Coloplast A/S - Organizational Challenges in Offshoring

Coloplast's future global manufacturing strategy was based on relocation of volume production of mature product lines to low cost countries like Hungary and China, whereas most creative and innovative activities (pilot production, ramp-up and range care) were retained in Denmark. The large scale project of offshoring, first volume production and later perhaps other activities, to Tatabanya, Hungary constituted a major shift in the operational strategy for Coloplast, which resulted in a series of organizational and managerial challenges. An important feature of the case is the surprise to the management team of how challenging it was to globalize the operations despite Coloplast's international experience operating a network of subsidiaries in more than 26 countries. The management team learned how important it is to have the structure, the organization and the mindset in place when offshoring production. Sourcing internationally is very different from selling internationally as it involves the entire organization. The learning process of the management team and the challenges they faced is unfolded in this case.