities



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1



The Strategic Importance of

Production

Along with marketing and finance, production is a vital business activity. Without products to sell, companies cannot generate money to pay their employees, lenders, and stockholders. And without the profits from products, firms quickly fail. The production process

is just as crucial in nonprofit organizations such as St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital or

Goodwill Industries because the goods or services they offer justify their existence. Effective

production and operations management can lower a firm’s costs of production, boost the

quality of its goods and services, allow it to respond dependably to customer demands, and

enable it to renew itself by providing new products. Let’s look at the differences among mass,

flexible, and customer-driven production.



Mass Production

From its beginnings as a colonial supplier of raw materials to Europe, the United States

has evolved into an industrial giant. Much of this change has resulted from mass production, a system for manufacturing products in large quantities through effective combinations

of employees with specialized skills, mechanization, and standardization. Mass production

makes outputs (goods and services) available in large quantities at lower prices than individually crafted items would cost. Mass production brought cars, computers, televisions, books,

and even homes to the majority of the population. William Levitt made homes affordable

to the average American from the 1940s to the 1960s by removing the most expensive

item—the basement—and mass-producing them at the rate of one every 16 minutes. Levitt’s

first planned community, in Levittown, New York, brought his company a profit of about $5

million more than 60 years ago.2



mass production a

system for manufacturing

products in large quantities

through effective combinations of employees, with

specialized skills, mechanization, and standardization.



Mass production begins with the specialization of labor, dividing work into its simplest

components so that each worker can concentrate on performing one task. By separating jobs

into small tasks, managers create conditions for high productivity through mechanization, in

which machines perform much of the work previously done by people. Standardization, the

third element of mass production, involves producing uniform, interchangeable goods and

parts. Standardized parts simplify the replacement of defective or worn-out components. For

instance, if your car’s windshield wiper blades wear out, you can easily buy replacements at a

local auto parts store such as AutoZone.

A logical extension of these principles of specialization, mechanization, and standardization led to development of the assembly line. This manufacturing method moves the product

along a conveyor belt past a number of workstations, where workers perform specialized

tasks such as welding, painting, installing individual parts, and tightening bolts. Henry Ford’s

application of this concept revolutionized auto assembly. Before the assembly line, it took

Ford’s workers 12 hours to assemble a Model T car. But with an assembly line, it took just

1.5 hours to make the same car. Not surprisingly, dozens of other industries soon adopted

the assembly-line process.

Although mass production has important advantages, it has limitations, too. While mass

production is highly efficient for producing large numbers of similar products, it is highly

inefficient when producing small batches of different items. This trade-off might tempt some

companies to focus on efficient production methods rather than on making what customers

really want. In addition, the labor specialization associated with mass production can lead to

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Paul Vernon/©AP/Wide World Photos



boring jobs, because workers keep repeating the same

task. To improve their competitive capabilities, many firms

adopt flexible production and customer-driven production

systems. These methods won’t replace mass production in

every case, but in many instances might lead to improved

product quality and greater job satisfaction. It might also

enhance the use of mass production.



Flexible Production

While mass production is effective for creating large

quantities of one item, flexible production is usually more

cost-effective for producing smaller runs. Flexible proThis Honda auto plant uses flexible production techniques to turn out several

duction can take many forms, but it generally involves

different models. The auto industry, which developed mass-production methods,

using information technology to share the details of

now finds flexible production to be more efficient.

customer orders, programmable equipment to fulfill the

orders, and skilled people to carry out whatever tasks are needed to fill a particular order.

This system is even more beneficial when combined with lean production methods that use

automation and information technology to reduce requirements for workers and inventory.

Flexible production requires a lot of communication among everyone in the organization.

Flexible production is now widely used in the auto industry; whereas Henry Ford revolutionized auto production in the early 20th century, automakers such as Toyota and Honda

are innovating with new methods of production. Changing from mass production to flexible

production has enabled these companies to produce different kinds of cars at the same plant.

Honda’s flexible manufacturing plant in Marysville, Ohio, now builds more than 90 percent

of all Honda sedans sold in the United States. The facility accomplishes this through teambased operations, relying on the expertise and knowledge of individual workers to innovate

and improve manufacturing processes.3



Customer-Driven Production

A customer-driven production system evaluates customer demands in order to make the

connection between products manufactured and products bought. Many firms use this

approach with great success. One method is to establish computer links between factories

and retailers’ scanners, using data about sales as the basis for creating short-term forecasts

and designing production schedules to meet those forecasts. Another approach to customerdriven production systems is simply not to make the product until a customer orders it—

whether it’s a taco or a computer. Massachusetts-based Shibui Designs creates custom-made

dresses in high-end fabrics for female executives and other women over 40. Each item of

clothing is custom cut and fit to a single customer’s measurements. Founder Elizabeth Nill,

who is over 60, started the business because she couldn’t find clothing that fit well.4



Assessment

Check

1. What is mass production?

2. What is the difference

between flexible production and customer-driven

production?



