Page 32 - MetalForming October 2015

Best Practices
By Bob Dobrowsky
Significant Capital Expenditures
Require Disciplined Project Management
After 5 yr. of sustained economic improvement, many business- es have implemented major cap- ital expenditures to drive growth and ensure long-term viability. Reasons for
deploying these projects include:
• Geographic expansion, domesti-
cally and overseas;
• Customer diversification;
• Vertical integration;
• Product-line expansion; and
• Technology advancement.
Our metalforming-industry clients
fit this bill, having made recent invest- ments in Mexico, for example. Relo- cating near new OEM assembly plants requires capital for factories and equip- ment. We’ve seen an increase in the number of new presses coming online, specifically servo-driven presses.
Large up-front investments like these make it more critical than ever to ensure that managers carefully plan and execute new capital projects.
Implemented successfully, capital expenditures can create competitive advantages, improve EBITDA and shareholder value, and offer benefits for company employees such as career advancement, stretch assignments and bonuses.
However, today’s industry dynamics make the risks associated with large capital expenditures greater than ever. Capital projects can become quite complex, often spanning internation- al borders, requiring a deeper set of interdependent suppliers and subcon- tractors, and rapidly shifting technol- ogy systems.
With these factors at play, merely assuming that all will go according to plan can threaten project delivery
authored the annual PMA Benchmarking Report since 2003, serves as a member of the board of directors for PMA’s Cleveland district, and has pre- sented at various district level meetings. www.plantemoran.com Bob.Dobrowsky@plantemoran.com
Bob Dobrowsky is a part- ner with the Cleveland office of Plante Moran, PLLC, and is one of the leaders of the firm’s Ohio Manufacturing and Distri- bution practice. He has been delivering profes- sional ser vices to private- ly held companies for the past 21 years. Bob has
30 MetalForming/October 2015
www.metalformingmagazine.com