Description
Consider the following: There have been several major corporate headquarters moves in the United States since January 2014; three examples are:
a. Toyota Motor Corporation moved from California to Plano, Texas.
b. Kubota Tractor Corporation moved from California to Grapevine, Texas.
c. Mercedes-Benz Corporation moved from New Jersey to Atlanta, Georgia.
The evolution of technology and the impact that this will ultimately have (or has had) on capacity planning is of particular interest. Instead of building new facilities around the country, many companies have moved their business operations to “24/7 Call Centers” with limited facilities that distribute/ship products, and limited facilities that service these same products.
For your initial post, select (1) of the above corporate headquarters moves then from the questions below answer either question a or b and question c below:
a. What were the main drivers and/or criteria did these corporations use in their decision to move or relocate to another city and state in the United States?
OR
b. Were there any significant problems with these moves (i.e., one city and state to another city and state; issues with relocating their employee; major costs associated with the move – new facilities being built, increased labor costs, local/state tax increases, etc.)?
And
c. Based on your textbook readings concerning Geographic Information Systems (GIS), and/or additional research on GIS, what specific GIS information (collected and analyzed) could/would be most beneficial to this corporation (i.e., Toyota Motor, Kubota Tractor, or Mercedes-Benz) to support their decision to relocate (prior to the actual move), and in selecting a new location (i.e., region, state, city, …) to move their headquarters operations to? Explain.