2



Production Processes

Not surprisingly, the production processes and time required to make an Apple iPad and

a gallon of gasoline are different. Production processes use either an analytic or synthetic

system; time requirements call for either a continuous or an intermittent process.



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An analytic production system reduces a raw material to its component parts in order

to extract one or more marketable products. Petroleum refining breaks down crude oil into

several marketable products, including gasoline, heating oil, and aviation fuel. When corn is

processed, the resulting marketable food products include animal feed and corn sweetener.

A synthetic production system is the reverse of an analytic system. It combines a number

of raw materials or parts or transforms raw materials to produce finished products. Canon’s

assembly line produces a camera by assembling various parts such as a shutter or a lens cap.

Other synthetic production systems make drugs, chemicals, computer chips, and canned soup.

A continuous production process generates finished products over a lengthy period of

time. The steel industry provides a classic example. Its blast furnaces never completely shut

down except for malfunctions. Petroleum refineries, chemical plants, and nuclear power

facilities also practice continuous production. A shutdown can damage sensitive equipment,

with extremely costly results.

An intermittent production process generates products in short production runs, shutting down machines frequently or changing their configurations to produce different products. Most services result from intermittent production systems. For instance, accountants,

plumbers, and dentists traditionally have not attempted to standardize their services because

each service provider confronts different problems that require individual approaches.

However, some companies, such as Jiffy Lube and H&R Block, offer standardized services

as part of a strategy to operate more efficiently and compete with lower prices. McDonald’s,

well-known for its nearly continuous production of food, has moved toward a more intermittent production model. The fast-food chain invested millions in new cooking equipment

to set up kitchens for preparing sandwiches quickly to order, rather than producing large

batches ahead of time and keeping them warm under heat lamps.



3



Assessment

Check

1. What are the two main

production systems?

2. What are the two timerelated production processes?



Technology and the Production

Process

Production continues to change rapidly as computer technologies develop. Many manufacturing plants are now “lights out” facilities that are completely automated—meaning no

workers are required to build or make the products. While this signals a change in the types

of jobs available in manufacturing, it also means that companies can design, produce, and

adapt products more quickly to meet customers’ changing needs.



Green Manufacturing Processes

More and more firms are pouring resources into the development of manufacturing

processes that result in a reduction of waste, energy use, and pollution. Companies ranging in size from Walmart to the local café are finding ways to operate in a more sustainable

manner—whether it is using biofuel to power a fleet of delivery trucks or eliminating unnecessary packaging, firms have begun to view the steps they take with pride. Chobani Greek

Yogurt is manufactured in rural upstate New York with fresh ingredients from local dairy

farms, reducing fuel consumption for refrigeration and transport. The yogurt contains no

preservatives or artificial flavors, is made with milk free from synthetic growth hormones,

and contains real fresh fruit.5 Kraft Foods has achieved the goal of zero waste at 36 of its

manufacturing plants around the world. See the “Going Green” feature for details.

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Going Green

Kraft Foods’ Recipe for Zero Waste

Kraft Foods, maker of Cadbury, Philadelphia Cream Cheese,

Chips Ahoy, Cool Whip, Oreos, Maxwell House, and other brands, has

achieved zero waste at 36 manufacturing plants in the United States

and 12 other countries. “We’re waging war on waste, one plant at a

time,” says its vice president for global sustainability.

Following employee suggestions, the company converts tons of

food waste in California to animal feed, processes waste into energy for

the local power grid in Wisconsin via an anaerobic digester, reuses shipping containers for coffee beans in Russia and turns coffee grounds into

fertilizer, and recycles plastic packaging film into bags and buckets in

Indonesia. In Vienna, tons of coffee bean husks are turned into power

for local homes.

Waste management is only one of Kraft’s sustainability drives,

which include packaging, energy, water, and transportation and distribution. The company plans to reduce energy use, carbon dioxide emissions,

water consumption, and manufacturing waste all by an additional 15

percent in the coming years. Judging by its achievements, which have



LEED (Leadership

in Energy and

Environmental Design) 

voluntary certification program administered by the

U.S. Green Building Council,

aimed at promoting the

most sustainable construction processes available.



placed it on the Dow Jones Sustainability Index seven years in a row,

the company is well on its way.

