Per the WSJ, a $7.95 bottle of Bath & Body Works (BBW) foaming hand soap used to take three months to put together. The pieces had to travel more than 13,000 miles from China, Canada and Virginia to the company’s Ohio distribution center.
BBW decided it needed to get new products to market quicker. Now, every step of production occurs at plants located near to each other at the company’s “beauty park” on the outskirts of Columbus, OH. One factory makes the foaming pump and mechanism, another makes the bottle itself, a third makes the label, a fourth makes the soap, fills the bottle, attaches the label and screws on the top, and a fifth packages it.
Getting a bottle to distribution is down to 21 days and a few miles. A majority of BBW products are made on site. The campus includes 10 manufacturers, millions of square feet of production and warehouse space, and 5,000 employees working there during peak production.
Bringing production closer to home, known as reshoring, is becoming a priority for many companies. Disruptions from Covid, severe weather, trade wars, geopolitical tensions and ship delays hit the supply chain hard. The Biden administration is now spending hundreds of billions of dollars to boost domestic industries considered strategic, including electric cars, batteries and semiconductors. Lots of factors are coming together to spur a domestic factory building boom with spending at its highest level in more than 20 years. Over the next decade, the government projects that public and private investment will reach $3.5 Trillion.
The BBW initiative wasn’t easy. They had to persuade suppliers to move. They had to keep costs down. They and their suppliers had to negotiate with local officials on a wide range of issues. They even had to deal with potential impacts on an endangered bat species which prevented tree removal and delayed construction for one supplier. At least one supplier changed its manufacturing model to meet BBW needs. Production in the U.S. required 10 employees with about $12 Million in capital investment for automation versus employing 50 people with <$2 Million of capital investment in China for similar production capacity. Despite these challenges, the plan came together and is now a model for other American companies.
If you want to reshore or improve your supply chain, MOSIMTEC supply chain modeling and simulation can help. Shine a light on the status quo. Explore new sources, ways to increase manufacturing/supplier capacity or reduce shipping cost/delays, and options to improve processes with ports and transporters. Assess multiple options virtually in a sandbox environment to raise production/inventory, cut cost, enhance fluidity, reduce risk or meet other goals. Supply chain success is key to survive and thrive. MOSIMTEC data scientists and industrial engineers can help you future-proof your supply chain.
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Read More: https://www.wsj.com/articles/bath-body-works-us-manufacturing-413cf9d0