Questions for Critical Thinking

1. Why does Kraft ask for employee suggestions on reducing

waste?

2. Kraft switched a third of its snacks to foods with whole

grains and lower sodium and calories. Should it continue

shifting to healthier products? Why or why not?

Sources: Akhila Vijayaraghavan, “Kraft Uses Stakeholder Engagement to Achieve

Zero Waste in 36 Plants,” TriplePundit.com, February 6, 2012, www.triplepundit.com;

Leslie Guevarra, “Kraft Achieves Zero Waste at 36 Food Plants Around the World,”

GreenBiz.com, February 2, 2012, www.greenbiz.com; Tilde Herrera, “Kraft’s Recipe for

Greener Mac-n-Cheese and Oreos,” GreenBiz.com, May 16, 2011, www.greenbiz.com;

“Kraft Foods on Dow Jones Sustainability Index Seventh Year in a Row,” PR Newswire,

September 9, 2011, www.prnewsire.com.



Firms that are involved in construction—or are thinking of building new offices or

manufacturing plants—are turning their attention to LEED (Leadership in Energy and

Environmental Design) certification for their facilities. LEED is a voluntary certification

program administered by the U.S. Green Building Council, aimed at promoting the most

sustainable construction processes available. The LEED certification process is rigorous

and involves meeting standards in energy savings, water efficiency, CO2 emissions reduction, improved indoor environmental quality (including air and natural light), and other

categories.6



Robots

A growing number of manufacturers have freed workers from boring, sometimes dangerous jobs by replacing them with robots. A robot is a reprogrammable machine capable of

performing a variety of tasks that require the repeated manipulation of materials and tools.

Robots can repeat the same tasks many times without varying their movements. Many factories use robots today to stack their products on pallets and shrink-wrap them for shipping.

Boston Scientific, a firm that makes medical devices, uses robots made by Kiva in two of its

distribution centers. The Gap also uses a Kiva robotic system for some of its warehousing

operations.7

Historically, robots were most common in automotive and electronics manufacturing,

but growing numbers of industries are adding robots to production lines as improvements in

technology make them less expensive and more useful. Firms operate many different types

of robots. The simplest kind, a pick-and-place robot, moves in only two or three directions

as it picks up something from one spot and places it in another. So-called field robots assist

people in nonmanufacturing, often hazardous, environments such as nuclear power plants,

the international space station, and even battlefields. Police use robots to remotely dispose

of suspected bombs. However, the same technology can be used in factories. Using vision

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Daniel Bringmann/iStockphoto



systems, infrared sensors, and bumpers on mobile platforms, robots can automatically move parts or finished

goods from one place to another, while either following

or avoiding people, whichever is necessary to do the

job. For instance, machine vision systems are being used

more frequently for complex applications such as quality assurance in the manufacturing of medical devices.

The advancements in machine vision components such

as cameras, illumination systems, and processors have

greatly improved their capabilities. Companies such

as Texas-based National Instruments help customers

around the work boost productivity, simplify development, and reduce time to market.8



Computer-Aided Design

and Manufacturing

A process called computer-aided design (CAD)

Remote-controlled robots are especially well suited for work in dangerous

allows engineers to design components as well as entire

environments. This field robot, developed for use by bomb squads, can photograph

products on computer screens faster and with fewer missuspicious-looking devices, move them to a safer location, and blow them up.

takes than they could achieve working with traditional

drafting systems. Using an electronic pen, an engineer can sketch three-dimensional (3-D)

computer-aided

design (CAD) process

designs on an electronic drafting board or directly on the screen. The computer then provides

that allows engineers to

tools to make major and minor design changes and to analyze the results for particular characdesign components as well

teristics or problems. Engineers can put a new car design through a simulated road test to projas entire products on comect its real-world performance. If they find a problem with weight distribution, for example,

puter screens faster and

they can make the necessary changes virtually—without actually test-driving the car. With

with fewer mistakes than

they could achieve working

advanced CAD software, prototyping is as much “virtual” as it is “hands-on.” Actual prototypes

with traditional drafting

or parts aren’t built until the engineers are satisfied that the required structural characteristics

systems.

in their virtual designs have been met. Dentistry has benefited from CAD, which can design

and create on-site such products as caps and crowns that fit a patient’s mouth or jaw perfectly.9

The process of computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) picks up where the CAD system leaves off. Computer tools enable a manufacturer to analyze the steps that a machine

must take to produce a needed product or part. Electronic signals transmitted to processing equipment provide instructions for performing the appropriate production steps in the

correct order. Both CAD and CAM technologies are now used together at most modern

production facilities. These so-called CAD/CAM systems are linked electronically to automatically transfer computerized designs into the production facilities, saving both time and

effort. They also allow more precise manufacturing of parts.



computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) computer tools to analyze CAD

output and enable a manufacturer to analyze the

steps that a machine must

take to produce a needed

product or part.



Flexible Manufacturing Systems

A flexible manufacturing system (FMS) is a production facility that workers can

quickly modify to manufacture different products. The typical system consists of computercontrolled machining centers to produce metal parts, robots to handle the parts, and remotecontrolled carts to deliver materials. All components are linked by electronic controls that

dictate activities at each stage of the manufacturing sequence, even automatically replacing

broken or worn-out drill bits and other implements.

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flexible manufacturing

system (FMS) production

facility that workers can

quickly modify to manufacture different products.



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Flexible manufacturing systems have been enhanced by powerful new software that

allows machine tools to be reprogrammed while they are running. This capability allows the

same machine to make hundreds of different parts without the operator having to shut

the machine down each time to load new programs. The software also connects to the

Internet to receive updates or to control machine tools at other sites. And because the software resides on a company’s computer network, engineers can use it to diagnose production

problems any time, from anywhere they can access the network. Pharmaceutical companies

are constantly looking for new ways to use flexible manufacturing. Asia—especially India,

China, and Singapore—has become an important location for this and other innovations in

manufacturing.10



computer-integrated

manufacturing

(CIM) production system

in which computers help

workers design products,

control machines, handle

materials, and control the

production function in an

integrated fashion.



Computer-Integrated Manufacturing

Companies integrate robots, CAD/CAM, FMS, computers, and other technologies to

implement computer-integrated manufacturing (CIM), a production system in which

computers help workers design products, control machines, handle materials, and control

the production function in an integrated fashion. This type of manufacturing does not necessarily imply more automation and fewer people than other alternatives. It does, however,

involve a new type of automation organized around the computer. The key to CIM is a centralized computer system running software that integrates and controls separate processes

and functions. The advantages of CIM include increased productivity, decreased design costs,

increased equipment utilization, and improved quality.



Assessment

Check

1. List some of the reasons

businesses invest in robots.

2. What is a flexible manufacturing system (FMS)?

3. What are the major benefits of computer-integrated

manufacturing (CIM)?



CIM is widely used in the printing industry to coordinate thousands of printing jobs,

some very small. CIM saves money by combining many small jobs into one larger one and

by automating the printing process from design to delivery. 11



4



The Location Decision

The decision of where to locate a production facility hinges on transportation, human,

and physical factors, as shown in Table 10.1. Transportation factors include proximity to

markets and raw materials, along with availability of alternative modes for transporting both

inputs and outputs. Automobile assembly plants are located near major rail lines. Inputs—

such as engines, plastics, and metal parts—arrive by rail, and the finished vehicles are shipped

out by rail. Shopping malls are often located next to major streets and freeways in suburban

areas, because most customers arrive by car.

Physical variables involve such issues as weather, water supplies, available energy, and

options for disposing of hazardous waste. Theme parks like Walt Disney World are often

located in warm climates so they can be open and attract visitors year-round. A manufacturing business that wants to locate near a community must prepare an environmental impact

study that analyzes how a proposed plant would affect the quality of life in the surrounding

area. Regulatory agencies typically require these studies to cover topics such as the impact

on transportation facilities; energy requirements; water and sewage treatment needs; natural

plant life and wildlife; and water, air, and noise pollution.

Human factors in the location decision include an area’s labor supply, local regulations,

taxes, and living conditions. Management considers local labor costs, as well as the availability of workers with needed qualifications. Software makers and other computer-related

firms concentrate in areas with the technical talent they need, including California’s Silicon



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TABLE



10.1



Factors in the Location Decision



LOCATION FACTOR



EXAMPLES OF AFFECTED BUSINESSES



Transportation

Proximity to markets



Baking companies and manufacturers of other perishable

products, dry cleaners, hotels, other services



Proximity to raw materials



Paper mills



Availability of transportation alternatives



Brick manufacturers, retail stores



Physical Factors

Water supply



Computer chip fabrication plants



Energy



Aluminum, chemical, and fertilizer manufacturers



Hazardous wastes



All businesses



Human Factors

Auto manufacturers, software developers



Local zoning regulations



Manufacturing and distribution companies



Community living conditions



All businesses



Taxes



All businesses



Ian Dagnall/Alamy



Labor supply



Deciding where to locate a production facility can often depend on the weather. Some theme parks, such as Walt

Disney World, are located in warm climates so they can be open and attract visitors year-round.

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